Development Today | Few scraps left for UN after Finland details aid cuts

Norway expands aid to fight terrorism and fund other global goods

Norway’s government almost triples support for security efforts financed from next year’s aid budget and hikes funding for vulnerable states. The government’s proposal for total aid next year amounts to NOK 35.1 billion or 1 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), a NOK 1.3 billion increase from the current year.

Danish police have initiated an investigation of the Copenhagen-based consultant Consia Consultants Aps based on a World Bank report which says that the firm committed fraud in Indonesia and Vietnam.

In a major overhaul of EU development policy, the European Commission is pushing to let development assistance finance the strengthening of military capacity in developing countries under exceptional circumstances.

The Liberal politician Ulla Tørnæs returns as Danish Development Minister, part of the cabinet line-up in Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s new three-party government.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s announcement of his selection of Patricia Espinosa Cantellano to be the new UN climate executive paved the way for Erik Solheim, the former Norwegian Aid and Environment Minister, to be the Secretary General’s choice as head of the UN environment agency UNEP in Nairobi.

The Finnish aid-financed investment fund Finnfund is suspending disbursements to the controversial Agua Zarca dam project in Honduras, 12 days after the murder of Berta Cáceres, a leading opponent of the project.

A ministerial meeting at the OECD Development Assistance Committee in Paris concludes that strict rules for what security costs can be reported as official aid will be maintained, following tough negotiations among donors.

Major breakthroughs have been made for raising funds to provide education for millions of children in conflict zones, starting with Syrian refugees in Lebanon, said UN Special Envoy for Education Gordon Brown at a conference in Oslo this week.

In a tender for consultancy services on evaluations, Sida has violated principles of transparency and equal treatment in the Swedish Public Procurement Law, the Administrative Court in Stockholm has ruled.

The Swedish government proposes to provide financing for the Green Climate Fund using non-aid money in a revised fiscal budget presented this week.

Global official development assistance (ODA) remained at an all-time high of USD 135 billion last year with Nordic countries providing almost 12 per cent of the total, the OECD reports. But aid to LDCs continued to decline.

Sida is threatening to close down the sugar and ethanol project of the Swedish company EcoEnergy in Tanzania unless a new strategic investor is in place by the end of next month.

In spite of tough economic times, the vaccine alliance GAVI managed just to surpass its fund-raising target of USD 7.5 billion for the next five-year period, with substantial increases in contributions from many government donors and the Gates Foundation. (To be updated)

Norwegian Development Minister Heikki Holmås has challenged the wealthy daughter of Angola’s President José Eduardo dos Santos to open her accounting books and prove that “political power has not been misused”. The American magazine Forbes announced this week that Isabel dos Santos is Africa’s first female billionaire.

At an appeals court in Oslo a prosecutor has called for Norconsult, which faces corruption charges related to a World Bank project in Tanzania, to pay a fine of NOK 4 million. The defense called for acquittal of the firm.

The World Bank has accused the Finnish company Pöyry Management Consulting Oy of “submitting false invoices and providing improper benefits” to Bank staff.

Ministry to close SADEV by year end

The Swedish Foreign Ministry proposes to close down the aid evaluation agency SADEV by the end of the year, following the publication of two critical reviews that point to serious weaknesses in the agency’s work. Staff at SADEV are “shocked and frustrated” by the sudden announcement, and the ministry’s failure to acknowledge what they see as the agency’s main problem, its management, a union leader said.

Norway’s innovative and ambitious forest climate agreement with Brazil is caught in a time lag, with political events overtaking the terms of the deal. As Norway announces another NOK 1 billion in aid for past reductions in deforestation, the Brazilian Senate passes a law that opens for massive clearing of the Amazon.

Former International Director of DanChurchAid, MP for the Social Liberal Party Christian Friis-Bach has been named Development Minister in the newly-formed Social Democrat-led Danish government.

For the first time, Norway has become the largest Nordic donor, due to billions of crowns slated for climate aid, mainly in Brazil. Norway is also the world’s top aid performer, measured as a share of the economy, OECD figures released Wednesday show. Sweden is Nr 3 on the list, followed by Denmark.

The alleged payment of kickbacks by the Swedish truck maker Scania to the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq took place too long ago for the case to be investigated in the United States, DT has learned. However, the Swedish police probe into Scania and Volvo continues.

Sida: ‘No’ to SEKAB biofuel in Tanzania

Sida will not provide a credit guarantee to the Swedish biofuel company SEKAB for its sugarcane-ethanol project in Tanzania, Development Today has learned.

The OECD hails the Swedish government’s aid policy reforms and its leading role in the donor community in a peer review published a week after Sweden assumed the EU Presidency.

The Swedish Auditor General calls for a review of the engagement of the aid agency Sida and Swedfund in risk capital funds that are located in tax havens.

The Swedish biofuel company SEKAB wants a Sida loan guarantee for its operations in Tanzania. An initial figure of USD 20-25 million (about SEK 200 million) is indicated. SEKAB also wants aid-financed investment funds to provide almost half the equity for its investments over the next 20 years.

Iceland cuts aid by one-third

Iceland will reduce its official development assistance by ISK 1.7 billion, equivalent to one-third of the planned budget for 2009.

The Foreign Ministry is considering closing down the Norwegian untied mixed credit scheme, an idea originally proposed in a report by the consultant Econ Pöyry. Stakeholders strongly object. GIEK says the consultant does not provide a sufficient basis for making changes in the private sector schemes.

An evaluation of Norwegian aid to the hydropower sector over a quarter-century concludes that Norway has been a consistent, predictable donor. Tied aid has until recently laid the groundwork for the long-term involvement of Norwegian private and state actors. But environmental concerns have taken a back seat. According to the report, Norwegian environmental guidelines are outdated and implementation of existing rules has been weak.

Norway is ready to provide budget support unilaterally to the new Palestinian government formed by Fatah and Hamas without any new conditions, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced Thursday.

OECD: Sweden No. 1, Norway’s aid drops

Global aid is falling and support for Africa is basically flat, despite donors’ promises to double aid to Africa by 2010. Sweden is now the world's top donor, while Norwegian aid dropped to 0.89 per cent of GNI, according to figures released by the OECD.

The Netherlands and Norway want to put development and security in Afghanistan high on the agenda when foreign ministers of the defence alliance NATO gather in Oslo this week.

A report commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls for “a clear separation" between security and humanitarian mandates in Faryab province where Norwegian forces are located. It warns against the emergence of a “Norwegian province" in Afghanistan.

US financial muscle in the World Bank has shrunk and it is no longer the largest donor in the Bank’s most important tool for channelling money to poor countries, the soft loan arm, IDA. The United Kingdom has bypassed the United States as the top WB donor. Still, after Paul Wolfowitz's forced resignation last week, US President Bush clings to the outdated American prerogative to appoint an American as head of the bank.

Robert Zoellick, the US candidate to take over as World Bank President, currently in Oslo, has received Nordic blessing for the job. Support for his candidacy expressed by Denmark and Norway in late May effectively undermined the possibility of promoting alternative candidates.

Norway has transferred USD 10 million for salaries to Palestinian officials to a new bank account, which is not affected by current US bank restrictions on the Hamas-led government. Norway is the first Western donor to transfer money into the account. Sweden considers following suit.

OECD tells Denmark: untie mixed credits

The OECD peer review of the Danish aid programme combines praise with a strong message for Denmark to stop the practice of reserving mixed credits for its own companies.

Six governments in the Horn of Africa agreed last week on a road map for tackling the root causes of hunger in the drought-stricken region. Frustrated by past funding shortages, UN Special Humanitarian Envoy Kjell Magne Bondevik now challenges donors to put financial weight behind the new plan.

