DUTCH AID TO AFRICA UNDER FIRE

Earlier this year, the Development Cooperation Inspectorate reported that Dutch funds did not always benefit the poorest of the poor. Last Wednesday, Conservative VVD MP Arend Jan Boekestijn clashed with Development Minister Bert Koenders when he called for a parliamentary inquiry into the efficacy of Dutch aid to Africa. Critical inspectorate reports have been ignored in the past, but will an inquiry do anything to improve development policy?

The Development Cooperation Inspectorate, which works under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry, spent two years compiling a damning 600-page report on the Dutch government's Africa policies between 1998 and 2006. Its findings are welcome ammunition to the opposition who, in a highly-unusual move, are threatening to vote down the Finance Ministry's 2009 budget.

Minister Koenders and his Foreign Affairs colleague Maxime Verhagen admit policy could always be improved. But they hasten to add that since they came into office things are a lot better. Although Koenders says he takes the conclusions made in the report seriously, the two ministers think some of them are slightly blunt and not particularly balanced.

The opposition thinks differently and during the debate Boekestijn had some tough questions to ask: "Why are we giving money to corrupt regimes? Sometimes we do stop, but then it is very late. Take Eritrea for example. Why are we giving a dubious regime like Nigeria debt relief? In other words: Why don't we monitor aid and why do we continue to pay money to corrupt regimes?" read more (radionetherlands.nl)

“AID ORGANISATIONS DON’T TAKE ENOUGH RESPONSIBILITY” read more(radionetherlands.nl)

more features

October 27, 2008