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AIIB Beijing HQ Feb 2023.jpg

Expanded power of AIIB President Jin Liqun up for scrutiny

The power of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank President Jin Liqun, who can green light projects worth up to USD 300 million without consulting the board, is criticised by German parliamentarians and civil society organisations. They also point to weaknesses in the bank’s grievance mechanism, which has not investigated a single complaint. Norway wants an external review of both these aspects of AIIB’s governance.

News September 27, 2023

Sweden: Aid budget to fund losses for Swedish exporters to Ukraine

Sweden continues to expand the private sector’s role in aid. The aid budget for next year proposes increasing...

News September 21, 2023

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Danish PM announces EUR 2 billion expansion of IFU, Denmark’s aid-funded investor

After decades of tight financing, the Danish development finance institution IFU can look forward to...

News September 19, 2023

US and Norway put up USD 70m for first loss mechanism targeting African agri-SMEs

Head of USAID Samantha Power and Norway’s Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim have launched a...

Business September 19, 2023

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First Nordic meeting with new World Bank President focused on reform and Ukraine

The new World Bank President Ajay Banga met with Nordic development ministers Thursday to discuss reform...

News September 15, 2023

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New donors to Brazil’s Amazon Fund face financing bottlenecks

Five new donors - the US, the EU, Switzerland, the UK, and Denmark - that have pledged support to Brazil...

News September 13, 2023

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Injection of billions revives Danish aid after years of tight budgets

Development Minister Dan Jørgensen strikes back after reporting the lowest Danish aid level in four decades....

News September 04, 2023

New Finnish government’s budget proposal: aid starts shrinking again

The Finnish government has launched its first budget proposal, initiating a four-year plan to roll back...

News September 05, 2023

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German NGO urges European donors to follow Canada and freeze activity in Beijing-based infrastructure bank

European donors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank should engage more actively to improve bank...

News August 28, 2023

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Danish development minister summoned to Parliament over record-low aid level

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Danish Parliament has called in Development Minister Dan Jørgensen...

News August 29, 2023

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Denmark drops out of 0.7% donor club, reveals flaws in Danish aid funding model

Denmark has failed to meet the UN aid benchmark of 0.7 per cent of GNI for the first time in four decades,...

News August 24, 2023

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Gavi commits USD 1.65 billion for COVID vaccines though demand is ‘close to zero’

The vaccine alliance Gavi will hold onto 60 per cent of the USD 2.7 billion that remain unspent in COVAX...

News July 04, 2023

Oil clean-up in the Red Sea

Nordic countries are contributing to a USD 140 million UN operation off the coast of Yemen aimed at removing...

News August 18, 2023

Indigenous group challenges grievance mechanism of new forest carbon standard

The grievance mechanism of the Norwegian-funded forest carbon standard ART is being tested for the first...

News July 06, 2023

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Canadian exit from Beijing-based bank. High stakes for ‘flagship’ of China’s new multilateralism

Following claims of Chinese meddling in the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)...

News June 23, 2023

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Ville Tavio of Finns Party becomes development minister, cuts and radical shift in Finnish aid

For the first time, a party viewed as being far-right on the political spectrum takes over the aid portfolio...

News June 20, 2023

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Sida tests out how to break Western-dominated mould in humanitarian funding

Donor action on localisation, a process aimed at breaking the monopoly of Western NGOs and agencies over...

News June 15, 2023

Norfund’s rate of return is neck and neck with earnings of the Oil Fund

Over the last 25 years, the return rate on investments made by the aid-funded investor Norfund has almost...

Business June 13, 2023

Tide turns for Finnfund despite losses in Ukraine

After two years of negative impacts from the pandemic and a significant write-down of a loan for a Ukrainian...

Business June 02, 2023

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Gavi donors to decide on fate of billions in unspent COVID dollars

One year ago, the vaccine alliance Gavi mobilised USD 4.8 billion for vaccines in the final fund-raising...

News May 25, 2023

Norwegian aid surpasses 1% of GNI, but the government is still taking heat

Last fall the Norwegian government was heavily criticised after presenting a budget with the lowest aid...

News May 24, 2023

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Expert group wants to double Norway’s financing of SDG efforts

A group of Norwegian experts proposes a doubling of support to UN Agenda 2030. They want to shelter core...

News May 15, 2023

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Norwegian development minister takes over humanitarian aid

Norway’s Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim takes over the responsibility for humanitarian assistance,...

News May 12, 2023

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IFU expands investment despite heavy losses in Ukraine

The Danish aid-financed investor IFU is exploring new projects in Ukraine, despite taking heavy losses...

