A story of dairy projects, dirt roads and developers, values and water pumps, solidarity, successes and shortcomings and a few white elephants

1962-2012

With a population of around 150 million and a land area just three times that of Denmark, Bangladesh is the world's second most densely populated country, after Singapore. In the early 1970s, women in Bangladesh had over six children on average. Today that average is 2.5 thanks to the support of countries like Denmark.

A snapshot of five decades

Anniversary publication 50 years of Danida

Editor in Chief according to the Media Liability ActJesper Ferslv Andersen, Head of Press Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Editorial teamStefan Katic and Ulrikke Moustgaard Andersen udvikling@um.dk

ArticlesJesper Heldgaard og Jeppe Villadsen (Page 62-64: Hanne Srine Srensen)

Research on maps and figuresPublikum Kommunikation

ProofFlemming Axmark + Publikum

TranslationNigel Mander

Layout and printDesign and layout: India (part of e-types)Paper: 150 gram Munken PolarPrint: Arco Grafisk

PublisherDanida, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of DenmarkAsiatisk Plads 2, DK-1448 Copenhagen K, Denmarkwww.um.dk

Facts about the publicationPublication date: 14 March 2012 Published in a Danish edition (issued jointly with Udvikling [Development] 2/12) and an English edition both can be ordered free of charge from:www.danida-publikationer.dk

Copies English edition: 3,000Copies Danish edition: 19,000

ISBN 978-87-7087-612-2 (paper)ISBN 978-87-7087-613-9 (electronic)

It is impossible to describe an elephant and all that comprises it in 52 pages you hardly reach the trunk before all the pages are filled. Such an elephant is Danida.

Once you start flicking through the pages of Danida's old annual reports and back issues of the magazine Udvikling [Development], one thing quickly becomes clear:

Over the years, Danida has been involved in a vast array of activities in an enormous number of countries. From fighting grasshoppers in West Africa and supporting the preparation of a new constitution in Nepal to ensuring that the indigenous people of Bolivia have deeds for the land they cultivate.

To get reasonably around it all is an impossible task. There is much that the editorial team would have liked to include, but have had to omit. How individuals from developing countries experienced meeting Danish developers. Portraits of some of the Danida staff who shaped the approach and the work of five decades. Even the HIV/AIDS epidemics of the 1980s we have had to reduce to a dot on a timeline.

This anniversary publication is divided into five chapters one for each decade. Each chapter describes some of the initiatives that were believed to create development. What were the actions, in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and so on, which were thought to be necessary to raise the standard of living in developing countries?

We probably haven't managed to describe the whole elephant. Even so, the editorial team hopes that this kaleidoscopic journey through five decades will stimulate the reader to seek out some of the fine works that can tell more of the story. It is worth the effort, because the story of Denmark's development assistance is also the story of ourselves and Denmark's self-understanding.

The editorial team

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Contents4 5

8/9

10/11 12/13 14/15 16/17

18 19 20 21

22/23

24 25/26

27 30 31

32/33 34/35/36

38/39 40 41 42

43/44/45 46

47 48/49

50 51

52/53 56/57

58 59

60/61 62/63/64

65 68 69

70/71

72/73 74/75

76/77/78

Introduction by the Minister for Development CooperationThe Danida Brand1962-2012 timeline

60s: Danish red cattle are good valueDanida's birth is televisedWhy Tanzania?Learning from the DanesThe coffee fundThe hospital that diedYouthful and refreshingThe Pioneer. Ester the firebrand

70s: Dark days and white elephantsA law without the poorThe scrapheap in SudanWhen elephants change colourSpreading the messageThe Volunteer. The social worker turned ambassador

80s: Frustration in the austere 80sBroken dreams in BangladeshEmpowering womenYou smile and become cheerfulThe Expert. Practical hands and a resourceful mindDrugs drama with a Danish touch

Results round-upMinisters for Development Cooperation and Danida Board

90s: The fall of the Wall a new era?Helping the world go greenFlying the flag in VietnamLike porn in a church bookshopAn end to scattergunsDoes what we do work?Refugees put pressure on fundsThe Peace Observer. Folmer from Ls engages in democracy

00s: When something breaksTerror hits the Twin Towers and Danish aidAfricas champion?Small but bigThe Head of Department. Big man in the driving seatGoodbye to donor rule

The money goes into the wrong pocketsEnthusiasm tinged with realismThe eye that sees

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IntroductIon

Christian Friis BachMinister for Development Cooperation

the danIda Brand

This year marks the 50th anniver-sary of Danida. It was in 1962 that Denmark's first law on development cooperation was passed, and since then Danida has helped broaden our horizons, extend our influence, and facilitate peace and prosperity in the world's poor countries. There have been ups and downs, successes and fail-ures, directed efforts and misdirected efforts.