100 candidates compete for Sida top job

Three former ministers, two former state secretaries, two ambassadors and a dozen business leaders are among the 55 people who have applied for the job of Director General of Sida. DT has learned that a parallel non-open search conducted by a recruitment firm has produced another 50 names.

Norway is offering to finance a study on tax havens and capital flight. The Norwegian Development Minister Erik Solheim has in a letter to the new World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick asked the Bank to carry out such a study. An answer is expected next week.

The Swedish government this week launched the most significant change in aid policy in decades, dramatically reducing the number of recipient countries by half and potentially freeing resources of up to SEK 2.2 billion over the next few years. Minister Carlsson says reforms in Swedish aid were long overdue.

18 new NGOs eye coveted Sida funding

Eighteen new NGOs are competing for a share of Sida’s special SEK 1.3 billion budget for multi-year NGO grants - the so-called framework agreements. This budget is currently divided among 14 other Swedish NGOs.

Göran Hydén, the Swedish Africa scholar based at the University of Florida, calls Norway a “last outpost" where politicians continue to wield influence over the priorities of development researchers.

An investigation by the Swedish National Audit Office of aid channelled through non-governmental organisations finds irregularities in most of the projects reviewed. Sida is harshly criticised for having insufficient internal control systems that allow the misuse of aid funds to continue undetected.

When the Red-Green Norwegian government took office two years ago, it promised to increase funding to the UN at the expense of the World Bank. Now it is doing the opposite.

Anders Nordström to head Sida

The Swedish government has appointed the Swede Anders Nordström, currently Assistant Director General of the World Health Organisation in Geneva, to be the new Director General of Sida. The government points to Nordström’s experience in “change management" at the UN agency as an important qualification for his new job.

In the new Danish government programme presented last week, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen indicates an increase in the aid budget over the coming years.

Of 21 Swedish NGOs that have applied to Sida to become framework organisations - thereby eligible for large, multi-year grants - just six have made it past the first screening round, according to a Sida document obtained by Development Today. Médecins Sans Frontières Sweden and the Swedish Afghanistan Committee are among the 15 that were dropped.

Nordics losing ground in World Bank

The Nordic donor block’s share of World Bank funding over the next three years will drop. But a sharp rise in Finnish funds will soften the fall, Development Today has learned ahead of the final negotiations for IDA 15 in Berlin, December 13-14.

The authority of the new World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick is at stake as donors meet in Berlin to finalise negotiations about the next three years of funding for the International Development Association (IDA).

The World Bank sanctioned just one firm, Lahmeyer International GmbH of Germany, last year compared with 133 blacklisted firms three years ago. The Bank’s anti-corruption body urges the leadership to put in place a new sanctions system to make it possible to proceed with cases in the pipeline for such action.

Tanzania may face cuts in international aid following an audit which concluded that the Bank of Tanzania had made irregular payments of USD 113 million to 22 companies.

Following a positive audit report, Sida has now decided to release funds to the Africa NGO Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), which was hit by a corruption scandal in its Angola office last year.

Norway should phase out in-kind donations through the export facility NOREPS over the next five years, according to a new evaluation. This would mean a further untying of Norwegian humanitarian aid, and could jeopardise the position of some Norwegian suppliers’ in the emergency relief market.

The Swedish National Anti-Corruption Unit is in the final phase of investigating the involvement of Swedish companies in bribery related to the UN-financed oil-for-food scheme in Iraq. Christer van der Kwast, Chief Public Prosecutor, tells Development Today that efforts are being focused on “some larger companies".

Sida’s practice of transferring billions of crowns in aid assignments to other Swedish state agencies violates both Swedish public procurement law and EU procurement directives, a report by AffärsConcept AB concludes. As a general rule, such assignments should be tendered competitively.

Norway and the World Bank have agreed to arrange a joint conference this fall on illegal capital flight from developing countries. The initiative comes after Norway gave up trying to convince the World Bank to do a study on the role of tax havens in illegal capital flight from developing countries.

Auditor General: biased audit from Sida

The Swedish Auditor General casts doubt on the independence and quality of a forensic investigation of NGO aid commissioned by Sida. Audit Director Gina Funnemark is concerned about the biased presentation of the report reflected in the Swedish media. Magnus Lindell at Sida rejects the criticism.

The deadlock between Denmark and Sudan took a new turn at the Sudan donor conference in Oslo this week, where Denmark refused to pledge future development assistance for the country. Sudan has urged for a global boycott of Danish goods and is not allowing Danes to enter the country, following a reprint of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish media earlier this year.

The Nobel Prize winner Médecins Sans Frontières says a USD 1.5 billion aid deal to develop new vaccines for poor countries is much too lucrative for the drug industry. MSF has estimated an earlier version of the scheme to be overpriced by USD 600 million, but has been denied basic facts about the latest proposal. DT has obtained a confidential document about the scheme sent to donors last month, which shows GlaxoSmithKline walking away with almost the whole prize. Donors are expected to settle the deal next week.

Sida is putting pressure on the National Land Survey (NLS) to apply competitive tendering when procuring consultancy services for Sida-financed projects.

Norway keeps core funding of UNDP at the same level as last year and refuses to pledge multi-year funding of the agency in an effort to push UNDP to give high priority to human rights and good governance in its new strategic plan.

After working on the Karuma power project in energy-hungry Uganda for more than a decade, the Norwegian developer Norpak folded its cards this month following a protracted conflict with the World Bank. The Ugandan government now takes over Karuma.

The Swedish Competition Authority has delivered an unambiguous ruling on the close cooperation between the mapping agency National Land Survey and the consulting firm Swedesurvey in carrying out Sida-financed projects.

The Swedish government has launched a new private sector scheme for untied soft loans and subsidised guarantees in its aid budget for 2009. It also proposes drastic changes in UN funding, where UN Development Program (UNDP) is the loser. Sweden continues to prioritise Africa in its bilateral aid.

The Norwegian government increases the aid budget to 1.0 per cent of GNI next year with the lion’s share of the record high growth in the budget to be spent in Norway and Brazil. Africa’s relative share of Norwegian aid is going down, in sharp contrast with the priorities of Swedish and Danish aid.

Environment and Development Minister Erik Solheim rejects the notion that there is a conflict between aid and efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.

Norfund has agreed with SN Power to commit USD 700 million (NOK 4.9b) in equity for a new hydropower investment company targeting Africa and Central America. The commitment is part of a deal where Norfund sells a 10 per cent stake in SN Power to Statkraft for NOK 1.1 billion.

Norwegian MPs criticise the government for counting almost NOK 1 billion in acquisitions made by the hydropower company SN Power as aid. They say that reporting these capital injections in the Philippines and Peru as aid to the OECD contributes to "bending" the rules.

Three and a half years ago, Denmark pulled out of the Nordic Development Fund, and the owners decided to close it down. Now, under pressure from Finland, a proposal is on the table to revive NDF as a grant-based fund focusing on climate projects. EUR 90 million is likely to be available and the pipeline is empty.

Swedish Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson has quickly established networks in the new US administration ahead of Sweden’s EU Presidency. She has co-chaired a task force on closer cooperation between the United States and Europe in the development field.

The cash-strapped Swedish biofuel company SEKAB AB has asked for Sida’s help to rescue its controversial biofuel project in Tanzania, Development Today has learned. A figure of SEK 100 million was mentioned by SEKAB.