Business May 11, 2023

No Swedish earmarking of humanitarian aid to Ukraine

Dedicated funding for Sida made Ukraine the number one recipient of Swedish humanitarian aid in 2022....

News May 09, 2023

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Three Nordic DFIs provide risk capital for Ukrainian tech industry, Norway drags its feet

During a ceremony at the presidential palace in Kyiv last week, three Nordic DFIs - Swedfund, the Danish...

Business May 05, 2023

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The minister who put peasants at the centre of Norwegian aid

Against all odds, small-scale farming in Africa has become a key priority of Norwegian aid, and Development...

News April 27, 2023

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Aid billions lost: Swedish NGOs fear unused aid earmarked for refugees will end up in state coffers, like last year

Last year, unused aid funds earmarked for refugees arriving in Sweden remained in the state coffers rather...

News April 21, 2023

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Nordic share of aid shrinks as Ukraine war reshapes donor landscape

While global aid expanded last year, Sweden, Norway and Denmark recorded their lowest aid levels in many...

News April 14, 2023

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DKK 3.5 billion backlog in Danish aid may take years to close

For the first time in four decades, Denmark could fall short of the UN’s 0.7 per cent of GNI aid target...

News April 11, 2023

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Carbon certifier says key indigenous complaints were not on the table when credits were issued to Guyana last year

The historic issuance of ART forest carbon credits, sold by Guyana last year for USD 750 million, is...

News March 30, 2023

Denmark and Norway choose diverging strategies for Ukraine aid

There are key strategic differences between the Norwegian and Danish approaches to supporting Ukraine....

News March 24, 2023

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Two global health experts say the time is ripe to re-think Gavi’s mission

It is time to take stock of Gavi, two global health experts, Catherine Kyobutungi and Olusoji Adeyi,...

News March 23, 2023

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Denmark commits DKK 1.2 billion in aid to new Ukraine Fund

The Danish government has announced a new fund for military, civilian, and private sector support to...

News March 15, 2023

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Indigenous alliance pulls out of negotiations over ‘flawed’ forest carbon credit standard

An alliance of indigenous groups in Central America has walked out of negotiations over a Norwegian-funded...

News March 08, 2023

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Evaluation: revamp old-fashioned tied Danish aid scheme or it could become irrelevant

Denmark’s mixed credit scheme, which is subsidised by aid, has given billions of crowns worth of contracts...

Business March 08, 2023

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Uncertain funding future for Swedish NGOs as Sida awaits new strategy

The aid agency Sida has been given a year of grace while the new Swedish government draws up its strategy...

News March 02, 2023

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One year into war in Ukraine, Sweden prepares to boost aid efforts

As Sweden crafts a new strategy for Ukraine, it faces difficult choices, balancing long-term EU integration...

News February 24, 2023

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Norwegian Refugee Council belatedly embraces localisation

Jan Egeland has championed the call for reform of a humanitarian aid system where Northern institutions...

February 17, 2023

Sida implements unprecedented 87% cut in information support to Swedish NGOs

From an expected level of SEK 155 million in funding for Sida’s information activities, the Swedish government...

News February 14, 2023

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Ukraine package reshapes Norwegian aid. Sweden will no longer be the largest Nordic donor

A massive aid package for Ukraine announced Monday will reshape Norwegian aid. Civilian support for Ukraine,...

News February 06, 2023

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Equinor eyes forest carbon credits facilitated by Norway’s rainforest scheme

The Norwegian Climate Ministry has used aid financing to build up a new architecture for the certification...

News February 02, 2023

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Cash-strapped humanitarian system faces 2023 with shrinking donor base

As Ukraine continues to dominate headlines, the humanitarian system faces the coming year with dual challenges...

News January 20, 2023

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Evaluation: Big Pharma shies away from CEPI due to equitable access requirements

The Oslo-based vaccine initiative CEPI has over a few short years grown into a “credible and prominent...

News December 19, 2022

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Local humanitarian actors still poorly funded. After 7 years, UN agencies and NGOs hold tight to donor funds

Direct funding to local NGOs has not increased despite a global pandemic, Black Lives Matter, and seven...

News December 15, 2022

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ODA must evolve, but cautiously, says the new guardian of OECD aid Carsten Staur

Carsten Staur, the newly appointed Chair of the OECD’s aid watchdog DAC, says there is huge pressure...

News December 09, 2022

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The ‘hollow’ promise of loss and damage

In the absence of concrete financial commitments, the loss and damage fund agreed at the COP27 climate...

