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NL Interview Policy Coherence & Circular Economy: 'Companies aren't going to do it themselves'
On 18 January, Vice Versa, Building Change and the Fair, Partos and Green and Global Alliance are organising the Great Coherence Debate together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the run-up to it, Vice Versa is building a knowledge file with interviews and articles around the topic of policy coherence. Our colleague Anne sat down with Paul Roeland of the [...]
Will the Netherlands really take big steps towards fair policy soon?
For years, the Netherlands has been investing in developing countries through development cooperation, but this involves mopping the water up. Indeed, the Netherlands regularly makes policy choices that exacerbate or even cause situations and problems in these countries. For example, Dutch tax policy allows multinationals to reduce, or even completely [...]
Analysis COP27: A lost climate year despite historic breakthrough
"History was made today at #COP27" proudly reads the twitter account of the climate summit held in Sharm-El-Sheikh over the past three weeks. On the closing day of COP27, countries agreed to establish a fund for loss and damage (damage and loss caused by climate change), something that developing countries have been [...]
The African COP: is there still hope for climate solidarity?
A bummer just before the start of the 27th climate summit (COP27): implementation of climate goals in the Netherlands is going badly. That was the conclusion of PBL's Climate and Energy Outlook 2022. And not only is the Cabinet not implementing its plans well, the existing plans are not enough at all to meet the Dutch climate target [...]
A big step towards corporate responsibility?
Last week, Tuesday 1 November, just before the start of the budget debate on the Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation budget, the House took a big step towards corporate responsibility. ChristenUnie - together with PvdA, GroenLinks, D66, SP and Volt - tabled the initiative bill "Responsible and Sustainable International Business Act" that day. What [...]
Doing what is fair, or doing what is good for the Netherlands?
The note debate on the new Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation (BHOS) policy paper took place on 28 September. The public gallery was packed with people from civil society. There was also great interest in this debate from the Chamber; 11 parliamentary parties were represented (SP, PvdD, CDA, SGP, PVV, CU, D66, PvdA, VVD, Volt & GroenLinks). In [...]
Strong Chamber during debate on new development cooperation note
Yesterday, the Lower House held the debate - long-awaited because already postponed once - on the new development cooperation policy paper, "Doen waar Nederland goed in is". During the debate, we saw a strong House that brought in a lot of points that we as FMS and Building Change had raised, but also a weak minister who was on many [...]
Support the FMS for more international solidarity!
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the need for international solidarity has suddenly become incredibly clear. The war has major negative consequences for many other countries. It is precisely now that different policies are needed.
Doing what the Netherlands does best: the future of development cooperation?
After a long wait, Minister Schreinemacher (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation) finally published her new policy paper entitled "Doing what the Netherlands does best" on Friday evening. While it is a good thing that the budget for development cooperation is being increased, - in Oxfam Novib's words - actually "the Netherlands will soon be the biggest recipient of the Dutch development budget".
Report European Development Days 2022
''The world needs a positive investment impulse, and it needs it now,'' Ursula von der Leyen said in her speech at the opening ceremony of the European Development Days (EDD). With the new 'Global Gateway strategy', billions will be invested in sustainable and inclusive infrastructure to trigger further development worldwide.
This strategy was the focus of the two-day event, organised by the European Commission, which took place on Tuesday 21 June and Wednesday 22 June. The idea behind the annual EDD is to bring together the development community to exchange ideas and experiences to come up with new valuable solutions and collaborations.
