8 Coherence between domestic and development policy
Most policy areas in Norway are, as in all other countries, designed to serve national interests and objectives. At the same time, these policy areas affect, to varying degrees, the situation in poor countries. Some policies support the development objectives we have committed ourselves to, others do not. The Government’s aim is to ensure that the overall effect of Norwegian policy in a range of areas promotes economic growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. This requires coherence in policy development.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), policy coherence for development means working to ensure that the objectives and results of a Government’s development policies are not undermined by other policies of that Government that impact on developing countries, and that these other policies support development objectives. The OECD is the organisation that has worked the longest with policy coherence for development. Responsibility for this field has been placed directly under the Secretary General, which reflects the fact that policy coherence spans all the areas dealt with by the organisation. In 2001, the OECD published the DAC Guidelines on Poverty Reduction, which included a checklist for policy coherence for use in developing new policy.
Policy coherence for development is not just the responsibility of rich countries. All countries’ policies have an effect on each other. The policies of major economies obviously have a greater effect than those of more minor ones. The emerging economies in Asia and Latin America should therefore be expected to exercise the same caution towards poor countries as the OECD countries.
Putting policy coherence for development into practice is difficult, particularly in areas such as trade and migration, but also in areas such as patent rights, climate change and investment. Conflicts can easily arise when national interests have to be weighed against the interests of developing countries.
In its annual Commitment to Development Index, the think tank Center for Global Development in Washington ranks 22 OECD countries according to how development-friendly their overall policies are. In the 2008 index, Norway shares second place with Sweden. The Netherlands is in first place. Japan and South Korea come last, mainly due to their weak contribution to development through their aid, migration and trade policies. Norway’s high score is due to our particularly development-friendly aid, climate and security policies. We are among the top 30 per cent in most areas, apart from trade, where we rank 20th due to our high tariffs on agricultural products.
Coherence and other countries
In several of its reviews of Norwegian development policy, the OECD has pointed out that Norway has good intentions, and has implemented measures to achieve broad policy coherence with its development objectives. However it also notes that Norway is not working systematically enough in this field. In this respect Norway differs from, for example, Sweden, which in 2003 was the first country in the world to enact legislation providing for an overall policy for global development with a common objective for all policy areas. Each ministry is responsible for this work within its own policy areas. The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs submits an annual report to the Riksdag on Sweden’s policy for global development. The OECD has proposed that Norway should introduce a similar system.
The UK has two statutes governing development issues. One sets out the principles for what aid funds can be used for, and how this spending is to be reported to Parliament. The other, the International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Act 2006, sets out that the Secretary of State for International Development is to report to Parliament on progress towards the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on aid, aid effectiveness and UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 (eradication of extreme poverty and hunger), MDG 7 (environmental sustainability), MDG 8 (global partnership for development), and policy coherence. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has an annual dialogue with other relevant ministries and departments. All this is reported on in a separate chapter of DFID’s Annual Report.
The Netherlands has established a unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that examines proposals from the European Commission to identify any negative effects for developing countries. In 2005, the EU adopted a communication on policy coherence in efforts to achieve the MDGs. Twelve policy areas have been identified as particularly important. These include aid, trade, migration, transfer of technology, investment, security and the environment. The European Commission produces an annual report on progress in this area on the basis of reports from individual countries.
Figure 8.1 Coherent for development? (NOU 2008:14) was submitted in September 2008.
Norway’s work in this area
The white paper Fighting Poverty Together (Report No. 35 (2003–2004) to the Storting), which was presented by the Bondevik II Government, discussed the importance of policy coherence for development. The present Government (Stoltenberg II) wanted to continue and concretise this work, and therefore appointed the broadly based Norwegian Policy Coherence Commission in 2006 to study this area further. The Commission’s report Coherent for development? (NOU 2008:14) was submitted in September 2008. It examines Norwegian policy on trade, investment, financing for development, climate change and energy, migration, transfer of knowledge and technology, and peace, security and defence. The report describes and analyses Norwegian policy in all these areas and recommends a considerable number of measures to increase policy coherence with Norway’s development goals.
In this white paper, the Government has presented a policy for following up many of the areas covered by the Coherent for development? report.
The broad approach of the report means that it is relevant not only for this white paper, but also for a number of other ongoing processes. The task of making Norway’s overall policy more development-friendly is a difficult and long-term process.
The Government intends to follow up the Policy Coherence Commission’s and the OECD’s recommendations and work more systematically on policy coherence for development. In this connection, the Storting is requested to consider establishing a system whereby the Government reports annually on what is being done to ensure that policies in various areas promote development in poor countries. These reports could, for example, describe both the actual or expected effects of Norwegian policy on developing countries and Norway’s actions in this area, for example with regard to legislation, strategies and the positions taken in international negotiations. These reports should also deal with the framework conditions for the Norwegian business sector.
The Government will:
seek to make all Norwegian policy more development friendly
request the Storting to consider establishing a system whereby the Government reports annually on the coherence of Norwegian policy in relevant areas with its development objectives.