The majority of humanitarian organisations are unable to maintain neutrality in the post-9/11 world. Even OCHA is becoming a fixture within a political organisation, the UN.

A new report by the Feinstein International Centre warns that unless roles are clearly separated humanitarianism will not survive.

Development Today is a subscription-based journal published with 20 issues a year. To subscribe click here.

If you are already a subscriber to Development Today please log in.

Would you like to know more about Development Today? Click here.

Print this article

News

Denmark ignores OECD warning on use of aid as export subsidy

Denmark will continue to use aid as export subsidises to its companies selling capital goods to poor countries financed by so-called tied mixed credits. An article published in Development Today earlier this year revealing the Danish practice caused several donor countries to voice their concerns to the OECD headquarters in Paris. In a sharp letter to the Danes, the Chair of the OECD/DAC says this is a violation of a donor agreement from 2001 that abolishes this practice.

With the recent change in government in Sweden, Denmark may well now have a closer political ally in the Nordics than has previously been the case. The International Development Ministers of the two non-Socialist Nordic countries did not waste time arranging their first meeting to discuss possible future cooperation.

When the UN Secretary General’s Panel for UN reform gathered in Oslo in late August, UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown said that even more important than its recommendations is the political authority of the panel. The Panel was co-chaired by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. How will he engage to build political support for the Panel’s reform proposals?

A new common result-based financing mechanism for all UN agencies will become the engine that shapes the new UN system if the proposals of the ...

The Finnish umbrella organisation KEPA, which represents 260 Finnish development NGOs, is considering shifting its geographical focus eastwards. The NGO’s Zambia office will be phased out over the next three years. Finnish NGOs are becoming more politicised, lobbying politicians for an increase in the aid level prior to the parliamentary elections next March, Executive Director of KEPA Timo Lappalainen says in an interview with Development Today.

Denmark, ‘honest broker’ in Nepal

When the Nepalese government and Maoist rebels struck a peace deal on November 7 ending ten years of civil war and conflict, Danish International Development Minister Ulla Tørnæs was among the first to welcome the agreement.

For the sixth year in a row the Danish finance bill has been passed in late-night negotiations between the Danish Liberal-Conservative government and its supporting Danish People’s Party.

In Brief

New boss at Dag Hammarskjöld Fdn Former Research Director at the Nordic Africa Institute Henning Melber has been appointed the new Executive Director of the Dag ...