Dilemmas

Is ‘poverty alleviation’ or is ‘sustainable development’ the primary goal of Dutch international cooperation? Poverty alleviation is not always the same as sustainable development, and vice versa. Choosing for poverty alleviation implies the risk of compartmentalisation and a lack of coherence, because development cooperation would be less related to other international policy domains. On the other hand, focussing on sustainable development implies the risk of too little attention being paid to poverty alleviation.
If investing in the economic growth of a partner country is considered a sustainable form of international cooperation, would it not be obvious to choose to invest in the middle classes rather than the very poorest?
Enlightened self-interest as a starting point for policy can benefit the quality of international cooperation. When Dutch international cooperation policy becomes more business-like, and primarily based on the Dutch ‘areas of expertise’, parameters such as turnover, profit and loss will become more important. Such a new collective approach means, however, that the Netherlands has to make more rigid choices concerning the areas of support. As a result, the Netherlands will be unable to help solve issues that fall outside of these focus areas.
Should demand-driven cooperation be the point of departure for Dutch policy, or should supply and demand jointly determine the agenda? Although each society has to take responsibility itself for development processes, international cooperation also means dialogue and debate.
There is a tension between the Dutch and international dimension of international cooperation. Will the Netherlands choose for support from the Dutch population or for a visible position in the international (political) architecture? While the former implies that policy is based on Dutch areas of expertise and predominant support of Dutch organisations, the latter implies that priority will be given to support of multilateral organisations, with which the Dutch public may have less affinity.