BHOS-beleidsnota
Reactie
| Naam | Impunity Watch (Sanne Weber) |
|---|---|
| Plaats | Den Haag |
| Datum | 15 april 2022 |
Vraag3
Nederland heeft sinds 2016 een actieplan beleidscoherentie voor ontwikkeling. Beleidscoherentie voor ontwikkeling heeft als doel om in niet-hulp (OS) beleid schade voor ontwikkelingslanden te verminderen en synergiën en samenwerking te versterken. Het Nederlandse actieplan is in 2018 herzien en geeft een overzicht van vijf Nederlandse beleidsthema’s die een invloed hebben op de ontwikkelingskansen in ontwikkelingslanden. Deze thema’s zijn: (1) het tegengaan van belastingontwijking/ontduiking, (2) ontwikkelingsvriendelijke handelsakkoorden, (3) een ontwikkelingsvriendelijk investeringsregime, (4) verduurzaming van productie en handel en (5) het tegengaan van klimaatverandering.3. Hoe kan de bovengenoemde Nederlandse inzet op beleidscoherentie voor ontwikkeling verder versterkt of verbeterd worden?
(EN)
The Netherlands has had an action plan on policy coherence for development since 2016. The aim of policy coherence is to reduce the negative effects on developing countries caused by policies in areas other than development, and to strengthen synergies and cooperation. The action plan, which was revised in 2018, identifies five Dutch policy themes that can enhance developing countries’ opportunities for development: (1) combating tax avoidance/evasion, (2) development-friendly trade agreements, (3) a development-friendly investment regime, (4) more sustainable production and trade, and (5) combating climate change.
3. How can the Netherlands’ efforts to achieve policy coherence for development be further strengthened or enhanced?
Trade and investment requiring an enabling environment, which means that trade, aid and development cannot be seen as separate issues. Therefore we recommend that the new policy include a strong coherence between trade and human rights, which considers the analysis of structural causes of inequality and impunity also as a basis for trade agreements. In some cases, we see that the Dutch people-centred approach gives way to other interests, such as trade and investment. For instance, we applaud the Dutch support for sanctions and public condemnation in the conflict in Ukraine. We however hope that the Netherlands could be bolder and more consistent in speaking out against corruption, impunity and human rights violations also in countries that are not priority areas for the Ministry, or where there are strong trade relations, such as Central America. We see similar patterns where the Netherlands has development relationships with a country, while at the same time maintaining arms deals. We also encourage the Ministry to be consistent in its people-centred approach throughout its policy, as there are risks of tensions between the Dutch trade policy and the people-centred approach, as trade interests most often prevail over human rights considerations, while trade can reinforce structural inequalities which can damage grassroots communities. We encourage the Ministry to make sure its policy is coherent, and that it reconciles the people-centred and trade perspectives, giving precedence at all times to human rights and equality principles. More coherence in the policy will ultimately lead to more credibility and counter claims of double-standards and selectivity.
Vraag7
OntwikkelingssamenwerkingDevelopment cooperation
Nederlandse inzet op Ontwikkelingssamenwerking
Nederland is op verschillende thema’s actief op gebied van ontwikkelingssamenwerking. Zo investeren we in het realiseren van de Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) en zetten we extra in op opvang in de regio, toegang tot vaccins, klimaatadaptatie en -mitigatie. Nederland gaat door met wat goed gaat en focust op waar Nederland goed in is, zoals verbinding tussen diplomatie en ontwikkelingssamenwerking. Meer informatie over het ontwikkelingssamenwerkingsbeleid van Nederland is te vinden op www.nlontwikkelingssamenwerking.nl.
7. Waar is Nederland op het gebied van ontwikkelingssamenwerking volgens u goed in? Op welke thema’s zou Nederland een aanjagende rol kunnen vervullen?
(EN)
Dutch development cooperation activities
The Netherlands is actively pursuing a number of policy themes in the area of development cooperation. For example, we're investing in efforts to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reception in the region, access to vaccines, and climate adaptation and mitigation. The Netherlands will continue its efforts in areas where progress is being made and will focus on its strengths, such as linking diplomacy and development. For more information about Dutch development policy, go to www.nlontwikkelingssamenwerking.nl.
7. In your opinion, what are the Netherlands’ strengths when it comes to development cooperation? In which policy themes could the Netherlands play a leading role?
