The relevance of foreign aid — Bård Vegar Solhjell

For decades, the mantra of globalization supported increased foreign aid to, and trade with, low-income countries. The proclaimed goal was to reduce poverty and promote economic growth and development. But aid policies have increasingly become both complex and fragmented. Some argue that there is an unprecedented international policy overload when it comes to aid and development. Indeed, some even claim that we are witnessing aid fatigue. Many traditional donors are also revisiting the role and impact of aid. 

In a world which was already struggling to cope with numerous crises even before the Covid pandemic struck – inadequate finance, food insecurity, climate change – the pattern and flow of aid to low-income countries in the near future is potentially going to change in fundamental ways. 

Bård Vegar Solhjell is Director General of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). He has substantial political experience having served as a member of Parliament and Party Secretary for the Socialist left Party in Norway and subsequently also as Norway’s Minister of Education and Minister of Environment. He was also CEO of WWF Norway.

Resources

• This is how Norwegian development aid funds were spent in 2019 (Norad)
• Norwegian Aid Statistics (Norad)
• From Knowledge to Implementation, Norad's Evaluation Department, Annual Report 2019/2020
• Follow Bård Vegar Solhjell on Twitter
• Follow Dan Banik on Twitter
• Follow In Pursuit of Development on Twitter

Host:

Professor Dan Banik, 

Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo

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