News November 30, 2022

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Outcry from indigenous groups prompts change of rules in LEAF forest carbon scheme

Indigenous organisations in the Brazilian state of Acre were kept in the dark for almost a year about...

News November 18, 2022

How Nordic donors have grown apart

While the aid policies of the four Nordic donors have grown apart over the last two decades, Denmark...

News November 11, 2022

Danes break deadlock in climate talks, offering funds for loss and damage

Denmark is the first UN member to pledge funding to compensate poor countries for “loss and damage” due...

News September 21, 2022

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Capital crunch forces Danish IFU to turn down new projects

The Danish development finance institution IFU has tight liquidity, poor profit over time, and faces...

Business September 07, 2022

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Calls for an independent commission to investigate Norway’s gigantic rainforest initiative

The NOK 60 billion rainforest initiative, the largest aid programme in Norwegian history, has run into...

News April 08, 2022

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Three days in Oslo: Norway walks diplomatic tightrope with the Taliban

The first talks with the Taliban to be held in a Western country marked a high-risk diplomatic feat for...

News February 03, 2022

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Interview. New WHO special envoy on covid: Yodi walks into the lion’s den

Ayoade Alakija has been one of the harshest critics of the international pandemic response effort – the...

News January 25, 2022

Indigenous leader calls on Norway to respond to demands for carbon justice

Opinion Editorial July 10, 2023

Costa Rican indigenous leader Levi Sucre Romero calls for action from Norway, financier of the ART forest carbon standard, on indigenous demands for justice and recognition of land rights. Romero writes that the carbon credit standard is in non-compliance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and it could now “undermine all that has been achieved in Costa Rica by indigenous peoples and the government.”

Read more

Swedish People’s Party is kingmaker in Finnish government negotiations, aid hangs in the balance

Opinion May 23, 2023

Finnish development practitioners experienced a painful déjà vu after the recent parliamentary election. The two main winners were parties that carried out massive aid cuts in 2016. But to form a government, they need the Swedish People’s Party, which has called for an increase in aid spending. As negotiations enter the fourth week, Marikki Karhu and Inka Hopsu offer this analysis.

Read more

Calls on donor group, led by Japan and Switzerland, to break deadlock in support for Afghan refugees

Opinion May 10, 2023

Afghanistan is burdened by multiple crises, and there is an urgent need for innovative collective global action. The upcoming Global Refugee Forum in December 2023 is a key opportunity to break the current deadlock. Najeeba Wazefadost and Evan Jones write that a strategic group of 15 donors – the so-called Support Platform for the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees – where Japan and Switzerland are key members, is strategically placed to re-ignite regional support for displaced Afghans, both in and outside the country.

Read more

New political alliances and Ukraine war are reshaping Nordic aid

Opinion Editorial January 17, 2023

Nordic aid is up for a major remake. In Sweden and Denmark, new political alliances took power in 2022 and the war in Ukraine will dominate policymaking in all four countries in the months to come.

Read more

Support to civil society and independent scientific research appear of little importance to Norway’s new climate and environment deal with Indonesia

Opinion October 07, 2022

Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s Minister for Climate and Environment, has just signed a new climate and environment deal with Indonesia. It appears support to civil society and independent scientific research are not among the priorities, researchers from Chr. Michelsens Institute write.

Read more

The paradox of overcapacity in Africa’s energy sector

Opinion September 16, 2022

Several African countries have a huge overcapacity in the power sector, but consumers lack electricity. Production is often locked into long-term contracts at high prices while the grid remains underdeveloped. As donors and investors push for renewable energy in Africa, they must take a more transparent and holistic approach or risk delaying the transition to clean energy, Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen and Ole Winckler Andersen at DIIS write. 

Read more

Nordic church leaders call on governments to stop using aid to fund global goods

Opinion September 05, 2022

Five Nordic church leaders call for Nordic governments to show solidarity in the face of growing poverty, food insecurity and climate disaster. Don’t use aid to fund vaccines, domestic refugee costs and climate, they write.

Read more

Redirecting funds to the Ukraine crisis will have devastating global humanitarian consequences if aid budgets are not increased

Opinion April 26, 2022

Diverting scarce aid resources risks worsening on-going humanitarian crises around the world. The global consequences of redirecting aid and attention towards the Ukraine response are extremely worrying, Charlotte Slente of Danish Refugee Council writes.

Read more

COVAX and the unfulfilled promise of vaccine sharing

Opinion March 07, 2022

The global vaccine initiative COVAX aimed to procure 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 to accelerate efforts towards vaccine equity. By the end of the year, it had delivered only 910 million doses, more than half of these through donations. Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée and Katerini T. Storeng explain how donated doses came to dominate COVAX’s vaccine supply and they unpack the politics of vaccine sharing.  