We highly value the themes of rule of law, people-centred access to justice and victim-centred transitional justice. Especially the Ministry’s people-led and people-centred approach is crucial for the commitment to advance the SDG’s, especially SDG16. This is a real added value of the Dutch policy, and essential to understand people’s justice experiences and needs. In our opinion this also means analysing and calling attention to the root causes of impunity and deep structures of inequality that constitute obstacles to justice. The new policy should include a holistic approach, based such a deep understanding.
We strongly agree with the focus on mental health and psychosocial support. Overcoming individual and collective trauma is a precondition for people to become active agents in their lives and struggles for justice and development. Promoting agency and empowerment allows for building on communities’ strength and resilience. MHPSS is also essential to establish trust within and between communities and society, and to disrupt cycles of violence by preventing that victims become perpetrators in protracted conflicts with intergenerational trauma transmission. But MHPSS should correspond to culturally appropriate understandings of trauma and emotional well-being. The Western, individualistic trauma approach is not appropriate in all non-Western contexts. Enforcing such an approach can be counterproductive. A responsible way of providing MHPSS should consider locally and culturally specific approaches.
We value the connection between diplomacy and development that the Ministry promotes, but the Ministry could be even more pro-active, for instance within the European Union, where it could take a more leading and ambitious role, especially in relation to themes of justice and inclusion. We also see space for this with UN agencies, where the Netherlands could facilitate the participation of grassroots communities, to capitalise on its people-centred approach.
Finally, we encourage the Ministry to continue to protect civic space around the world. Participation and representation is essential for access to justice and creating more inclusive and democratic societies. We recommend that the Ministry avoids relying on market-based approaches to supporting CSO partners, such as tendering mechanisms or forced coalitions among CSO partners. We encourage the Ministry to allow CSOs sufficient freedom to design their own approaches, methodologies and partnerships.
Vraag8
Innoveren op OSNederlandse internationale samenwerking is flexibel en kennisintensief, we zijn vernieuwend. Zo ontwikkelt Nederland nieuwe manieren van werken en partnerschappen die daarna door bijv. de Europese Commissie en Wereldbank worden opgepakt of opgeschaald. De Nederlandse internationale samenwerking fungeert dus veelal als een creatieve en kennisintensieve incubator (een broedplaats voor nieuwe ideeën. Nederland is een relatief kleine donor, maar als lidstaat van de EU en via bilaterale hulp kan Nederland de zichtbaarheid van EU-hulp vergroten en additionele relevante kapitaalstromen generen.
8. Op welke manier en op welk vlak kan de Nederlandse ontwikkelingssamenwerking nog meer innoveren?
(EN)
Innovative development cooperation
Dutch international cooperation is flexible and knowledge-intensive. We are also innovative, developing new ways of working and new types of partnership that are subsequently adopted or scaled up by others, like the European Commission and the World Bank. In this respect, Dutch international cooperation is like a creative and knowledge-intensive incubator. We are a relatively small donor, but as an EU member state and through bilateral aid we can make EU aid more visible and generate additional, relevant capital flows.
8. In what other ways and areas could Dutch development cooperation innovate more?
In the current global context with increasing societal calls for decolonisation, we believe that Dutch development cooperation could be really innovative and an important contribution to global development if it would promote the further decolonisation of development aid. We believe that the adoption of a truly people-centred and even people-led approach is essential for this. This could consist of understanding even better what decolonisation of aid means for those most directly affected by it, and by working together even more closely with people at the grassroots level.
Furthermore, development cooperation could be even more innovative if it would allow for greater risk in its funding, and build in space for contingencies. Development and (post)conflict contexts are volatile, and beneficiaries need sufficient space to adapt funding and partners as needed. Finally, instead of focusing on very static success stories and best practices, it could be useful to also increase processes of learning of mistakes and looking at change at the grassroots level from a long-term perspective.
We applaud the Ministry’s important track record on gender. We would however like to recommend that the focus on gender moves beyond sexual and reproductive rights only. Even though these are important rights, we believe that to effectively tackle gender inequalities, a more comprehensive approach is needed which deals with gender inequalities in a deeper and more holistic way. Such an approach should address the deep structures of inequality that lead to oppression and violence, mostly but not only against women, and including but not limited to sexual and reproductive rights violations. To address such violations, a focus on men’s role and masculinities is also needed, especially in the current global context where many countries experience increasing militarisation. Militarised masculinities, which cannot be seen separate from the dynamics of the global arms trade in which the Netherlands also participates, have damaging effects not only on women, but also on men themselves. We believe this is an important theme to be integrated in the Ministry’s policy, especially given the current war in Ukraine and the effects this might have for Europe in the coming years. Likewise, we hope that the Ministry continues to promote women’s leadership, adopting a diverse and intersectional perspective, as an important step towards achieving SDG 16 and promoting more inclusive societies.
