How the Netherlands has strived (and struggled) to localize
Ten years ago the Dutch government started a drive to move from among the poorer performing nations on localization to among the leaders. Since then it's made significant reforms. But how well have they worked?
By Ingrid Gercama // 25 September 2023In 2013, the Dutch government in The Hague was challenged by one of the country's Members of Parliament over aid policy; organizations outside the Netherlands were barred from bidding for the country's foreign aid funding, he said, and it was time for a change. It was an important challenge because the Netherlands is one of the world's most generous and influential funders. Although the country has only 18 million citizens, the Dutch aid budget is $6.5 billion a year, and the Netherlands is one of the very few nations to give almost 0.7% of its gross national income as overseas development assistance, or ODA, each year. After months of fractious debate, that MP, Roelof van Laar, ultimately succeeded in getting approval for the bill, Secretarial Participation of Southern Organizations, to allow organizations from the global south to apply directly for Dutch development funds. “Locally people know much better than those in The Hague what works and what not,” van Laar, who has since stepped down from Parliament, told Devex. The bill set in motion a push among Dutch aid professionals to move the country from being among the laggards on localization to among its leaders. Since then, a series of ambitious policy reforms have given the Netherlands a reputation in European civil society as one of the countries to watch. Since van Laar’s success, his party PvdA, the Dutch Labour Party, has been in and out of power — although it looks likely to do well in an upcoming November election — but the move to localize has enjoyed relatively broad political support. “We have made great strides when it comes to localization,” said Alexander Arkadjevitsj Medik of Partos, the Dutch membership body for development organizations, which represents more than 100 Dutch nongovernmental organizations. “In the policy framework there are several intentions set for Dutch organizations in order to make them cooperate equally with local organizations,” he continued. “Also, the Dutch government has started funding local organizations working on women’s rights directly. There are several organizations from the global south that have become the lead applying for Dutch funding, and that is a break with the trend from the past when Dutch organizations were leading." From permitting only Dutch organizations to lead on bids, the government first moved to permit local organizations to lead, then to scoring bids more positively when they have a local component. And the language of Dutch government policy has become focused on local control. According to the Dutch development strategy, the Netherlands is seeking “partnerships on an equal footing, with more influence from Southern organisations” and Dutch aid organizations “must not stigmatise, but supporting rather than undermine local self-reliance.” Dutch and international organizations are expected to “give local organizations more autonomy” which, the Dutch government hopes, will create “equal relations between organisations from different countries” resulting in “long-lasting change.” One example is the €216 million policy framework for Strengthening Civil Society (2021-2025), which funds civil society organizations working on women’s rights, gender equality, and inclusion and has local ownership and balanced power relations as funding criteria for CSO partnerships. “It is typical for the Dutch to invest in civil society partners in developing countries, with a very specific focus on the most marginalized,” says Medik. This includes, for example, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, sex workers, LGBTQ+ groups, and drug users. The Netherlands has also tried to lead the way in removing funding restrictions — a move consistently seen as positive by local civil society. In 2023, for example, the government contributed $190 million in unearmarked funding to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ country-based pooled funds. These funds allow donors to pool contributions in single, unearmarked country-specific funds during a crisis, handed out to the “those best placed to respond” — local or international organizations. The policy changes have yielded practical results. In 2022, 36% of Dutch CBPF contributions went to national NGOs. Dutch aid organizations are also allocating an increasing amount of their funding to local partners. Members of the Dutch Relief Alliance — a coalition of 14 Dutch aid organizations, including large organizations such as Save the Children, Plan International, and Oxfam Novib — transferred 35% of their funding to local organizations in 2021, reaching the alliance’s promises under the Grand Bargain — the longstanding commitment from INGOs, donors, and multilaterals to deliver more humanitarian aid through local organizations. One result has been that several global south women's organizations are now leading Dutch aid programs. One example is the €122 million Leading from the South consortium, which supports activism and lobbying by women, girls, and trans-led organizations in the global south. It is managed by four non-Dutch entities: the African Women’s Development Fund, Fondo de Mujeres del Sur, International Indigenous Women’s Forum, and Women’s Fund Asia. But despite some successes, there are still prominent figures in the Dutch aid sector who feel their country has moved more slowly than it should. Localization faces resistance in the county’s aid sector, said Yannick Du Pont, founder of SPARK, a Dutch NGO. “In practice, it’s with great difficulty that we push it through,” said Du Pont, who says many fear that if they hand power to partners “their business revenue will shrink.” He said that there were still barriers for local organizations, which are not given enough help to understand funding opportunities in the Dutch system. Crucially, he said, too much of the process was still carried out in Dutch, not English, giving insiders a head start. “Last time I checked, not a lot of the development community spoke Dutch,” he said. According to Partos, Dutch policies still “trigger dynamics that undermine the development of balanced power relations'' that “contradict with the principles of local ownership, community led development and equality.” As a result, Dutch aid is “like a cascade of South-North oriented contractor-client-relationships in which the contractors must account for their performance to the clients.” The progressive Dutch focus on gender and sexual rights of marginalized groups may also be a pitfall when it comes to localization. Policies are formulated around Dutch priorities and not the priorities of aid recipients, writes Partos. “What you want to change is the deeper systems, the mentality, the attitude, and the value systems and that is ultimately about white supremacy, power structures, and how they have been perpetuated,” Medik said. “It is about how we in the Netherlands, a rich Western nation, have always been dominant in development cooperation with other countries in the global south. It is about anti-racism and about awareness about the colonial history of development aid.” Like du Pont he feels the localization process is “not progressing quick enough.” Practically, he advocates for changing structures at the headquarters level. “There are far too many white — often older — men and women on the boards of Dutch development organizations,” he said. “That has to change. We need to make supervisory boards more inclusive to ensure that the communities they work for are represented.” Increasing the percentage of funds managed by local entities does not mean that affected communities have any decision-making power in emergencies. Local organizations receiving funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development have expressed similar concerns with localization efforts. While the government says it wants to “promote local perspectives” and strengthen “local resilience,” this is not measured in any meaningful way. To date, for example, the Netherlands has not reported on the share of procurement contracts awarded to Dutch companies, writes the Center for Global Development. Moreover, CGD research shows that despite the rhetoric in 2021, the Netherlands ranked a poor 34th out of 48th donors on "local ownership,” with below-average scores on alignment with country objectives and the use of in-country financial systems. In its 2022 review of the Grand Bargain, the European think tank Overseas Development Institute said that: “in terms of increasing the actual influence that affected people have in the design, planning and delivery of aid at country level … there is as yet no evidence supporting a substantive shift in practice.” Only time will tell if the Dutch government and NGOs will put their money where their mouth is.
In 2013, the Dutch government in The Hague was challenged by one of the country's Members of Parliament over aid policy; organizations outside the Netherlands were barred from bidding for the country's foreign aid funding, he said, and it was time for a change.
It was an important challenge because the Netherlands is one of the world's most generous and influential funders. Although the country has only 18 million citizens, the Dutch aid budget is $6.5 billion a year, and the Netherlands is one of the very few nations to give almost 0.7% of its gross national income as overseas development assistance, or ODA, each year.
After months of fractious debate, that MP, Roelof van Laar, ultimately succeeded in getting approval for the bill, Secretarial Participation of Southern Organizations, to allow organizations from the global south to apply directly for Dutch development funds.
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Ingrid Gercama is a freelance journalist and anthropologist based in the Netherlands reporting on the environment, conflict, and humanitarian aid.