Saving help is not something to be proud of.
The Netherlands has a new coalition agreement on main lines. One of the major cuts is development cooperation. The calculations are quite complex, but an initial analysis shows that 35% of a budget has already been drastically cut in recent years. For one of the richest countries in the world it is a short-sighted choice to cut even further into investing in the end of hunger and poverty in other countries. That’s not something to be proud of.
In aJoint press releasewith eleven other organisations, we say that spending on sustainable economic development, agriculture, education, climate, security and democracy is not a cost. It’s investment in people who continue to render lifelong. Every euro of support that goes to a child is worth tenfold. Because with an effective approach, the Netherlands is implementing ahuge returnsin the world.
Less than half a cent for development cooperation.
It seems that the forming parties assume that most Dutch want to cut aid; research shows that most Dutch people think that we spend almost 5% of every euro we spend as a country on this and that that should be 3%. The reality is very different. Of every euro that the Netherlands spends, less than half a cent this year goes to development cooperation (not 5% but 0.5%).
Now that this budget is being cut again, millions of small-scale farmers from Benin to Bolivia cannot protest against it on the Malieveld . The end to hunger and poverty can only be achieved if we continue to invest in it. We ask,together with more than 100 other organisations, the forming parties not to continue this planned budget cuts.
Evelijne Bruning and Annelies Kanis, Executive Director The Hunger Project.