Many spoke favourably of the eminent qualifications of Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to lead the World Bank. Norway tried to mobilise support for her. In the end, the Nordic-Baltic vote went to the American.

Swedish investor drops ethanol, opts for sugar production in Tanzania

Per Carstedt, former CEO of the biofuel company SEKAB, is courting the African Development Bank and Sida for his sugar cane venture in Tanzania. He says he has listened to his critics.

Denmark makes rights a key value in aid

In a new draft aid strategy, Danish Development Minister Christian Friis Bach makes human rights the main focus and aims to step up budget support.

Norway shies away from the big forest prize

Few forest activists could dream of influencing government policy as profoundly as Lars Løvold has done. But he hasn’t been able to convince Foreign Ministry bureaucrats that the big forest prize - the Democratic Republic of Congo - is worth the enormous risks.

Forestry aid portfolio under scrutiny

Finnish forestry aid, which accounted for EUR 35 million in disbursements last year, is under scrutiny as a result of the new focus on rights in aid.

Budget support to Mozambique for 2012 could be Sweden’s last payment

Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson wants to scrap budget support. Sida is looking for ways to make this form of aid more palatable.

Finland files charges against three in Costa Rican aid scam

Charges have been filed against former employees of a Finnish firm for bribing Costa Rican officials in connection with an aid-financed contract in Costa Rica.

Seeks Norad funds for dams standard

Norad, the main donor for a project to develop a new international standard for hydropower sustainability, is now being asked for funds to implement the standard in developing countries.

Opinions

How to fight corruption in aid

Sweden’s Minister for Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson has repeatedly said that corruption in the aid sector must be fought by all means. Swedish Consultants, the organization for aid-oriented consulting companies in Sweden, has a solution.

Clear goals for development assistance

For years, Sweden has been pumping funds into corrupt and undemocratic regimes. We need to think again.

Editorial

Human rights at centre of Nordic aid

Three nordic countries are putting human rights at the centre of their development policies, the most recent being Danish Development Minister Christian Friis Bach, who aims to make human rights and democracy focal points of his new aid strategy.

What Norway wants in Ethiopia

Funding for two mega-dams in Ethiopia has hung in limbo for more than year. In the meantime, Norwegian engagement in the energy sector has taken a completely different turn.

DT Archive

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Quote: Former SEKAB boss

“We hit the wall in 2008-9 with the financial crisis. Since then we have participated in the local and the international debate and listened to a lot of the criticism over the years. Now it is no longer an ethanol project. We will be producing food, sugar.”

- Per Carstedt, EcoEnergy in Tanzania.

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