A major new study funded by Sida and written by academics from three Tanzanian universities points to the far-reaching impacts of large-scale biofuel plantations in Tanzania. The report warns of land grabbing by foreign investors and water shortages, and calls for a moratorium on biofuel projects until a new legal and policy framework is in place.

The Norwegian aid-financed risk capital fund Norfund has requested an extraordinary NOK 1 billion injection of capital to invest in Sub-Saharan Africa to counter a downward trend in foreign investments in the region following the international finance crisis.

The Tanzanian government has suspended implementation of all biofuel projects that have yet to receive approval from vital institutions such as the National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) and the Tanzania Investment Center.

The Swedish biofuel company SEKAB has been unable to find a new investor for its planned biofuel plantation projects in Tanzania, and has turned to Sida for an aid-financed credit guarantee. Sida says issues like untied procurement and environmental impact need to be considered, and the final decision rests with the Foreign Ministry.

Norwegian UN Ambassador Mona Juul slams UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s performance in a secret memo to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the daily Aftenposten reveals. Ban is scheduled to visit Oslo later this month.

In 2010, Norway will become the largest Nordic donor, bypassing Sweden. But there is growing criticism of Minister Erik Solheim, who spends all fresh funds on refugee costs in Norway and efforts to reduce CO2 emissions. Aid to Africa is cut.

Three Nordic governments dominate the top spots in the Humanitarian Response Index for 2009, which measures the generosity, neutrality and timeliness of humanitarian aid funding.

The economic crime unit of the Norwegian police will take the consultancy company Norconsult to court after the firm refused to pay a NOK 4 million fine for its involvement in a corruption case in Tanzania. (Updated)

Sweden has decided to release SEK 40 million in health aid to Zambia, part of the funds that were frozen in May after revelation of extensive embezzlement in the sector.

Norway has committed USD 110 million in additional support to train Afghan security forces and the police, the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced at a joint press conference with US President Barack Obama in Oslo Thursday. Norway and the United States will cooperate on deforestation and global health initiatives.

In his acceptance speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo Thursday, US President Barack Obama called for an adherence to international standards, strong international institutions and he argued for the universality of human rights. Aid is not charity, he said, and he called for the world to fight climate change as a matter of common security.

In an unprecedented letter to Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson, five top-level Sida officials have launched a counter-attack on Carlsson’s heavy criticism of the Swedish aid administration.

A small Danish NGO has been out-manoeuvred in the complex politics of selecting a standard model for shelters to be built for hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the earthquake in Haiti.

As the UN High-Level Task Force on Climate Change Financing meets for the first time in London, hopes for achieving a common definition of “climate additionality” before 2012 are fading fast. Both the United States and the United Kingdom, which chairs the task force, oppose discussion in the OECD/DAC on common rules for measuring climate aid.

Nordic aid as a share of OECD development assistance is expanding. Sweden and Norway gave more aid in real terms last year than G8 countries like Canada and Italy. And Finland is moving up the ranking list of the world’s largest donors.

The Norwegian government has asked Parliament to commit NOK 1.5 billion over ten years to strengthen health systems in developing countries by supporting the second phase of IFFIm. The news was announced in connection with the revised fiscal budget for 2010.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced Wednesday that Norway will enter into an aid deal with Indonesia worth USD 1 billion aimed at combating deforestation.

The two remaining top officials in former Director General Anders Nordström’s management team at Sida are resigning from their positions, Development Today has learned.

The truck and bus producer Scania CV AB paid at least USD 5 million in kickbacks to the Saddam Husseinregime in connection with the UN Oil for Food Programme, the Swedish Prosecutor told US authorities Friday. The contracts amounted to USD 70 million and the vehicles were exported via Tunisian and Russian companies, according to an extended Swedish criminal investigation.

Swedish police say the truck producer Scania paid USD 5 million in kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime. The Swedish prosecutor wants US authorities to clarify whether they will launch their own investigation. In a parallel enquiry, Swedish police have targeted Volvo officials for similar offenses. The prosecutor says the officials failed to cooperate with the investigation and asks whether this violates Volvo’s deal with US authorities, whereby the company avoided a trial and promised full cooperation with the police.

The Swedish government is cancelling budget support to Zambia for 2010 and 2011 due to mounting concerns about corruption in the country. This decision implies a cut in Swedish aid to the Zambian government of more than SEK 300 million over two years.

Carlsson fires Sida chief

In a dramatic move, the Swedish government has sacked Anders Nordström, the Director General of its main aid agency, Sida. The government refers to the lack of financial control at the agency as the main reason for taking action, but the change in leadership follows a long-running power struggle between Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson and top management at Sida.

TERMS FOR ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO DEVELOPMENT TODAY

Four days after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in absentia to Chinese democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, Norway’s Development Minister Erik Solheim says that if the UN had a peace and development prize it should go to Deng Xiaoping.

The Norwegian hydropower investment company SN Power will likely give up its planned USD 600 million investment in the Trayenko dam project in Chile, following years of protests from Mapuche indigenous communities.

Denmark unfreezes road aid to Zambia

Denmark is ready to release aid to the Zambian roads sector frozen in 2009 due to suspicions of corruption. The Danes hope to spend the remaining DKK 270 million by 2013 when Zambia will be phased out as a recipient country.

The justification for the Amaila Falls hydropower dam that Guyana plans to build in the Amazon rainforest is unconvincing, says a water resources expert hired by the Inter-American Development Bank to assess the project. Guyana plans to spend most of the USD 60 million Norwegian climate aid funds for 2010-11 on the Amails Falls project.

Norwegian officials are racing against time to set new terms for Norway’s forest climate aid agreement with Guyana worth USD 30 million a year; the deadline is March 31 when Minister Erik Solheim arrives in Georgetown.

After five years of conflict with Mapuche indigenous people, the Norwegian hydropower investment company SN Power has decided to abandon the Trayenko project, a series of four dams to be built in Central Chile.

UN agencies operate increasingly as agents of a handful of donors, carrying out missions based on earmarking financing. Core funding for UN agencies is dropping sharply across the board making them less independent.

A Norwegian court has found three consultants who worked for Norway’s leading engineering firm Norconsult on a World Bank project in Tanzania guilty of corruption. They have been given suspended prison sentences of between two and six months. The company was also on trial, but was acquitted. The court’s ruling took into account the dramatic consequences a guilty conviction would have had for the firm – debarment from public procurement in Norway.

New rules for Sida NGO funding

The aid agency Sida invites Swedish organisations to apply for multi-year funding grants under the new criteria for framework agreements that have just been finalised. International organisations will for the first time be eligible to apply for multi-year agreements for humanitarian activities.

The Swedish government has announced a SEK 1.45 billion aid package for private sector development over the coming three years. The bulk will be channelled through the aid-financed investment fund, Swedfund, with the rest supporting innovative business initiatives.

Norway is in a delicate dispute with the Paris-based watchdog OECD about how to report its controversial rainforest aid to Brazil as Official Development Assistance (ODA). Norway may have over-reported assistance to its largest recipient Brazil by more than NOK 2 billion over the last two years and received too favorable a ranking in the overview of donor performance for 2011, published by the OECD. (Updated)

An appeal court has convicted the leading Norwegian engineering firm Norconsult of being complicit in bribing officials related to a World Bank-funded project in Tanzania. The firm must pay a fine of NOK 4 million.

The Finnish ministry of Labour and the Economy will investigate charges that a Pöyry company has violated the OECD guidelines on multinational companies on a contract in Laos.

Former Norwegian Environment and Development Minister Erik Solheim has been appointed Chair of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), according to a press release from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. He takes over from the American Brian Atwood, who steps down at the end of the year.

