DIIS Comment

The paradoxes of Danish development policy

Foreign aid has been cut heavily

When the 17 new, ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were officially adopted at the UN General Assembly on 25 September, the Danish Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, presided over the adoption ceremony. On that occasion, he stated:

“The countries in the world realise with these new goals that we have to handle several challenges including poverty, climate change and conflicts, at the same time. The challenges are closely linked and have implications for all of us if they are not solved.”

Four days later, the Prime Minister’s government presented a finance bill in which Danish aid will be cut from 0.87 per cent of GNI in 2015 to 0.7 per cent in 2016. Moreover, approximately 20 per cent of the aid budget is reserved for expenses related to receiving refugees in Denmark. According to the OECD/DAC rules, such expenses can be counted as Official Development Assistance. However, the notion of foreign aid typically indicates that such resources are used to support the development in foreign countries. Thus, if the costs of receiving refugees in Denmark are omitted from the calculation, the aid budget amounts to 0.56 per cent of GNI from 2016 and onwards.

Over little more than 20 years the proportion of Danish GNI used to support the development of poor people in poor countries has been almost halved. In the same period the GNI per person has doubled. Moreover, the challenges that the world faces today are likely to have a much more severe impact on the future well-being of Danish citizens. If climate changes are not mitigated, if epidemics are not contained, if financial and economic crises are not cushioned, if civil wars and radicalism are not prevented, the consequences are likely to be felt strongly in Denmark. In this sense, development cooperation is increasingly related to national interests.

In 1986, a majority in parliament decided gradually to lift Danish foreign aid to one per cent of GNI by 1992 and in 1988 the first attempt to outline a general development policy was published. This policy included 6 qualitative purposes:

  • promotion of social, humanitarian and political ideals;
  • lasting improvement of poor people’s conditions;
  • use of a partnership approach;
  • strengthen the long-term sustainability of development;
  • placing women centrally in the development process; and
  • promotion of human rights.

Phrased in a different world, these purposes resemble the SDGs quite a lot and they have with different emphasis characterized all subsequent Danish development policies. One could argue that the SDGs to a large extent have grown in a Scandinavian garden or at least that they express values that Danes and Scandinavians would like to see supported all over the world.

Comparatively, Denmark is still a generous provider of development assistance, but the downward trend is likely to reduce its international influence, and the ability of the government to push the SDGs and its associated values is weakened. Moreover, the Prime Minister stated in connection with the adoption of the SDGs that “it is fair to say in relation to Denmark that the goals now being adopted by the international community are primarily important for Danish foreign and development policies.” For instance, he refuses to pursue the goal on reducing inequalities in Denmark. This goal is, he argues, only relevant in other countries where income inequalities are much larger than in Denmark.

Such an approach is likely further to reduce Denmark’s ability to push the SDGs given that the declaration emphasises the universal nature of the goals. The policy is quite paradoxical in light of Denmark’s capacity, self-interests and values associated with the SDGs, and it bears witness to the point that global norms do not translate directly into national policies even when national conditions are favourable to them.

Regions
Denmark

DIIS Experts

Lars Engberg Petersen
Sustainable development and governance
Head of unit, Senior researcher
+45 3269 8695
The paradoxes of Danish development policy
Danish foreign aid has been cut heavily