Around 150 civil society partners and staff from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation came together for the third 'Linking and Learning' event, which takes place within the Dutch development framework of 'Dialogue and Dissent'. This framework provides funding to 25 strategic partnerships among Dutch and local NGOs, with a primary focus on advocacy. The event aimed at discussing and reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of the current framework. Outcomes will feed into the next policy framework that is currently being prepared in the Ministry.

Twitter account - TogetherWeSpeak 

On February 7, thousands of Dutch students took the streets in the Hague to put pressure on their government to do more on climate change.  The students were supported by a letter signed by 350 scientists. In response to the protest, Prime Minister Mark Rutte invited the representatives of Youth For The Climate, the organization behind the march, for a meeting in-person with his cabinet. However, he forewarned that they "cannot really ask for more".

The protest followed different debates in Parliament in January about the implementation of the climate measures in the Climate Agreement, which was signed in December in the Conference of Parties in Poland. It contains measures which are intended to help the Netherlands achieve its goal of halving its CO2 emissions in 2030 compared to 1990. However, the leader of the ruling People's Party, Klaas Dijkhoff, has said that he does not want "ordinary people" to carry the bill and that he is not "going to do it".

News article - NOS (in Dutch)

Dutch historian and author, Rutger Bregman, spoke critically of the failure of rich people to pay their fair share of taxes on a panel hosted by Time Magazine at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The video of his speech went viral, with more than 7 million views in Twitter alone. Bregman, author of the book 'Utopia for Realists', noted the failure of attendees to address the key issue in the battle for greater equality by not paying a proportional share of tax.

He remarked that 1,500 people had travelled to Davos by private jet to hear David Attenborough talk about climate change, and that no one was talking about raising taxes on the rich. He said that "this [taxation] is about saving capitalism".

News article - The Guardian

Public support for Dutch goals in the country's Climate Agreement is decreasing, according to a recent poll. In June 2018, 73% of people thought that emissions should be reduced by half in 2030, a share that has now  shrunk to 59%. Half of the poll participants are worried about the consequences of the Climate Agreement, which is currently being drafted, for them personally. A third think it is a good agreement, while slightly more than half (54%) feel negatively about it. The poll was conducted by EenVandaag, a current affairs programme, from 25,000 members of their opinion panel.

News article - Een Vandaag (in Dutch)

A trend analysis of European donor financing for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and family planning (FP) reports strengthened financial and political commitments in the past year. SRH/FP funding was largely protected, even where cuts to official development assistance (ODA) were made. 10 of 12 European countries either increased or maintained funding to SRH/FP. They also featured it strongly as a component of humanitarian and long-term development policies. Denmark showed the most significant increase in percentage growth in funding for SRH/FP, and together the 12 European donor countries in the analysis increased funding by 17% over 2016. The UK, Norway, the Netherlands, and Sweden remain the largest donors.

Report – Countdown 2030 Europe

Dutch NGO Oxfam Novib published a report highlighting the scale of global inequality, where the 26 richest people on earth have jointly more money than the poorest half of the world's population. Entitled "Public good or private wealth?", the report argues that the solution to inequality is 'simple': Governments must impose more taxes on assets, high incomes, and corporate profits, and revenue should be spent on health care and education. They note that only 4% of all taxes worldwide currently come from wealth.

The report highlights Thailand as an example of good practice. In 2002, Thailand introduced universal healthcare financed by an income tax. As a result,  infant mortality rates and school absenteeism went down.

News article - NOS (in Dutch)

Report - Oxfam Novib 

Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag announced last week that she will be appointing a special youth ambassador. The position will focus on representing the voices of many young people in key priority regions for her government such as the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and North Africa, by connecting with young people, policy makers, companies, knowledge institutions, and non-governmental organizations. The role strongly aligns with the development policy that Kaag outlined last year, aimed at tackling the root causes of poverty. 

The announcement of the new youth ambassador will take place during the conference of ambassadors this week. 

News article - Government of the Netherlands (in Dutch)

Wybren van Haga, Dutch Member of Parliament (MP) and chair of trade and development committee, has criticized Minisiter Sigrid Kaag's trade agenda as being "too soft". Van Haga has made a total of 18 proposals on behalf of his party, the People's Party for Democracy and Freedom (VVD), ranging from streamlining trade and export support activities to weakening the importance of  the Dutch Agreement on sustainable garment and textiles. 

The VVD memorandum comes at a time when the party is distancing itself from its own coalition government. The memorandum makes clear the party's position as being very supportive of trade and the private sector, and less so of development cooperation. 

Minister Kaag responded in a radio interview, and in an article by the Financial Dagblad, defending her policy and the cooperation between the two sides of her ministry. 

Parliamentary nota - Parliament of the Netherlands (in Dutch)

In the week of January 28, 2019, Dutch diplomats from around the world will be in the Netherlands for the Annual Ambassadors Conference at which they will discuss political and social developments at home and abroad. Plans for that week also include meetings with politicians, the business community, NGOs, and other government organizations such as municipalities, knowledge institutions, and social organizations in the Netherlands.

The diplomats will debate the ways that the Foreign Affairs Ministry can support social issues in the Netherlands, including migration, corporate social responsibility, counter-terrorism, religion, and corruption prevention. In the agenda there will be other issues including engagement with Russia, foreign policy with China, EU post-Brexit, and MH17, the passenger flight from Amsterdam that was shot down over Ukraine in 2014.

The Netherlands has 118 ambassadors, 25 consuls-generals, and 9 permanent representatives at international organizations such as the EU, the UN, and NATO.

News article - Government of the Netherlands

Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag responded on January 9, 2019 to a parliamentary question tabled by MPs Van Haga and Bosman (VVD) about the modernization of the OECD’s official development assistance (ODA) definition and the allocation of (ODA) to the Dutch overseas territories. 

The MPs asked whether development assistance to high-income countries in the wake of natural disasters should be classified as ODA, following the UK position. Kaag confirmed that the government:

• Does not support the UK position to classify assistance to high-income countries after natural disasters as ODA
• Considers the gross national income (GNI) per capita threshold maintained by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list of ODA recipients too high and supports lowering it
• Considers that ODA should primarily focus on low-income countries 
• Does not classify aid to the Dutch overseas territories as ODA
  • Saba and St. Eustatius are - as special municipalities - part of the Netherlands and therefore not on the DAC list
  • Saint Martin is an autonomous country within the Netherlands and is a high-income country

Letter to Parliament - government of the Netherlands (in Dutch)