The OECD peer review of Finnish development assistance commends Finland for its new focus on human rights and for continuity in its aid policy. However, specific targets and goals are not clearly enough defined.

A shortlist of four international candidates for the position of executive director of the Global Fund has been presented to the board. A final decision on the appointment is expected in mid-November.

A Swedish prosecutor is taking two employees of the Swedish truck producer Scania CV AB to court on charges of violating UN sanctions against the Saddam Hussein regime by paying kickbacks related to the UN Oil for Food Programme.

Mark Dybul, the American physician who helped create and lead former President George Bush’s giant AIDS initiative PEPFAR, has been named Executive Director of the Global Fund, the board announced Thursday.

Mark Dybul, the new head of the Global Fund, has one year to generate enthusiasm among donors befor the next replenishment in September 2013.

USD 8 million in bribes were allegedly paid to secure a Finnish company medical equipment contracts in Costa Rica a decade ago. The trial of three Finns starts in January.

Norway has over-reported its aid to the Paris-based aid watchdog OECD by billions of crowns since 2010, and must now reduce its aid level for the last three years. Brazil has been wrongly reported as being Norway’s top aid recipient for this period, and Norwegian aid statistics will have to be revised. (Updated)

The Norwegian Supreme Court has agreed to hear the corruption case against Norway’s leading engineering company Norconsult, Development Today has learned. If acquitted, Norconsult could avoid debarment from public procurement in Norway.

Assessments have been completed of 14 organisations competing for Sida multi-year frame grants - both NGOs that have received frame funds for years and “new” NGOs trying to get a foot in the door. Now it’s up to Sida to decide who’s in and who’s out. Read the conclusions of the consultants’ reports.

Sweden best-performing Nordic donor

Sweden was the best-performing Nordic donor last year, according to the OECD. Combined ODA provided by the Nordic countries amounted to USD 15 billion, second only to the United States.

The Foreign Ministry in Stockholm is breathing a sigh of relief as the four-party coalition government approved new country strategies for two key recipients, Tanzania and Zambia, on Thursday. The decision represents a breakthrough for Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson who has come under heavy criticism for severe delays in the process of revamping Swedish aid policy.

Revelations from a secret report showing that a quarter of a billion crowns in Norwegian aid are spent each year on US think tanks have sped up a revamp of guidelines for such support. In future more funds will be directed to research institutes in other parts of the world and foreign think tanks will have to find partners in Norway.

Sida’s allocation of SEK 1.5 billion in NGO funding for 2013 has been finalised this week. Two of the newest members of the group of 15 Swedish NGOs that receive Sida multi-year grants for development work – Plan and WWF – have seen spectacular increases in funding over the past five years.

The Norwegian Supreme Court has ruled that Norconsult should not be punished for being complicit in corruption related to a World Bank-financed water and sanitation project in Tanzania. (Updated)

A former employee of Norfund has launched a fierce attack against the fund’s leadership in a book launched this week. He claims Norfund ignored its obligation to protect him as a whistleblower and that he was forced to leave the aid-financed investment firm, the last of four whistleblowers to do so, triggering a process that led to former Norfund chief Per Emil Lindøe stepping down.

Reacting to irregularities in last month’s election in Zimbabwe, Denmark and Norway have reversed plans to give aid to state institutions.

The day after Sweden got Hillevi Engström as its new Development Minister, the aid budget for the coming year has been presented. The Swedish Centre-Right government keeps aid at 1 per cent of GNI with primary focus on child mortality, maternal health and Africa.

The Finnish Development Minister Heidi Hautala (Green), who is also responsible for state enterprises, was forced to resign Friday due to her handling of a Greenpeace demonstration against the state-owned firm Arctia Shipping which is carrying out ice breaking to facilitate oil drilling in the arctic, the public broadcaster YLE reports.

Norway has transferred almost NOK 3 billion in aid funds to Brazil after renegotiating a new bilateral agreement on rainforest protection, according to the budget proposition for 2014 presented Monday morning.

The management of Norwegian rainforest assistance to Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo has come under heavy criticism from the Auditor General. Problems with the programme have not been reported to the Parliament. The new government has reacted immediately to the findings of the report.

The new Conservative-led Norwegian government cuts rainforest funding and boosts aid spent on refugees in Norway in its revised aid budget for next year.

The Danish Development Minister Christian Friis Bach (47) has resigned after providing wrong information to Parliament regarding the alleged misuse of Danish aid funds by the Korea-based Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).

Sida is phasing out humanitarian funding to the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) following an assessment that revealed weaknesses in internal management and control systems. The move is part of a long-awaited decision announced last week naming 11 new strategic humanitarian partner organisations.

A prosecutor has called for two officials at Scania to be sentenced to three years in prison for facilitating kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq a decade ago.

The OECD is critical of Norway’s huge unspent climate money and pushes for more cooperation with other donors to make global programmes, like the flagship climate forest initiative, more sustainable.

The Social Democract Mogens Jensen has been named Minister for Development and Trade by Prime Minister Helle-Thorning Schmidt, replacing Rasmus Helveg Petersen (Social Liberal), who becomes Minister for Climate and Energy.

World Bank sanctions Norconsult

The Sanctions Board at the World Bank has decided to debar Norway’s leading engineering firm Norconsult for six months for involvement in “corrupt practices” related to a water and sanitation project in Tanzania. This is the first time the World Bank debars a Norwegian firm for corruption.

Both Denmark and Norway took immediate action, halting government-to-government aid programmes after Ugandan PresidentYoweri Museveni signed a law Monday against homosexuality despite strong warnings from donors.

The Swedish aid agency Sida announced Friday it will provide a credit guarantee worth SEK 120 million to the Swedish-owned company EcoEnergy which plans to establish a sugar cane plantation and ethanol production facility in Tanzania.

Three Nordic aid-funded risk capital funds are investing more than EUR 50 million in Africa’s largest wind park, the 300-megawatt Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP) in Kenya.

World Bank debars SWECO Environment

The World Bank announced Friday that it has debarred the Swedish engineering consultancy firm SWECO Environment AB and its affiliates for three years following the company’s acknowledgement of misconduct related to a water and environment project in the Ukraine.

All Nordic donors increased their aid last year and total aid from the region now amounts to almost USD 16 billion. Norway had the highest aid level among Western countries, but was outpaced by the United Arab Emirates, a non-OECD member, which reported aid at 1.25 per cent of GNI.

As the donor conference on South Sudan opened in Oslo, Norway and Denmark announced increases in their humanitarian aid to the world’s youngest nation.

The results of Norway’s multi-billion-crown clean energy programme have to only a small extent benefitted poor people in recipient countries, according to a report released Wednesday by the Norwegian Auditor General's office. “Substantial changes are necessary,” says Auditor General Per-Kristian Foss.

Norway is the world’s largest donor in the field of forest climate assistance and has, since 2007, pledged almost NOK 20 billion to countries, multilateral institutions and civil society organisations for saving tropical forests, according to a new evaluation.

Denmark keeps aid at 0.83% of GNI

Denmark keeps its aid level unchanged, but gives priority to education and women’s health in its budget for 2015. It makes huge new commitments to African countries like Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania and pledges to engage both Danish companies and public agencies more in aid.

Norway’s aid-funded investor Norfund is preparing to invest billions of crowns in African energy projects in the coming years as it expands business to gas power plants and signs a joint company with the solar energy firm Scatec Solar to multiply investments in the region.

Using funds from the aid budget, Norway has paid consultant rates of up to NOK 30,000 (almost USD 5,000) a day in a project that aims to make White House staff and Congress double US funding of global forest aid. Norwegian aid officials were deeply sceptical about using aid funds for these purposes, but they were overruled, documents obtained by Development Today show.

