OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Netherlands 2023

The OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts peer reviews of individual members once every five to six years. Reviews seek to improve the quality and effectiveness of members' development co-operation, highlighting good practices and recommending improvements. The Netherlands continues to focus on its strengths and drives internal reforms to achieve sustainable impact. It stays engaged in fragile contexts, providing long-term and flexible financing. It is highly valued as a champion for gender equality, provides strong support to local civil society and takes action to tackle spillovers from its economic footprint. This peer review provides recommendations to enhance the Netherlands' engagement in partner countries by putting its ambition for locally led development into practice, ensuring its thematic approach is adapted to context, and clarifying its risk appetite. Reversing the trend of decreasing budgets was a significant achievement, but effects of in-donor refugee costs on the broader Dutch development programme need to be managed.