The influential Dutch think tank WRR published a critical report on Dutch development aid.

‘Very promising alliances are initiatives partnering with insurance companies, like the Health Insurance Fund,’ writes the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) in the report Less Pretentious, More Ambitious.  The WRR is an influential advisory committee for the Dutch Government. It published a report last Monday on the future of Dutch development aid. One of the recommendations cited in the WRR document is to promote smart public-private alliances to make better of use the knowledge and competences of private companies, for example alliances with insurance companies.

The report of this prominent think tank provoked a discussion in the Netherlands. The WRR is critical to the way development aid is organised. It tipped over quite a lot of sacred cows in the way development cooperation is structured, financed and on the goals it tries to reach. In the eyes of the WRR development aid should become more decisive and more specialist. It should focus on the economic development of countries, to stimulate their self reliance, instead of the current general goal of poverty reduction. Click here to download the report (Dutch version).

Economic solutions
According to the WRR smart public-private partnerships are an efficient method of bringing economic solutions to developing countries. The Netherlands should use the expertise of the Dutch business world to effectively tackle problems in, for example, the public service sector in developing countries. The WRR mentions sectors like education and health in which public-private initiatives are likely to be more successful than the governments now. The report draws a parallel to Dutch situation: ‘In the Netherlands several private-public fusions are delivering good services in the health sector, for example the role of the private insurance companies in the Dutch public health system. In other countries these forms of organization could help to improve the public services.’