Monitoring development cooperation policy; 2011 figures
The Court of Audit has carried out its third audit of development cooperation policy. We investigated whether the Rutte/Verhagen government had carried out its plans to cut costs and introduce more focus and coherence in Dutch development cooperation. Our report contains an analysis of the actual figures for 2011 and considers the reform of the internal organisation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Conclusions
We concluded that the now outgoing Rutte/Verhagen government achieved the spending cuts proposed for 2011. Development cooperation expenditure was reduced during the year from 0.8% of gross national product (GNP) to 0.75%, equal to €4.7 billion.
We also concluded that the government had partially succeeded in increasing policy coherence and focus. Firstly, the government has set four policy priorities: food security; safety and the rule of law; water; and sexual and reproductive health. However, the expenditure does not yet reflect the policy concentration on these four priorities. Secondly, the government has reduced the number of partner countries from 33 to 15. Expenditure in the former partner countries, however, has not yet fallen. We also found that the new plans for the regional programmes and private sector instruments have prompted new activities in many more countries than the 15 partner countries. There is a risk that these new plans will weaken the new policy focus.
We found that the government had not yet prepared definite plans to reform the internal organisation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is carrying out a plan for a new knowledge management organisation and is making its employment conditions and appointment process more flexible. We also noted that the management burden of the development activities had declined slightly in 2011. We concluded, however, that manageability would become a risk in the longer term because the ministry is streamlining its staff establishment to meet the government spending targets.
Response
Response of the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
The State Secretary for Foreign Affairs (BuZa) wrote in his response to our monitoring report that it was not surprising that policy priorities set in 2011 had not yet led to a recognisable concentration of expenditure. Building up the policy priorities takes time and country programmes cannot be phased out responsibly within a year. He also observed that the Ministry of BuZa was working hard on further streamlining its internal management. The state secretary said measures would be taken where necessary to mitigate the management burden risks.
Afterword
We will follow the progress and implementation of the initiatives with interest. We will report on development cooperation policy again in 2013.