Policy Updates

On May 14, 2024, Norwegian government announced that it will increase support for Ukraine and Palestine in the proposed revised state budget for 2024 by NOK1 billion (US$92 million) each.

In addition, the budget will receive a further NOK100 million (US$9.2 million), making 2024 development assistance budget Norway's second-largest ever, corresponding to 0.98% ODA/GNI. The additional support to Ukraine and Palestine will be channeled through the UN, the Red Cross, and Norwegian humanitarian organizations.

In order to increase the funding to Ukraine and Palestine and to cover increased refugee expenses in Norway, the government is reallocating NOK1.6 billion (US$148 million) from other parts of the development assistance budget. The government proposed a reallocation from the health (NOK125 million; US$11.6 million), climate (NOK171.6 million; US$16 million), and civil society (NOK185 million; US$17 million) sectors.

The state guarantee scheme for renewable energy in LICs will also be postponed until 2025. The government underlines that the proposed reprioritization will not entail a breach of existing agreements.

On May 14, 2024, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president of the ADB Group, and the executive director of the International Energy Agency co-hosted the Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa.

The aim of the summit was to emphasize 2024 as a turning point for progress on ensuring clean cooking access for all.

Støre noted that nearly four in five Africans cook their meals over open fires and traditional stoves, using wood, charcoal, animal dung, and other polluting fuels that have severe impacts on health, gender equality, and the environment. Women and children are especially affected. Støre announced that Norway will support the financing of clean cooking with more than NOK500 million (US$46 million).

On May 8, 2024, during the African Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, Norway announced a NOK33 million (US$3 million) commitment to support the implementation of a ten-year action plan for improving soil fertility in African countries.

Norwegian Minister of International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim noted that the state of the African soil is at its poorest after decades of overexploitation, causing of micronutrients that are crucial for crops to thrive. Harvests grown in the poor soils have been negatively affected, contributing to the hunger crisis across the continent. Tvennereim noted that collecting detailed information about the current situation is a key delivery of Norwegian support.

The African Union Development Agency is planned to play a leading role in supporting the implementation of the African action plan at country level. The Norwegian support will be used on capacity building for policymakers and farmers, as well as facilitating regional knowledge exchanges. Part of Norway’s support will be a financial contribution to the creation of an open digital platform on soil health established by CGIAR and Varda. The platform aims to collect soil health data and make it available for policymakers, private sector, fertilizer producers, researchers, and farmers.

On May 7, 2024, Norad presented the statistics on Norwegian development assistance in 2023, showing that Norwegian ODA reached a record high of NOK58.6 billion (US$5.4 billion), an increase of 18% or NOK9 billion (US$832 million) compared to 2022.

ODA increased in all regions, significantly affected by the one-time additional allocation of NOK5 billion (US$462 million) to LICs particularly affected by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

By region, the largest increase in ODA was to Europe. In total, European countries received NOK9.1 billion (US$842 million) in funding. Of the total European allocation, the largest share of funding went to Ukraine and Moldova. The funding to Ukraine in 2023 stood at NOK7.9 billion (US$730 million).

Development assistance to the African continent increased by NOK2.5 billion (US$321 million), reaching a total of NOK10.2 billion (US$943 million). Africa remains the region receiving the most development assistance from Norway. The increase in funding to Africa is explained by long-term assistance to agriculture, fisheries, food security and emergency relief.

Development assistance to the Middle East increased by over NOK1 billion (US$92 million), reaching NOK3.8 billion (US$351 million) in 2023. The increase was almost exclusively in emergency assistance. Palestine was the second-largest recipient of Norwegian development assistance in 2023, receiving NOK1.2 billion (US$111 million). The majority of the funding was given as humanitarian assistance and emergency relief.

By partner, multilateral organizations were the largest partner group for Norwegian ODA, followed by CSOs and the public sector. Multilaterals received NOK31.7 billion (US$2.9 billion) in 2023, an increase of NOK6.3 billion (US$582 billion) from 2022. CSOs received NOK13.2 billion (US$1.2 billion) in 2023, compared to NOK10.3 billion (US$952 million) in 2022.

The World Bank Group was the largest partner with NOK7.4 billion (US$684 million) in 2023, of which slightly over one-fifth was core support. The WFP was the second-largest recipient with NOK2.4 billion (US$222 million), approximately half of which was earmarked for emergency relief. Overall, multilateral organizations were the dominant partner group for Norwegian health assistance, with over 80% being channeled through multilateral partners in 2023.

By sector, emergency relief and multisectoral support saw the largest growth from 2022 to 2023, while there was a decrease in refugee expenses and earmarked assistance for education.

ODA to agriculture, fisheries, and food security significantly increased from NOK3.9 billion (US$360 million) in 2022 to NOK6.4 billion (US$592 million) in 2023. Most of the increase of NOK2.5 billion (US$231 million) was funded by the one-time funding package for LICs particularly affected by Russia's war against Ukraine.

