On April 18th, the General Committee on Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Dutch Parliament met with the directors of key Dutch CSOs working on HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. The discussion concerned the mid-term results of the SRHR partnerships funded by the Dutch government, which had been previously requested by Rutgers University.

In attendance were the following MPs and members: R. de Roon, K.A.E. van den Hul, W.R. van Haga, A. Luik, L.I. Dis and A. Bouali. 

News item - Dutch Parliament (in Dutch)

Sigrid Kraag, Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, attended the World Economic Forum in the Middle East and Nothern Africa on April 6-7, 2019 in Jordan.

While there, Ms. Kaag announced that the Netherlands will host a Mental Health Summit in Amsterdam on October 7-8, 2019.  She spoke about the fundamental importance of mental health and well-being for all, but especially for people in crisis situations. 

Twitter Account - Minister Sigrid Kaag

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC) has published preliminary data for 2018, showing that official development assistance (ODA) fell by 2.7% in 2018. The data release is the first to use the OECD's  new 'grant equivalent' methodology. Applied for the first time in 2018, the method aims to ‘provide a more realistic comparison of the effort involved in providing grants and loans and encourage the provision of grants and highly concessional loans, especially to low-income countries’.

Net ODA from DAC members reached US$153 billion in 2018. The largest donors in absolute amounts were 1) the US (US34.3 billion), Germany (US$25 billion), 3) the UK (US19.4 billion), 4) Japan (US$14.2 billion), and 5) France (US$12.2 billion). In relative terms, the largest donors were Sweden at 1.04% of its gross national income (GNI), Luxembourg (0.98%), Norway (0.94%), Denmark (0.72%) and the UK(0.7%).

For more detailed information on the performance of bilateral donors, see the OECD DAC's detailed summary here.

OECD DAC – Press release “Development aid drops in 2018, especially to neediest countries”

The Development Cooperation Commission of the Dutch Parliament will be in Colombia for a self-led visit focused primarily on trade from May 4 to 11. Participating MPs include R. de Roon, W.R. van Haga (VVD), A. Kuik (CDA), A. Bouali (D66), L.I. Diks (GroenLinks), M.Ö. Alkaya (SP), K.A.E. van den Hul (PvdA), C.G. van der Staaij (SPG), T. Kuzu (DENK).

The agenda for the field trip is not yet available.

Website - Dutch Parliament Website (in Dutch)

A delegation from the Dutch Foreign Ministry participated at the 52nd session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD52) that took place April 1-5, 2019 in New York. 

As part of the agenda, Reina Buijs, Director-General for International Cooperation at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met with met with Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina J. Mohammed to discuss the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), women's rights, UN reform, and the instrumental role of donors.

The Netherlands showed its support for the final CPD52 outcome document. 

Twitter account  - Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands

On April 1 key partners working on the issue of child marriage in the Netherlands came together in the Hague to discuss progress on the last three years of implementation of the main Dutch-funded programs. The event marked three years since the partnership 'Girls not Brides Netherlands' was formed and happened under the auspices of Princess Mabel van Oranje and Mette Gonggrijp, director general of the Development Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They both received midterm evaluations of the programs that were the result of consulting thousands of girls across 17 countries. 

Twitter account - NL Women's Right's (Official Twitter account of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Women's Rights & Gender Equality Taskforce)

Dutch Education Minister Ingrid van Engulshoven described in an article in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant the outcome of the meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, which concluded at the United Nations headquarters in New York on March 23. She said that the outcome document of the meeting was "Something better than we had initially hoped for" given opposition from a conservative coalition formed by the US, Russia, the Vatican, and Islamic countries.

Other views and relevant news for the Netherlands coming from CSW were also shared widely by other ministerial staff members on their Twitter accounts, including Mette Gonggrijp, director of social development, and Hinke Nauta, coordinator of the Taskforce for Women's Rights and Gender Equality.

News article - De Volkskrant (in Dutch)

Twitter Accounts - Mette Gonggrijp; Hinke Nauta

Dutch state-provincial elections on March 20, 2019 led to the current governing coalition in the Netherlands losing its majority in the Senate, the so-called 'Eerste Kamer'. While Mark Rutte’s VVD only lost one seat (13 to 12), coalition partners lost considerably more seats, including D66 (10 to 6) and CDA (12 to 9). Junior coalition party Christian Union (CU) won one seat (four to five). The major winner of the election is the nationalist-populist Forum voor Democratie (FvD), rising from 0 to 12 seats. The GroenLinks party (the greens) are another big winner, more than doubling their seats, from four to nine. 

These elections were for the provincial parliament and legislative assembly in each of the provinces of the Netherlands, held once every four years. It also determines how many seats each party will get in Senate elections in two months.  

 News article - DutchNews.nl 

Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag attended the third Syria Conference in Brussels. Co-charied by the European Union and the United Nations, the conference took place March 12-14, 2019. Through her twitter account, Kaag said, the "Kingdom of the Netherlands will continue to support all humanitarian effort through the UN and NGO partners. Also, we will work on ways for refugees and IDP’s to have access to mental health services, to cope with the immense trauma endured."

Tweet - Sigrid Kaag

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte met European Council President Donald Tusk at the Catshuis in the Hague on March 15, 2019. The consultation took place in preparation for the two-day European Council summit on March 21-22, 2019. Brexit was a central part of the conversation, given an impending deadline. Earlier, Foreign Minister Stef Blok said that the Netherlands was "supportive" of a delay to reaching a deal on the terms of the UK's exit. 

Press release - government of the Netherlands (in Dutch)