Norway has pledged to spend USD 100 million for “work to secure the rights of indigenous peoples and other local communities that live in or from the rainforests”.

Two new Nordic aid ministers

Isabella Lövin, a prize-winning environment journalist turned Green Party politician, has been appointed Development Minister in the newly-announced Swedish government of Stefan Löfven (Social Democrat). In Finland, Pekka Haavisto steps down.

In its budget proposal for 2015, Norway's Blue-Blue minority government aims to phase out aid to 32 countries, focusing assistance on 84 countries following several rounds of criticism from the OECD for spreading aid too thinly.

A long-awaited report by the Swedish Auditor General criticises the Foreign Ministry for lax handling of the SEK 10 billion in aid resources spent annually as core support to UN agencies, the World Bank and global funds.

As the global climate summit gets underway in Lima, the Norwegian government announces Friday that it is doubling its pledge to the UN’s Green Climate Fund from NOK 200 million to NOK 400 million for 2015.

The new rules for aid accounting were agreed upon following unusually tense negotiations in the Paris-based OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which monitors Official Development Assistance (ODA) and regulates the definition of aid.

Most of Finland’s aid partners must prepare for cuts in funding as the incoming Center-Right government pledges to slash aid by EUR 250-300 million annually, while scaling up private sector support. The current Trade Minister Lenita Toivakka will take over the development portfolio.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has launched a new commission to spur global financing of education in a move supported by presidents from three continents and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The gap among Nordic aid performers grows with Sweden increasing its aid next year, and Denmark and Finland making deep cuts. Swedish aid surges to most recipients like UN agencies and governments. A notable exception is the vaccine alliance GAVI which takes a hit in the 2016 Swedish aid budget.

Germany has endorsed Achim Steiner, head of the UN environment agency UNEP, as its candidate to become the new UN High Commissioner for Refugees, contesting the nomination of former Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

While Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen basked in the limelight of the UN gathering in New York, his political handymen in Copenhagen prepared an unprecedented reduction in Danish aid, amounting to EUR 770 million.

Norway scales up humanitarian aid by NOK 1 billion next year in response to the Syria crisis, but critics say it has the financial muscle to do more. Norwegian NGOs take the biggest cut in the government’s aid budget proposal for 2016.

Norway cuts NOK 4.2 billion in next year’s aid budget to fund costs related to a sharp increase in the number of refugees coming to Norway. The cuts hit NGOs, UN agencies, renewable energy and climate projects.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed the Italian UN diplomat Filippo Grandi as the new UN High Commissioner for Refugees, dashing the hopes of Denmark’s candidate for the post, former Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt.

Following intense negotiations in Parliament most of the cuts proposed in the aid budget for 2016 have been rolled back. The main winners are Norwegian NGOs and UN agencies.

Two former Nordic environment ministers have joined a crowded pack of contenders in a race for the helm of the Nairobi-based UN environment agency, UNEP. The list of applicants is not public, but sources close to the process have confirmed the names of key contenders to Development Today.

The Finnish aid-financed investor Finnfund expresses shock following news that the Honduran indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, who has led a protest movement against a hydropower project the fund has invested in, was murdered in her home on Thursday.

A new study of hydropower projects on the lower Mekong River by DHI Consulting predicts that dams would “substantially and permanently” alter natural systems that millions of people in Cambodia and Vietnam rely on.

Sweden spent a larger proportion of its 2015 aid budget on domestic refugee costs – 33.8 per cent - than any other major donor has ever done, OECD aid statistics for 2015 show. (See Table)

The OECD, which monitors official development assistance (ODA) spent by donors, will contact the Danish government following concerns that funds used for language and job training for asylum seekers in Denmark may have been wrongfully reported as aid, Development Today has learned.

Citing Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, The Citizen reported recently that the sugar and biofuel project which the Swedish firm Eco Energy Tanzania has for years been trying to realise has been “axed”. But Executive Chairman of the company Per Carstedt says the article is mistaken and his company remains “fully committed to carry out this project.” [Updated]

A cooperation agreement between Norway and the United States was signed in Oslo today deepening the two countries’ collaboration on climate forest issues. Washington’s political backing for the Norwegian forest initiative is a breakthrough, but no new US funding for forest initiatives was announced. [Updated]

The Finnish government proposes to increase aid by EUR 66 million next year to EUR 876 million. According to a statement from the Foreign Ministry, this will amount to 0.4 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), up from 0.38 per cent this year.

The Ministry of Finance proposes to increase Finland’s aid by EUR 66 million next year to EUR 876 million, following the dramatic cuts it announced a year ago.

The Danish government puts efforts to prevent migration at the centre of its aid budget for next year. In addition, private sector schemes are scaled up.

Sweden’s domestic refugee costs are expected to grow again in next year’s aid budget due to a strong increase in expenses related to people seeking asylum in the country. Domestic refugee costs eat up almost the entire growth in the budget.

Copenhagen to host UN museum

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has just issued a legal greenlight for a private museum focusing on the United Nations to be based in Copenhagen. The announcement was made in a press release on October 24, UN Day. A key driver of the museum project Jan Mattsson, retired Executive Director of UNOPS, says the approval from Ban is “very significant … it is a milestone.”

Somalian civil society advocate Degan Ali is proposing a new funding structure that addresses the inherent biases in the international humanitarian system where local NGOs do much of the work but receive almost none of the funding.

Norway has launched two large aid-financed initiatives, one to support deforestation-free agriculture and the other to promote development of vaccines against deadly diseases.

The owners of the Bagamoyo sugar and ethanol project in Tanzania have closed down all operations after the government cancelled the company’s land title on short notice. The Swedish aid agency Sida has provided a SEK 54 million guarantee for the project and risks losing the money.

Finland launches gender equality prize

The first country to grant full political rights to women, Finland, is celebrating its 100 years of independence by launching an International Gender Equality Prize.

Over just a few months, Norway has made its second u-turn regarding the funding of a Clinton Foundation energy project and has now given a go-ahead for the funding. The move comes as the foundation and its founders are no longer at the eye of the election storm in the United States.

The Copenhagen-based firm Consia Consultants ApS has been debarred from doing business with the World Bank for 14 years. The Bank’s Sanctions Board has concluded that the company paid bribes related to two projects in Vietnam and Indonesia, while evidence presented by investigators concerning three more projects was found to be insufficient.

An internal Sida report obtained by Development Today strongly criticises the agency’s decision to grant up to SEK 120 million to keep Bagamoyo EcoEnergy (BEE) afloat in Tanzania. BEE, which now owes Sida SEK 54 million, had little equity of its own, and “no track record” of running large agricultural projects.

Sweden is in the lead of a high-profile global initiative to save the world’s oceans.

At the launch of the new Danish foreign affairs and security policy strategy, Development Minister Ulla Tørnæs issued a thinly-veiled warning that Danish aid could be cut in recipient countries that refuse to take back asylum seekers rejected by Denmark.

Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg raised concerns about increased destruction of the Amazon during her meeting with Brazilian President Michel Temer Friday, and was given assurances that his government has tightened control measures to combat deforestation. Temer left a joint press conference without taking questions.

Today the Finnish Parliament will discuss the aid budget which, due to a standstill in resources, will roll back EUR 21 million in bilateral aid to expand the funding of multilateral agencies. Afghanistan is likely to be the largest country recipient, and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the main UN agency recipient.

The Danish aid level remains flat next year, but a drastic reduction in refugees coming to Denmark and a growing economy mean that funds spent abroad will increase by NOK 2.6 billion.