Total Norwegian ODA to health stood at NOK6.5 billion (US$601 million) in 2023, up from NOK6.3 billion (US$582 million) in 2022. This is significantly lower than in 2020 and 2021, when development assistance globally was influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Between 2014 and 2023, health assistance slightly increased when measured in 2024 prices, from NOK4.7 billion (US$434 million) in 2014. The largest partners in health assistance in 2023 were Gavi at NOK1.5 billion (US$138 million), UNFPA at NOK1.1 billion (US$101 million) and the WHO at NOK687 million (US$63.5 million). Of the earmarked health ODA, totaling NOK3.5 billion (US$323 million) in 2023, 58% went to programs targeting LICs not geographically earmarked. Africa received the most of the geographically earmarked health support, with around NOK600 million (US$55.5 million).

In 2023, NOK1.7 billion (US$157 million) went to SRHR, down from NOK1.8 billion (US$166 million) in 2022. Multilateral organizations, an important partner group in Norwegian SRHR efforts, received 51% of the earmarked support in addition to the calculated core support, totaling 81% of SRHR support. UNFPA was the largest individual partner and received nearly half of total SRHR support.

On April 29, 2024, Norway was granted a board seat on the board of the Loss and Damage Fund.

The agreement to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund, which will assist LICs particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, was passed during COP28 in 2023.

The board of the fund has now been decided and consists of 26 members. HICs countries have 12 members on the board, while LICs have 14. Apart from Norway, EU countries, the US, Japan, and the UK each have a full seat on the board.

The first board meeting is slated to take place between April 30 - May 2, 2024, in Abu Dhabi. In total, nearly US$700 million was pledged to start the fund during COP28. Norway has since pledged NOK270 million (US$25 million) to the fund.

Norwegian Minister of International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim noted that climate disasters are expected to increase in the years to come and will continue to affect vulnerable LICs. She noted that Norway welcomes a financing solution, like the Loss and Damage Fund, in which can ensure the needed support for these countries. Tvinnereim underlined that Norway will do its best to make sure the fund is as targeted and efficient as possible.

On April 24, 2024, the Norwegian government announced a new pledge of NOK430 million (US$39 million) in core funding to the WFP.

The Norwegian government noted that the WFP will be able to use the Norwegian support where it is needed the most.

According to Norwegian Minister of International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, the WFP is one of the most important tools in the fight against hunger. By funding the WFP, Norway will be able to help reduce acute hunger and contribute to increased local food production.

On April 11, 2024, preliminary data from the OECD showed that Norway provided NOK58.6 billion (US$5.4 billion) to development assistance in 2023, or 1.09% ODA/GNI, the only OECD DAC country with more than 1% ODA/GNI.

Norwegian Minister of International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim noted that it is important that Norway continues to be a reliable partner with significant contributions to meet increasing needs for humanitarian assistance, development assistance, and climate financing. Tvinnereim also underlined the concern that more countries are failing to meet the UN target of 0.7% ODA/GNI.

According to the OECD's preliminary calculations, Norway's assistance to Ukraine accounted for 14.1% of Norway's development funding, up from 11.3 % of Norwegian development assistance in 2022.

On April 11, 2024, during the 8^th IPCI, Norway announced NOK589 million (US$54.3 million) in core funding to UNFPA in 2024.

Norwegian Minister of International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim noted that UNFPA is one of Norway’s key partners to promote the health, dignity, and rights of women and adolescents. Access to safe abortion, LGBTQI+ rights, sexual education and violence against women, indigenous rights were among the topics discussed during the conference.

The funding will enable UNFPA to respond to the many crises affecting women and adolescents, including the conflicts in Gaza and Sudan. The funding will also support work to uphold and advocate for women's rights.

On March 28, 2024, the IPCI/IPCD announced that IPCI 2024 would be held on April 10-12, 2024, in Oslo, Norway.

The event marks the 30^th anniversary of the Cairo Conference, where both women and sexual rights became part of the parliamentarians’ agenda. The ICPD or Cairo Conference was a ten-day conference held in November 1994, where representatives of the nations of the world discussed the future of the world’s population.

The 8^th IPCI will gather around 200 parliamentarians, ministers, UN experts, civil society leaders and other stakeholders.

The conference agenda includes on the following topics:

• How global trends such as demographic diversity and the climate crisis impacts the ability to achieve universal access to SRHR;
• The impact of the growing threat of digital violence on women leaders; and
• The challenges facing the funding landscape for SRHR as governments’ priorities come under threat from security concerns.

During the conference, Norway is also expected to announce its core contribution to UNFPA, one of Norway’s key partners in the fight for women’s and young people’s health and rights.

On March 11, 2024, a new Norwegian initiative launched to offer free development assistance design support to CSOs.

The initiative was developed by DLL, a research and learning center established in 2021 through a collaboration between the University of Bergen, the Chr Michelsen Institute and the Norwegian School of Economics. The initiative aims to increase CSOs' access to research-based knowledge to strengthen the effectiveness of their development assistance programs.

DLL described the new initiative as a helpdesk service offered to CSOs working to renew their agreements with Norad, Norway's main funder of CSOs. Recently, Norad increased its expectations for these organizations to document the actions and plans proposed with research-based knowledge.

Ottar Mæstad, the director of DLL, stated that the service could provide valuable input to organizations preparing applications to Norad. The helpdesk service is free of use, but was initially only offered to organizations with more than NOK100 million (US$10 million) in revenue.

Håvard Mokleiv Nygård, director of Norad's department for knowledge, welcomed the initiative, stating that Norwegian development cooperation should be knowledge-based and effective.