Photo by Giulia May on Unsplash Sensoa's annual review of the expenditure of the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD) shows that expenditures for health and reproductive health increased from €133 million in 2019 to €141 million in 2020. This is mainly due to an increase in the expenditures for reproductive health from €24.86 million to €33.45 million, and particularly due to the increased investment in sexual and reproductive health in Belgium's existing governmental cooperation programmes with partner countries.
Sensoa asks Minister of Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir to continue on this growth path, established during the previous legislature. Maintaining and expanding this level requires that sexual and reproductive health and rights, including HIV, systematically receive the necessary attention and resources within the new bilateral cooperation programmes.
Sensoa asks Minister of Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir to continue on this growth path, established during the previous legislature. Maintaining and expanding this level requires that sexual and reproductive health and rights, including HIV, systematically receive the necessary attention and resources within the new bilateral cooperation programmes.
However, as far as attention to the HIV epidemic in our partner countries is concerned, DGD gets bad marks (again). DGD stopped using its internal HIV marker which until last year monitored the extent to which their actions contributed to addressing HIV/AIDS. DGD's discontinuation of this tracking painfully illustrates the lack of systematic attention to HIV/AIDS prevention and response in bilateral cooperation. The continued support of multilateral organisations in tackling HIV is a 'must', but not sufficient. The reality in Belgium’s partner countries cannot be ignored. They continue to face high rates of new infections and cannot offer all people living with HIV access to life-saving treatment. Therefore, Sensoa explicitly asks to put HIV back on the agenda in the cooperation with partner countries and other stakeholders active there. The report makes concrete proposals to this end.
In general, the problem remains that the available data on expenditure offer insufficient insights into the contribution of the Belgian international cooperation. For example, we don’t know how much of its funding Belgium spends on family planning. Or how many young people it reaches with information on safe sex and affordable contraception. Sensoa therefore asks DGD again for better reports on what the Belgian support consists of and which target groups it reaches.
The report is available in Dutch and French. The audit was carried out on the basis of the figures that DGD provided to Sensoa in November and December 2021.
In general, the problem remains that the available data on expenditure offer insufficient insights into the contribution of the Belgian international cooperation. For example, we don’t know how much of its funding Belgium spends on family planning. Or how many young people it reaches with information on safe sex and affordable contraception. Sensoa therefore asks DGD again for better reports on what the Belgian support consists of and which target groups it reaches.
The report is available in Dutch and French. The audit was carried out on the basis of the figures that DGD provided to Sensoa in November and December 2021.
| oda2020rapportfransdef.pdf |
| oda2020rapportneddef.pdf |
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