OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Norway 2019
The OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts periodic reviews of the individual development co-operation efforts of DAC members. The policies and programmes of each DAC member are critically examined approximately once every five years. DAC peer reviews assess the performance of a given member, not just that of its development co-operation agency, and examine both policy and implementation. They take an integrated, system-wide perspective on the development co-operation and humanitarian assistance activities of the member under review.
Norway’s commitment to spend 1% of gross national income on official development assistance is supported across the political spectrum. It increasingly uses multilateral channels to promote global public goods and address global challenges. This review looks at the changes to systems, structures and capabilities that would help Norway deliver on its shifting approach to development co-operation. These include strategic oversight to align programming with Norway's overall vision and policies for sustainable development; strengthened approaches to results, knowledge and risk management; and taking a bolder approach to cross-cutting issues such as human rights, gender, climate and environment, and anti-corruption.
Norway’s humanitarian assistance
This chapter looks at how Norway minimises the impact of shocks and crises, as well as how it works to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity in crisis and disaster settings. Humanitarian assistance is an important sector in Norway’s development co‑operation policy. Norway has successfully adapted its humanitarian response to the changing pattern of crisis and is striving to better articulate its instruments in crisis contexts. In making multi-annual agreements an increasing feature of its multilateral humanitarian partnerships, Norway is in line with its Grand Bargain commitments. Norway also experiments with ways to support local aid providers more directly. As Norway increases its focus on the most fragile contexts, it will need to systematise a whole-of-government approach and could also benefit from the development of a stronger monitoring mechanism.