Read more

Olusoji Adeyi on global health, narcissistic charity, and neo-dependency

Opinion December 31, 2021

Decades of being drip-fed on deleterious forms of foreign aid have caused African countries and institutions to wither. But they have done so blissfully, until the COVID-19 pandemic unmasked the primordial selfishness of the Global North. Olusoji Adeyi, former Director of Health and Nutrition at the World Bank, challenges donor governments and African leaders to break out of an endless cycle of ineffectual aid.

Read more

Martin Griffiths on UN’s grim humanitarian outlook for 2022

Opinion December 02, 2021

Forty-one billion dollars. That’s what aid agencies need to help people facing war, disease and hunger around the world next year. It’s more than this year. More than ever before, in fact, writes Martin Griffiths, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs.

Read more

Supporting indigenous Afghan structures could be a lifeline in new Taliban era

Opinion October 29, 2021

Can linking NGOs to traditional Afghan community institutions create a new humanitarian paradigm, and will the international community be willing to let go? Gry Synnevåg and Karim Merchant reflect on how to support Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

Read more

Rethink financing of global public goods

Opinion Editorial October 11, 2021

As global challenges mount, politicians increasingly view development aid budgets as a source of easy money to fund any and all good things. Whether climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic or the migration crisis, global goods have become integrated with aid, based on a convoluted narrative that equates rich countries’ own interests with the mission of eradicating poverty.

Read more

Church groups call for ‘game-changing’ Food Summit

Opinion September 23, 2021

Four Nordic church groups and Christian Aid say small farmers should be the main focus of the UN Food Summit. Reforming agricultural subsidies and helping farmers transition to agroecology can reduce poverty, conserve biodiversity and address climate change, they write.

Read more

Critical reflections on ten years of the Guyana-Norway REDD+ agreement

Opinion July 03, 2021

The bilateral climate forest agreement was meant to be a model for the world. Instead, it was based on a clunky institutional architecture and stands today as a reminder of why condition-laden ODA projects have little impact on rising deforestation, Andrew Hook and Timothy Laing write.

Read more

Danish PM Frederiksen’s betrayal of Nordic values

Opinion Editorial June 04, 2021

A new Danish law opens for the export of Denmark’s asylum obligations to a third country. Having covered Nordic foreign policy for three decades, we have never seen a betrayal of joint Nordic values on this scale. Social Democratic parties have previously built and defended the UN-based human rights system at home and abroad. Now a Social Democratic prime minister has joined forces with right-wing parties to dismantle it.

Read more

Desmond McNeill: The limitation of bond schemes

Opinion May 08, 2021

A proposed bond scheme inspired by IFFIm, which aims to trigger a massive expansion in aid, won’t work, writes Desmond McNeill at the Centre for Development and Environment. The aid would not be additional and the scheme ignores the key problem of weak states in the neediest countries.

Read more

Peter Sands: We must scale-up the global response to COVID-19. This needs more than vaccines

Opinion April 28, 2021

In many rich countries, discussion of COVID-19 revolves around the pace of vaccine deployment and the steps being taken towards lifting restrictions on social and economic interaction, but in most low- and middle-income countries the picture looks starkly different. Not only are COVID-19 infections and deaths increasing as more transmissible variants take hold, but the knock-on impact on other diseases continues to escalate, writes Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Read more

Jared Rowell, Evan Jones: Forced return of Afghans hampers the pursuit of durable solutions

Opinion April 23, 2021

The principles of safety and dignity must not only guide the pursuit of durable solutions, but also the return of rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan. Successful return involves much more than putting people on a plane. Jared Rowell, Afghanistan Country Director for the Danish Refugee Council, and Evan Jones at the Kabul-based Asia Displacement Solutions Platform write.

Read more

Ulstein’s misstep on vaccine sharing may haunt him at home

Opinion Editorial March 22, 2021

Norway’s Development Minister Dag-Inge Ulstein has been a tireless advocate for global vaccine equity and the government has deployed billions of aid crowns to back up that work. We applaud these efforts, but he has made one big mistake that might now plague him at home.

Read more

Nordic church groups: The only way out of the pandemic is equitable distribution of vaccines

Opinion March 22, 2021

More than 80 per cent of people in Norway, Sweden and Denmark think it is unacceptable for rich countries to buy their way to the front of the vaccine queue, according to a recent survey. Norwegian Church Aid, Act Church of Sweden and DanChurchAid call on Nordic governments to work harder for vaccine equity.

Read more

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