The Netherlands supports FIAS in the context of its partnership program with IFC. Support for FIAS is one of many manifestations of Dutch support for sustainable economic development through both bilateral and multilateral channels. Other examples include contributions to various Project Development Facilities, the Financial Sector Reform and Strengthening Initiative and bilateral programs for technical and financial assistance to private entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Netherlands Development Co-operation

The Netherlands wants to combat poverty in a sustainable manner. This is the essence of development cooperation. Sustainable can mean a number of things. In the first instance, it means durable, in the sense that our efforts are aimed at ensuring that a country, city, village or people will continue developing on their own after the support stops. However, sustainable also implies that no harm is done to the environment. Any country that develops at the cost of its natural resources and healthy living environment must eventually pay the price. And that price will be more poverty. Poverty has many dimensions - economic, social and political. It is not just a lack of income; it also means a lack of access to and control over means of production, insufficient participation in the political process and a shortage of social services.

To reduce poverty the Netherlands cooperates closely with:

• a limited number of developing nations (bilateral aid)
• development organizations (multilateral aid)
• non-governmental and civil society organizations

To read more about the Dutch policy on Development cooperation, please click here. 

Poverty Reduction

Poverty comes in many forms. So ideas on ways of reducing it sustainable are constantly changing and developing. Ideas that seemed to provide the answer twenty years ago no longer suffice. Organizations are therefore changing their working methods. And that applies to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs too. Management processes are being adapted to ensure that poverty reduction continues to be the Ministry’s core business.

The frameworks for Dutch policy now are presented in this brochure. It provides food for thought. There is more to poverty than having no roof over your head or too little to eat. Poverty also means having no political clout and always being the first to suffer when conflict breaks out. It means that your voice is never heard, and that you have no influence on the developments that keep you poor. For genuine change, we need to do more than treat the symptoms. We need to change the processes that cause poverty and prevent its eradication.

Effective poverty reduction is therefore more than development cooperation alone. It is one of the five main themes of Dutch foreign policy as a whole. Interaction between poverty reduction and the other main themes is what matters. The key word is coherence. Whatever the issue, the relationship with poverty reduction must be taken on board in our deliberations, objectives and action. Poverty is therefore a factor in peace and security policy, policy on Europe and human rights endeavors. That means that diplomacy must become diplomacy against poverty. Because only then will efforts to reduce poverty yield genuine, permanent results.

Poverty reduction calls for a common language, spoken by both donors and recipient countries. Only by sharing our views and commitment can we get to know and understand each other.  Read the brochure. 

In Business against Poverty

Economic growth in developing countries should be achieved with the active participation of the poor, so that they can make a direct contribution to that growth and share in its benefits. This ‘pro-poor growth’ approach means that economic growth must be accompanied by sustainable employment creation, health care and education provision, reforms in access to land and other means of production, the enhancement of civil society, fair wages and salaries and sufficient attention to the most vulnerable groups.

A well-functioning government is essential for pro-poor growth. But it is equally important for the private sector to have the space to develop. A good balance between the public and private sectors is the best guarantee of sustained progress. However, the private sector’s potential for pro-poor growth has not yet been exploited to the full. It is therefore important to devise a policy that encourages the sector to realize its potential. This policy should cover three areas: 

• The first involves creating the space for the private sector to develop internationally.
• The second policy area refers to the creation of an enabling environment at national level in poor countries. Generally speaking this entails five core tasks for the government:
  - Ensuring a stable macroeconomic climate.
  - Ensuring political stability, good governance and the rule of law.
  - Promoting the free market.
  - Development of an adequate physical and social infrastructure.
  - Creating the conditions for protecting people and the environment.
• The third policy area is a targeted strategy aimed at the specific problems and shortcomings of the private sector itself in developing countries.

To read more about In Business against Poverty, please click here.

In a supplement to the memorandum In Business against Poverty the Government describes the application of Dutch ODA in developing countries and more particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. A coordinated policy strategy is being compiled by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs and Finance and others, to foster pro-poor economic growth in developing countries and to promote the integration of these countries into the global economy. The Ministry of Finance will perform its role in the context of the IMF.

The supplement is divided into the following chapters:

- Chapter 2 examines the focus on pro-poor economic growth. It describes the condition of employment generation stipulated by parliament, with special emphasis on the informal sector and on the status of women.

- Chapter 3 outlines the practical application of Dutch Aid, focusing on the 20 ‘structural cooperation countries’ (that is, the countries with which the Netherlands has structural bilateral development relations; 11 of these countries are in Africa) . In this chapter, the three levels identified in the original memorandum – the international enabling environment, the national enabling environment for enterprise in developing countries and direct support for entrepreneurs – are examined from the point of view of the entrepreneur in developing countries. This is done on the basis of the themes of good governance, market access and market operation, financial sector development, infrastructure, and knowledge development and capacity building.

- Chapter 4 presents the Dutch government’s action plan. This consists of general priority measures based on government policy and specific action points for the coming years.

This supplement focuses more on the point of view of local business than the original memorandum. As a result, it does not examine the role of the Dutch private sector in the Netherlands’ policy on developing countries. Read more about the supplement.