Development cooperation
Flemish Official Development Assistance and budget for development co-operation
The realisation of the Millennium Development Goals serves as a guiding principle throughout the Flemish co-operation policy. The Flemish contribution or ODA (Official Development Assistance) concentrates on extreme poverty and hunger (MDG 1), health care (MDGs 4-6), ecological sustainability (MDG 7) and the partnership for development (MDG 8).
In the Paris Declaration (2005) and the Accra Agenda for Action (2008) donors commit themselves to better adapting aid to development plans and administrative procedures of receiving countries A division of labour between donors should reduce transaction costs and should lead to a balanced spread and a better co-ordination of aid efforts. Flanders commits itself to respecting these international agreements on aid effectiveness.
Breakdown of Flemish development co-operation 2009 by MDGs
In order to counteract fragmentation and to pursue an optimal effectiveness, a careful concentration of efforts is necessary. Over the past years, this concentration has taken shape by abandoning small-scale project financing, by being present in a limited number of countries and by co-operating within a limited number of sectors.
Geographically, emphasis is on southern Africa, with Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa as bilateral partners. Furthermore, Flemish development co-operation is collaborating with a number of multilateral partners (among others things Unicef, UNAIDS, WHO). On sectoral level, Flanders focuses on Agriculture, Food Safety, Health Care, Entrepreneurship & Labour and Trade & Development. Moreover, Flemish development co-operation commits itself to focusing on five transversal themes: children’s rights, good governance, sustainable development, gender and hiv/aids.
The "Vlaams Agentschap voor Internationale Samenwerking" (Flanders international cooperation agency) is in charge of the implementation of development cooperation policy, both in the South and in Flanders.