Norway’s Foreign Minister Børge Brende has announced that he will resign in mid-October to become President of World Economic Forum.

Many recipients of Swedish aid can expect more funding next year as the budget increases and the number of refugees coming to Sweden is at a record low. Aid resources available for efforts abroad will increase by billions of crowns.

A new global platform for promoting tenure reform in forest areas, theInternational Land and Forest Tenure Facility, has been launched in Stockholm. Norway has pledged USD 20 million and Sweden is likely to provide funding as well. (UPDATED)

There are intense talks ahead of a high-level donor meeting later this month to solve a bitter dispute over how to count private sector efforts and in-door refugee costs as aid. Some donors hint that they might abandon the OECD’s joint reporting system for Official Development Assistance (ODA) unless an agreement is reached.

Founder of the New Delhi-based Humanitarian Aid International Sudhanshu Singh says Indian NGOs are struggling for resources while Western NGO brands take over fund raising in the burgeoning Indian economy.

The tribunal that will handle Bagamoyo EcoEnergy’s complaint against the government of Tanzania regarding the company’s cancelled sugar and ethanol project could take three years to reach a decision. Sida, which is owed SEK 54 million by the company, tells Development Today it will await the outcome of the case to reclaim its funds.

Under Climate and Development Minister Isabella Lövin’s watch the Swedish aid budget has increased by more than SEK 10 billion. Now the minister aims to strengthen aid diplomacy to make Sweden a major global player.

A new global platform for promoting tenure reform in forest areas, the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility, has been launched in Stockholm. Norway has pledged USD 20 million and Sweden is likely to provide funding as well.

In a meeting at the OECD in Paris this week, Finland’s Minister for Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen told reviewers that the massive cuts in the aid budget were unfortunate, but that economic trends are now looking more positive.

By blending resources Finland and the World Bank’s private sector arm IFC are aiming to raise hundreds of billions of euros for climate projects, mainly in low-income countries.

After four years with a Blue-Blue government Norwegian aid creeps closer to Europe’s doorstep with migration and security interests becoming key areas of fucs. Education and health efforts have been expanded, while UN agencies and the World Bank are the big losers.

At the UN’s pledging conference for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, USD 344 million in funding was promised by the international donor community. Two Nordic countries - Sweden and Denmark – were among the top donors and covered 10 per cent of the total USD 434 million appeal.

At a ministerial meeting in Paris Tuesday the OECD donors agreed on new common rules for reporting domestic refugee costs as Official Development Assistance (ODA). But they failed to solve a long-lasting dispute about how to report private sector aid.

Finnish companies’ sales to the UN system have virtually crashed over the past five years. The Foreign Ministry in Helsinki is working hard to reverse the negative trend.

Sweden puts plans for state aid to Myanmar on hold after hundreds of thousands of Rohyingya have fled from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh over the past two months. Sweden was a top donor at the recent UN Rohingya appeal. The level of Norwegian support for the Rohingya refugees has so far been more limited. Former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik urges Norway to give more humanitarian aid.

Claims in the Israeli government report, “The Money Trail,” that EU-funded NGOs have ties to terror are forcefully rejected by the European Union, donors and NGOs. An EU spokesperson says to Development Today that Israel’s accusation that the EU supports terror is “unfounded and unacceptable.”

The use of tax havens by two Nordic aid-financed funds is under scrutiny after leaked confidential documents known as the Paradise Papers show that their investments in a joint forest plantation investment in Asia were routed through Cayman Islands.

The branch organisations for European development finance institutions (DFIs) have drafted six new principles for responsible tax in developing countries. The advocacy research group Tax Justice Network is “shocked at how weak” the proposals are.

Secrecy and transparency are at the core of the debate over Development Finance Institutions’ (DFIs) use of tax havens for routing investments to developing countries. Søren ...

The Finnish Development Minister Kai Mykkänen is currently revising Finnfund’s tax policy. He says a goal for the fund should be to increase tax revenues in developing countries.

The medical humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières has taken the Indian Patent Office to court over a patent it recently granted to Pfizer for the pneumonia vaccine, Prevenar 13. MSF argues that the patent will stifle competition, blocking the development of cheaper, generic versions of the vaccine.

On Sunday the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. It is a slap in the face for Norway’s Blue-Blue government which brought the organisation to its knees two years ago by cutting all its funds. Norwegian aid accounted for almost 90 per cent of ICAN’s budget.

Two Danish branches of international NGO alliances, Plan Denmark and BØRNEfonden - Children and Youth Foundation, have merged to form the largest privately-funded development NGO in Denmark. Though both currently draw most of their income from child sponsors, they are looking to expand support from government donors.

Massive cuts have pushed Finnish aid to its lowest level in a decade, reports the OECD peer review of Finland. The Paris-based aid watchdog calls on the Finnish government to produce a roadmap for restoring support to the poorest countries and raising aid to 0.7 per cent of GNI.

The board of the aid-funded investor Swedfund has appointed Maria Håkansson as the new Chief Executive Officer.

MSF’s unprecedented legal challenge of the patent on Pfizer’s pneumonia vaccine Prevenar 13 in India is a “rational … coherent” strategy which, if successful, could save lives by opening the way for cheaper vaccines, a WHO vaccine expert tells Development Today.

Actors working on disarmament are not buying the Norwegian government’s claim that it stopped funding of anti-nuclear organisations because such support could not be reported as aid.

For the sixth year in a row, Norwegian aid-financed climate forest payments to the Guyana government have been stalled.

Despite several years of diplomatic efforts, Norway has failed to convince the OECD to allow disarmament efforts to be reported as Official Development Assistance (ODA). Norway has nevertheless spent hundreds of millions of aid crowns to fund its Humanitarian Initiative on Nuclear Weapons, in violation of repeated rulings from the OECD.

Anuradha Gupta, Deputy CEO of the vaccine alliance Gavi, says Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s legal challenge of a Pfizer patent in India could, if successful, contribute to making the pharmaceutical market more “healthy.” Revoking the patent would break Pfizer’s monopoly on pneumonia vaccine, opening the way for cheaper generic copies to enter the market.

The OECD has rejected a Norwegian bid to have NOK 54 million in funding for the transport of natural uranium from Kazakhstan to Iran approved as Official Development Assistance (ODA). The project was connected to the international agreement to downsize Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

Sweden is dragging its feet on implementation of the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention. Despite “repeated calls for action” following a review in 2012, Sweden has not yet put in place laws on corporate liability for bribing foreign public officials, the OECD states.

Norway’s Conservative Party takes a stronger grip on development policy, appointing one of its top politicians, Nikolai Astrup, to be the party’s first Development Minister. The appointment is part of a government reshuffle, where the Liberal Party joins the minority government. The new minister now promises sweeping reforms of the Norwegian aid administration.

The Swedish government decided this week that the headquarters of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) is to be moved out of central Stockholm to the municipality of Botkyrka, 20 kilometres southwest of the city.

The Nordic Development Fund (NDF) is in discussions with several European donors to provide funding for a new trust fund for innovative climate projects in Southern and Eastern Africa. The trust fund opens a window that allows NDF for the first time to seek funding outside the Nordic region.

Three Nordic aid-financed investment funds have on short notice decided to ban investments through tax havens blacklisted by the European Union.

Norway’s ODA grey zone

For the last seven years Norway has received a clear message from the OECD that nuclear disarmament efforts cannot be reported as Official Development Assistance (OECD). Norway has repeatedly tried to change the OECD’s rules, but without success.

