Opinion: Prioritize evidence in aid spending — time for ‘Fakta har makta’
The world is facing escalating global warming, increasingly deadly conflicts, and a significant shortfall in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The most obvious solution is to optimize the impact of development spending. This can be done by prioritizing effective, scalable, and transformative programs. In essence, we need to base our decisions on evidence.
The Norwegian saying, “Fakta har makta,” meaning “Facts have the power,” encapsulates this crucial need in international development today.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, which put results, alongside the other criteria, front and center, making it a timely moment for reflection. Evidence on what works must guide spending and implementation. Yet we believe that despite calls for more evidence-based policymaking, there has been no fundamental shift in how development agencies operate and prioritize. The focus remains on spending rather than on achieving results.
About the authors
Bård Vegar Solhjellbardvegar
Bård Vegar Solhjell is director general of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, or Norad. He is deputy chair of the Fritt Ord (Free Word) Foundation, and a board member of Norway’s second-biggest renewable energy company, Hafslund. He was a member of the Norwegian Parliament from 2009 to 2017, minister of education from 2007 to 2009, minister of the environment from 2012 to 2013 and a state secretary for prime minister Jens Stoltenberg from 2005 to 2007.
Håvard Mokleiv Nygård
Håvard Mokleiv Nygård is director of the department of knowledge and innovation at the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, or Norad. Before coming to Norad, Nygård was research director and research professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, or PRIO.
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