Geographic focus

Focus countries

During the twentieth century traditional development cooperation was oriented to poverty reduction and rather broad in scope and geography. Pronk, Minister for Development Cooperation for more than fifteen years, was an important proponent of this approach.

His successor, Herfkens started a process of reorientation of the policy resulting in an approach that let bilateral cooperation serve as a stimulant for broader societal processes of change. This period showed a variation in thematic as well as geographic focus. In the last decade the thematic focus was more consistent, but the geographic focus continues to shift, reflecting political choices.

Development cooperation is seen as bilateral cooperation among stakeholders. From the Dutch side the national government works with societal partners such as NGO’s, knowledge institutions, and the private sector. Thematically it developed a focus on major global issues such as stability and security, knowledge development and migration policy.

In 2022 the government renewed its perspective on focus countries. Counties specifically of interest for trade where added to the list. In addition a group of countries was added for whom both trade and development cooperation was relevant. Among the countries on the list for whom the relation was development cooperation only, a distinction as made between those with generic interest and those with a specific thematic focus [1]. Over time the definitions of what a focus country has change.

Focus countries during the Rutte IV administration

2022–2023

Click on the legend to highlight one or multiple cateogries.
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Fig.1 Focus countries during the Rutte IV administration

Focus countries over time

Hover over a country to see in how many years it was considered to be a focus country for development.
Fig.2 Number of focus countries over time (countries more then 10 times: Bangladesh 15, Yemen and Kenya 12, Indonesia and Uganda 12, Mali, Egypte, Ethiopia and Tanzania 11.

Methodology

Only certain categories of focus countries are considered
Dutch development policies

Explain which policies are considered and why these are considered.

Inconcistencies in cateogries

Explain inconsistencies

Number of focus countries over time

1950195019601960197019701980198019901990200020002010201020202020;
Fig.3 Number of focus countries in the different administrations. Some numbers are missing because the cabinet periods were too short to develop policy or the data is unknown.

A geographic time series of focus countries during different administrations

De Jong1967–1971Den Uyl1973–1977Van Agt I1977–1981Lubbers I1982–1986Lubbers III1989–1994Kok I1994–1998Kok II1998–2002Balkenende I2002–2003Balkenende II2003–2006Balkenende III2006–2007Balkenende IV2007–2010Rutte I2010–2012Rutte II2012–2017Rutte III2017–2022Rutte IV2022–NaN
Fig.4 A geographic time series of the focus countries during the different administrations. Some are missing because the cabinet periods were to short to define policy or data were unknown (see also [page x; 1]).

Contradictions at the Ministry

Of the 22 counties with a focus on development cooperation 9 are to be avoided (situation May 2023) because of a negative travel advise of the same authorities.

Dutch government travel advices I
Fig.5 Travel advise Dutch government (situation at 01-05-2023).
Dutch government travel advices II
Fig.6 Tension between focus countries and travel advise.