Vraag9
Een donor met durfDe Nederlandse internationale inzet is gedurfd, omdat we financiële investeringen koppelen aan onze diplomatieke inzet en expertise. We continueren thema’s waar we traditionele meerwaarde hebben: seksuele en reproductieve rechten en gezondheid (SRGR), water, voedselzekerheid en veiligheid & rechtsorde. Daarbij kunnen we nog meer gebruik maken van het diplomatieke gewicht van o.a. de EU. We investeren in systeemverandering om te zorgen dat we de SDG’s in 2030 realiseren. Met systeemverandering bedoelen we dat we de systemen die armoede en ongelijkheid in stand houden aanpakken.
9. Op welke manier/welk vlak kan Nederland als donor nog meer durf te tonen?
(EN)
A bold donor
Dutch international efforts can be characterised as bold, because we link financial investment to diplomatic efforts and expertise. We will continue our work on themes where we have always added value: sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), water, food security, and security and the rule of law. We will also make better use of the diplomatic weight of the EU. To ensure we achieve the SDGs by 2030, we will invest in systemic change, i.e. tackling the structures that maintain poverty and inequality.
9. In what ways or areas could the Netherlands, as a donor, be even bolder?
We believe that the Netherlands could make an even stronger connection between its focus on promoting systemic change of structures of inequality and its approach of connecting diplomacy and development. The Netherlands used to have a strong track record of combating root causes of inequality and impunity. We believe that a deep understanding of the root causes of impunity and inequality is essential to make aid effective. We recommend that the Ministry institutionalises such an approach to understanding the root causes and the pathways for systemic change, as a basis for all its development and aid strategies. This requires strong interaction with grassroots actors, rather than relying on the views of international experts. In this way too, the Ministry could put its people-centred approach into practice. This requires an investment in time and resources.
Another area in which the Netherlands used to be very successful was its two-track approach, investing both in governments and civil society, and connecting those two actors. We believe the Netherlands could be a bold donor by strengthening this role as a broker between partners at different levels, allowing for effectively transmitting grassroots level needs to policymakers at the national and international level. The IIIM is a good example of this, and we hope the Netherlands continue to take a leading role in facilitating such processes of dialogue, thereby placing the root causes of injustice and inequality on the agenda.
In addition, we hope that the Netherlands can be bolder in speaking out about the obstacles that prevent systemic change and the transformation of structural inequalities, including impunity and corruption, and the shrinking civic space in many countries. In addition to speaking out, we would like to see even bolder steps, including supporting individual sanctions in cases that are currently not high up on the Dutch political agenda. In this regard, we recommend that the Netherlands better aligns its approach with other international actors. In Central America, for example, the United States has repeatedly condemned the crumbling rule of law, and has imposed sanctions against individuals involved in promoting impunity and corruption. The Netherlands could coordinate with the United States in such cases, and boldly speak out about the root causes of impunity.
Vraag10
Afrondende algemene vraag10. Heeft u nog andere punten van aandacht die u vindt dat meegenomen dienen te worden in de nieuwe beleidsnota?
(EN)
General closing question
10. Are there any other points that you believe should be included in the new policy document?
Achieving systemic change is a long-term process. We therefore recommend that the Ministry adopts a long-term approach to its development strategy. When successes are achieved, these need longer-term support, especially because successes in tackling structural injustices are often vulnerable to attacks to undo such progress. Unfortunately, in the past we have seen that success cases have been abandoned too soon. Examples include of course the case of Afghanistan, but also the successful anti-corruption policy in Guatemala, which led to the internationally acclaimed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). This policy was abandoned too quickly, resulting in the systematic dismantling of the rule of law that we currently see in the country and region. This means that the Dutch investment in the country was lost, while a crumbling rule of law also provides an adverse context for Dutch business interests, and paves the way for organised crime, especially in relation to the drug trade, which ultimately negatively affects the Netherlands and Europe. We believe it is important that the Ministry learns from such reflections and evaluations, and designs development strategies that have a built-in sustainability approach and a responsible exit strategy which ensures that gains are not easily undermined. Sustaining support does not necessarily require strong investment, as ongoing support can also consist in political support and monitoring, while closer coordination with other international donors can help to maintain support. Finally, we recommend that the Dutch policy also adopts a more long-term approach in selecting its priority countries. The selection of priority countries should be more predictable and transparent than it might have been in the past, in order to have a positive impact upon partnerships, which require time to build and maintain. This will improve the credibility and impact of Dutch development work.