Principles / policy

The Norwegian Government considers partnerships with civil society in both the North and the South to be an important element of efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. In many developing countries, non-governmental organisations play an important role by providing basic educational and health services that are essential in the fight against poverty. These organisations are also important driving forces in political efforts to safeguard human rights in general, and to ensure that poor, marginalised groups in particular attain a better standard of living and are able to realise their rights. Civil society organisations contribute to the political dialogue and function as watchdogs of government policies.

There is no sharp demarcation between the provision of services on the one hand and the focus on strengthening partners’ capacity and efforts to give marginalised groups a voice in social debate on the other. The Norwegian authorities have made it clear that they expect NGOs to give priority to helping partners to improve their organisation and capacity, also in their role as service providers. Rather than implementing development projects themselves, Norwegian NGOs are now to a far greater extent partners of the organisations in the South that are in charge of implementing projects.

It has been a long-standing policy to encourage broad-based North-South co-operation between similar types of stakeholders within the wide range of actors in a pluralistic civil society. This applies to religious communities and trade unions, organisations for the functionally disabled and co-operative organisations.

NGOs are urged to clearly highlight their distinctive character, their basic values, and the way they define their role and the added value they bring to development co-operation. They are expected to show equally clear respect partner organisations’ integrity and choices. When Norwegian development assistance actors are involved in several fields in developing countries, such as the missionary organisations, the organisations are required to differentiate clearly between government-subsidised development co-operation on the one hand, and other aspects of the organisations’ work on the other. Naturally, every form of co-operation focuses on a limited target group. Nevertheless, the principle that the results and long-term effects of co-operation must benefit the local population regardless of social background, gender, life philosophy, political opinions and ethnic or cultural affiliation must always be followed.

Peace and security are fundamental to development and to the achievement of the MDGs, and peace building is an important aspect of development policy. Thus it is sound development policy to contribute to preventing war and conflict, to promote peaceful solutions, and to help ensure that peace is lasting. Norway is actively assisting a number of post-conflict countries and has a separate budget chapter for transitional aid that is earmarked for bridging the gap between humanitarian aid and long-term development co-operation. NGOs have become important partners in this area as well.

Volume

Norway is the OECD country that channels the largest percentage of development assistance to NGOs, and works in co-operation with the largest number of organisations. In 2003, Norway provided a total of NOK 3.022 billion (approximately USD 470 million) in development assistance funding through NGOs, almost one-third of the total bilateral co-operation budget. Approximately one quarter of this is provided for purely humanitarian purposes, while the remainder is channelled to Norwegian and international organisations that work with partners in developing countries to provide services and strengthen civil society and democracy. A growing share of the funding through NGOs (49 per cent in 2003) is being channelled to projects and programmes in the least developed countries (LDCs). Thirty-five per cent of the NGO support was channelled to countries in Africa.

Support through Norwegian faith-based NGOs

In 2003, support through faith-based organisations accounted for approximately 21 per cent of the total NGO support.

Approximately one third of the funds made available by the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation, Norad, are channelled through nine faith-based organisations of this nature.

The organisations that receive most funding are Norwegian Church Aid, Norwegian Missions in Development (an umbrella organisation representing 16 faith-based NGOs) and the Stromme Foundation, all of which focus mainly on Africa.

Although faith-based organisations have many shared values, their approaches may differ. Of the three mentioned above, the Strømme Foundation focuses mainly on education and microfinance, while the two others spread their resources across a wider range of thematic areas: HIV/AIDS, emergency preparedness, gender-based violence, peace building, democracy, water development, food security, organisational development (among partners), education, health and gender.

None of these three organisations includes the environment as one of their main priorities, but both Norwegian Church Aid and Norwegian Missions in Development also support activities in this field.

These two organisations find their partners in the South primarily among church organisations. On the other hand, the Strømme Foundation’s partners are generally not faith-based organisations. They include both NGOs and trusts or companies with responsibility limited by guarantee – generally known as microfinance institutions.

In 2004, the Strømme Foundation’s activities in Africa are concentrated on six countries, while Norwegian Church Aid is engaged in 17 countries and Norwegian Missions in Development in 15 countries.

Support through embassies

Local and regional NGOs may receive support for their work through our embassies. The greater part of this support goes to faith-based organisations working with health care services and in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Through the regional Project Support Group in Southern Africa, Norway finances HIV prevention and home-based care of terminally ill patients (mainly AIDS patients). Most carers are organised through church organisations. The Project Support Group has received 15 million NOK in 2004 for this work.

Transitional and humanitarian assistance

Norwegian faith-based organisations and their local counterparts have also proved to be an effective channel for transitional and humanitarian assistance. Faith-based organisations very often have a advantage in their outreach potential, and also in their value-based approach and their genuine belief in and respect for human dignity.

The Norwegian NGO Christian Relief Network has been active in DR Congo for a decade, and has experienced that even small resources may make a big difference.

The organisation has high ambitions and runs a variety of projects. It is encouraging to see that in most cases, it achieves its ambitions despite the problems involved in operating in DRC. Indeed, in some cases its expectations are exceeded. For example, the goal of the project Give Me a Chance was to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the children who were reunited with their families were still with them one year later. The actual figure was more than 80 per cent.

One factor in such success stories has been the organisation’s reliance on local church networks, which often gives it access to remote areas. One such network is Christian Relief Network’s local partner, Communauté des Églises de Pentecôte en Afrique Centrale, through which it has rebuilt 68 health centres serving 650 000 people.