The Norwegian aid-financed investor Norfund expects to present a surplus of about NOK 2 billion for 2017, after taking full control of the hydropower investor SN Power last fall, a result of strong disagreement with the co-owner Statkraft about investments in Africa.

Denmark is for the first time directly linking development funds with the return of migrants whose applications for asylum have been turned down. So far DKK 50 million in aid have been allocated to facilitate the return from Denmark of 198 rejected asylum seekers to six countries, including Nigeria, Somalia and Afghanistan.

As a first step in an ambitious plan to scale up multi-year flexible funding for several UN agencies, Sweden has entered into a four-year agreement with the World Food Programme worth SEK 3 billion (USD 370m).

Compared with a decade ago, the global outlook today is somewhat pessimistic, and Sweden has become more isolated. This is the reflection of Carin Jämtin, the new Director General of Sida. She left her post as Minister for International Development Cooperation in 2006 and now looks back on that time as a more hopeful period.

When the innovative USD 1.5 billion financing mechanism, the AMC, was launched by Gavi ten years ago, it was expected to do two things: accelerate the distribution of pneumonia vaccine among children in poor countries and incentivise more suppliers to enter the market, thereby increasing competition and pushing prices down. The AMC succeeded on the first but failed on the second.

Increased donor earmarking of funds to WFP makes it more difficult for the world’s largest humanitarian agency to respond rapidly to crises that are outside the limelight of global politics. Funds that WFP can use freely have dropped from 12 to 6 per cent of its total budget over the last seven years.

The Indian pharmaceutical company Serum Institute says its pneumonia vaccine will be ready for sale in developing countries by 2020 at a fraction of the going price. This places Serum in direct competition with two Western drug manufacturers, GSK and Pfizer, which have dominated the aid- financed pneumonia vaccine market for the last decade.

In a fierce power struggle over emergency relief funds, Western NGOs have secured a loophole in the agreement on reforming the humanitarian system that would allow their own affiliates in developing countries to tap into some USD 5 billion earmarked for local NGOs.

While Western governments invest billions of foreign aid dollars in programs aimed at reducing the flow of migrants into the United States and Europe, the evidence suggests that such efforts can be futile, and even counter-productive. Two researchers at Center for Global Development argue that a smarter approach would be to manage migration for the benefit of all sides, instead of trying to halt it.

Plan’s CEO aims to shake up status quo

Anne Birgitte Albrectsen, the Danish CEO of the 80-year-old organisation, says Plan’s current way of working is out of date. She wants to see several new branches established in developing countries within the next five years, and calls for a re-think of the child sponsorship model. “Business as usual is not an option,” she says.

In an effort to pressure Kinshasa into revoking three “illegally allocated logging concessions,” Norway is withholding the equivalent of a billion crowns in promised aid funding for forest protection in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Danish aid-funded investor IFU has, together with six Danish pension funds, raised DKK 4.1 billion for investments in developing countries and promotion of Danish technology and know-how. The investors expect a net yield amounting 10-12 per cent.

Several donors are wielding the money weapon over Oxfam following allegations of sexual exploitation at offices in Haiti, Chad and elsewhere. Donor funding amounting to at least EUR 100 million has been held back from Oxfam as a direct result of the scandal.

The Helsinki-based Nordic Development Fund (NDF) has acquired a niche as an effective provider of grants and loans for climate projects. The board has now asked the management to present options for strengthening the fund.

A three-year humanitarian aid grant to Oxfam, frozen by Sida last month in response to allegations of sexual misconduct at Oxfam’s Haiti office several years ago, has now been approved. Development Today is told that Sida is satisfied Oxfam has taken the issue very seriously and the agency has decided to proceed with the agreement, which is worth SEK 104 million.

Donors have pledged USD 100 million in fresh money for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA) and frontloaded millions more at an extraordinary donor gathering in Rome Thursday.

The Swedish aid agency Sida points to the former head of its Humanitarian Department as being responsible for not informing Oxfam ten years ago about a sexual abuser in Haiti, the focus of intense media scrutiny since early February. The former Sida staffer, Per Byman, tells Development Today that he raised the matter internally at the time, but never received advice on how to handle the matter.

As the result of an unprecedented political feud in Norway over immigration and anti-terror measures, two aid organisations MSF and Plan found themselves at the centre of events. Rage donations, seen as a US phenomenon in the Trump era, entered the peaceful Norwegian aid community with full force.

A decade ago an official at Sida warned about a sexual abuser working in a key position at Oxfam, but the aid agency failed to inform the organisation about the matter.

Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), a major Nordic recipient of US aid grants, has agreed to pay a penalty of USD 2 million in a settlement with the US Department of Justice under the False Claims Act. The case exposes the far-reaching political conditionality for European NGOs that take US grants. NPA has in the past assisted Iran and Hamas in violation of US terror laws, according to the settlement.

Official development assistance remained stable last year at USD 146.6 billion, according to fresh statistics from the OECD. A slight increase in overall aid to the poorest countries was offset by a large increase in loans to middle-income countries. Humanitarian aid and in-donor refugee costs continue to dominate donors’ budgets.

During Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s visit to Colombia, she promised total payments of up to NOK 4 billion by 2025 for forest conservation efforts, making the South American country a key climate forest partner for Norway.

NGOs are reviewing the terms for USAID grants after Norwegian Peoples’ Aid (NPA) had to pay a USD 2 million penalty for allegedly violating US terror laws related to Norwegian-funded projects in Gaza and Iran carried out several years ago. Some NGOs fear the American grant terms could jeopardise both their independence and their humanitarian principles.

The World Bank has blacklisted the Swedish consultant Hifab International AB and two employees for taking part in “corrupt practice,” providing a USD 38,800 vehicle to a public official in Laos, according to World Bank sanctions documents obtained by Development Today.

The joint Nordic aid agenda is breaking up. Where poor developing countries, especially in Africa, once dominated aid portfolios, security and migration concerns now determine where the Nordics share common priorities for their aid disbursement. Afghanistan and Somalia are the only two countries on the four Nordic donors’ top-ten bilateral aid recipient lists, a review carried out by Development Today shows.

A Swedish report shows that only one in ten cases of reported fraud originates from UN agencies and other multilateral organisations. The UN’s own watch dog has warned of systemic under-reporting of corruption in the UN which could be causing “substantial monetary losses.”

A vanishing Nordic aid agenda

Historically, the Nordic donors have operated as a block on the global development scene with joint efforts built on common values and a focus on the poorest countries, especially in Africa. They have also worked closely in multilateral fora like the UN and the World Bank.

Norway’s Development Minister Nikolai Astrup will strengthen his day-to-day access to the competence relevant for his portfolio by moving staff from the aid agency Norad to the Foreign Ministry. Norad will be streamlined to handle grant management. The move has been met with strong resistance from the opposition.

The Norwegian government’s claims that a climate project in Tanzania successfully helped farmers to adopt new agricultural techniques as part of a forest conservation scheme, have no basis in empirical evidence, according to new research.

A new evaluation proposes a giant capital injection for Swedfund, the smallest Nordic aid funded investor. Operating in some of the world’s most difficult markets, Swedfund is vulnerable and has presented deficits amounting to SEK 500 million for the period 2009-2016.

A defiant Climate Ministry in Oslo rejects key conclusions of a report by the Auditor General on the prestigious Norwegian rainforest programme, which finds that the scheme is delayed, results are unsure and anti-corruption efforts are weak. The ministry disagrees with the criticism and insists that important results have been achieved.

Researchers and international environmental activists have critically scrutinised Norway’s massive climate forest initiative, while Norwegian NGOs are largely silent. Now they are charged with being too cozy with the Climate Ministry in Oslo, which is a main funding source. Rainforest Foundation Norway says it is a “strategic choice” not to criticise the initiative in public.

A proposal to merge three Helsinki-based institutions into a Nordic Green Bank has been put on hold because the current Swedish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers is too busy with other tasks. The reform proposal includes the aid-financed Nordic Development Fund.

Donors gave only 3 per cent of humanitarian aid directly to local and national responders last year, according to new figures from Development Initiatives. This means that humanitarian actors are on a steady path to break their Grand Bargain promise to direct one-fourth of funding to local organisations by 2020. Instead, resources continue to go mainly to UN agencies and Western NGOs.

Tellef Thorleifsson (55), an investor in East African agribusiness, takes over the helm of Norfund, replacing Kjell Roland who in March announced that he would step down after almost 12 years in the position.

As Vietnam makes the transition from traditional ODA recipient to middle-income country, Finland is using its government twinning programme to create commercial opportunities for Finnish state agencies.

Concerned that the Kachung industrial tree plantation in Uganda is affecting food security in nearby villages, the Swedish Energy Agency has still not decided whether to make a second payment for carbon credits to the plantation owner, the cash-strapped Norwegian firm Green Resources.

Lack of cash is the reason Green Resources was slow to respond to concerns raised about food security of villagers living near the Kachung tree plantation in Uganda, company CEO Erik Knive tells Development Today. But over the past year good progress has been made on food security projects, he says.

The Swedish Contingencies Agency (MSB) has this week opened a 5,000 square metre EU warehouse in Kristinehamn in Central Sweden. It is expected to shorten the response time for the union’s civilian security efforts around the world.

Norway narrows geographic focus in aid

A new white paper proposes to reduce the number of main partner countries in Norwegian aid from 24 to just 16, divided on two categories - long-term cooperation partners and countries where the focus is on stabilisation and conflict prevention. A newcomer among partner countries is Ghana.

Nordic aid-financed investors and an American businessman are establishing a USD 10 million fund to provide loans for entrepreneurs in Somalia. The Norwegian government is injecting first-loss capital to ease the risk.

The current fad in the world of international aid is all about moving from “billions to trillions” through the mobilisation of private capital combined with blending for impact investing. Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) can and should expand and blending can help. But even with the best of intentions and efforts, DFIs will not be able to plug anything more than a fraction of the SDG funding gap.

The organisers of the Oslo Redd conference are profiling a little Tanzanian frog that has been named after Norway, apparently in thanks for ten years of Norwegian climate forest efforts. The Executive Director of Rainforest Foundation UK Simon Counsell takes a more sobre look at the ten-year-old initiative.

At a ministerial meeting on the fringes of a forest conference in Oslo, Guyana laid out a plan for rapid expansion of solar power as a key clean energy source. The tiny South American nation hopes to resolve a seven-year dispute with Norway over the release of USD 180 million promised to Guyana for keeping its deforestation rate at a low level.

Denmark, being the first Nordic country to use the OECD’s new reporting regime for counting domestic refugee expenses as official aid, has concluded that it can increase reporting of such aid by 60 per cent for 2017.

Western humanitarian organisations’ own progress reports on promises made in 2016 to massively increase funding to Southern-based actors are “inherently biased,” and provide little evidence of change, according to a review by ODI. Some donors are betting on UN country funds taking the lead in increasing grants for local NGOs.

Denmark will scale up education efforts and private sector aid next year, but at the heart of the aid budget is managing “irregular migration and fighting its fundamental causes.” The Danes will expand their use of aid as a tool to return asylum seekers to their home countries in a tit-for-tat approach.

A new Finnish international water strategy, prepared by five separate ministries, aims to make greater use of Finland’s water expertise abroad, while aligning with Agenda 2030.

The world’s first centre for promoting indigenous people’s land and forest rights is balancing the interests of its major donors. Sweden’s focus is rights. Norway’s is carbon. One result is that Norway supports the centre’s work on promoting tenure in countries like Colombia and Indonesia, but restricts the use of Norwegian money for projects in India, Burkina Faso and Mali.

The British economist Paul Collier delivered a frontal attack on Western NGOs at a conference in Oslo this week. “Africa needs our firms, but got … our NGOs,” he told the audience. In an interview with Development Today he nuanced his perspective. Some NGOs are “the latest manifestation of imperialism,” others are doing a great job, he said.

The Finnish government proposes EUR 994 million in aid next year, marking the fourth lean aid budget in a row since the historic aid cuts announced in the summer of 2015. Nevertheless, the Finnish aid community sees a light in the tunnel.

In an on-going review, auditors at the UN have called for Erik Solheim, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), to refund part of his travelling costs. A devastating auditor’s report, cited by the Oslo-based daily Aftenposten, charges that Solheim was on the road for 529 days over the last two years and racked up a bill of NOK 4 million (USD 490,000).

Torben Huss will become acting chief of the Danish aid-financed risk capital fund IFU when the current CEO Tommy Thomsen leaves the organisation to take up a new assignment in the private sector.

Finnfund has committed USD 10 million to a new forestry fund, the Arbaro Fund, that will invest in industrial tree plantations in 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America over the next 15 years.

Sweden has the best migration policies among donors and Denmark gets top marks for contributing to international peacekeeping, according to the Center for Global Development’s CDI index for 2018. Norway, which topped the UNDP index announced last week, ranks nr 12 on the CDI because of high oil and gas production, heavy agricultural subsidies and the “low quality” of its aid.

In a pioneering move, the Helsinki-based NGO FinnChurchAid (FCA) has launched an investment company that will manage a EUR 16 million loan from the Finnish government to be invested in small businesses in African and Asian countries, the first of its kind in the Nordic countries.

A World Bank mechanism established in 2014 to expand funding for health and nutrition is gearing up for its first replenishment meeting in November where it hopes to raise USD 2 billion from donors. The Global Financing Facility (GFF) differs from traditional health aid, its Director Mariam Claeson tells Development Today, because it links up to billions of additional dollars. How much of this money is actually new remains unclear.

The stakes are high for the UN environmental agency (UNEP) in the wake of an on-going audit which reveals excessive travel costs incurred by the agency’s leadership. Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden are holding back EUR 16 million in grants that were originally planned to be disbursed this year.

As the Global Financing Facility (GFF) gears up for its first replenishment next month, there are warnings that by making poor countries take up World Bank loans, the ambitious health scheme could lead to increased indebtedness.

Thematic priorities like clean oceans and renewable energy investments are winners in a growing Norwegian aid budget. Support for fragile states, stemming migration and combatting terror are other top priorities, while civil society and core funding to UN agencies benefit less.

In a donor landscape where most aid management is either delegated to a separate directorate or integrated into a foreign ministry, Norway is the only OECD country that splits grant management between a ministry and its aid agency, according to a new report commissioned by Development Minister Nikolai Astrup. This, the report concludes, creates both inefficiency and confusion.

A team of experts from UN headquarters in New York is helping the Nairobi-based UN Environment Program get its financial house in order. Following a critical audit, a new deputy has been given a key role in the agency’s sweep up, and Erik Solheim pledges to spend less time on the road.

Norwegian result payments for Indonesian forest protection have not materialised nine years after a cooperation agreement was signed. An evaluation urges Norway to make its first payment by 2020 and concludes that the bilateral deal is still relevant.

General budget support, a popular instrument in the aid tool box during the 2000s, was effective and cheaper than project aid. Donors abandoned it because of their latent mistrust of recipient governments, a new study concludes.

Few scraps left for UN after Finland details aid cuts

Frontpage

Related articles