Former cooperation countries such as Botswana, Thailand, South Africa and Vietnam have taken a large leap up the development ladder. A number of cooperation countries in Africa are seeing high rates of growth. And many developing countries are winning the battle against poverty. Since 1990, the number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped by over 400 mil-lion. Over 90 percent of children in the world's poor countries can now attend school. But there is still poverty to combat and rights to fight for.

In this anniversary issue, we look back at 50 years of Danida history. We have become wiser since the days when de-velopment cooperation consisted of red Danish dairy cattle and dairy courses. We have also learned that development cooperation alone cannot eliminate poverty, as we thought in 1962. Many other factors affect both the speed and

direction of development. Develop-ment cooperation can initiate change and support positive trends, but the great changes are created by the coun-tries themselves, from the bottom up. We must put the individual's rights and the priorities of developing countries at the centre not our own.

2012 will be an important year in Danida's history. Not only because of its 50th anniversary, but also because new legislation on Denmark's develop-ment cooperation is under preparation. The 1971 law reflects an outdated ap-proach to development, with its focus on projects and donations, whereas these days our focus is on human rights and sustainability, partnership and ownership. With a new strategy for Denmark's development cooperation, I hope we can recreate broad political cooperation on development policy and create a strong foundation for the efforts to create a world free from fear, and free from poverty.

There is plenty to celebrate. But there is much still to fight for.

Christian Friis BachMinister for Development Cooperation

Plenty to celebrate

Viva la Republica de Danida!

No doubt they meant Denmark. But when a Bolivian farmers association some years ago sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it didn't say Dinamarca (Denmark) at the end of the recipient address, but Republica de Danida.

As a brand, Danida has become bet-ter known in certain parts of the world than the kingdom of Denmark.

There is nothing strange in this. Den-mark has spread itself around the globe in the shape of Danida and Danish development assistance is outstand-ing, judging by the assessments made each year by assistance watchdog DAC under OECD.

A true survivorBack home in Denmark, the name Danida has had a turbulent existence.

At first Danida was not called Danida, but the TA Bureau (TA for Technical Assistance). This was in 1962 the year the first Danish law on development assistance is passed.

In 1971 the TA Bureau changed its name to Danida a contraction of Danish International Development Agency. At this time, the organisation also became a regular department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since then the name has been on the verge of being discarded several times each in connection with a change to the structure of the administration of development assistance.

Development assistance was for example incorporated into Denmark's Foreign Service in 1991. The Danida name was to be scrapped. But the brand had become so strong that it survived, now cleverly reinterpreted as an ab-breviation of Danish International

Development Assistance. No longer an organisation, but an activity.

Mother and daughterThe Danida name has come to repre-sent an intangible force for good. It is not a physical place that you can look up in the telephone directory, but a brand for the activities included in Danish development assistance.

This perhaps explains why most people in Denmark, as a 2010 survey showed, regard Danida as an independ-ent publicly supported organisation on a par with the Consumer Council.

Danida is not an independent organi-sation, however. It is (still) connected to its mother ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Denmark meets strong competition from the unofficial, but much better known name of the kingdom in the developing world: Danida

This image of three Himba boys in Namibia is taken from Tine Harden's football-inspired photo book A kick out of Africa

Of course there have to be the tragic pictures of misery and catastrophe, but one could also take photos of the everyday life that occupies the vast majority of Africans. Why do we never see those?Photographer Tine Harden

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87 The UN Brundtland Commission Report Our Common Future is published. It places environ-mental issues on the world agenda and defines the concept of sustainable development.

89 The fall of the Berlin Wall marks the end of the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Bloc. UN Convention on Rights of the Child adopted.

90-91 Racial segregation Apartheid is abolished in South Africa.

00 UN adopts the Millennium Development Goals for human and social development a fingerpost for the direction of development assistance.

04 Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta become EU member states. A tsunami hits southeast Asia, with the loss of more than 300,000 lives.

01 Terror attack on the USA on September 11. More than 3,000 are killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. A third hijacked plane crashes in Pennsylvania. World Trade Organisation launches the Doha Round.

10 Haiti is hit by an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale. An estimated 220,000 people are killed and more than 300,000 injured.

11 The Arab Spring, and the fall of the regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

62

Uganda gains independence from Britain.

63 Kenya gains independence from Britain.

64 Northern Rhodesia

gains independence from Britain and changes its name to Zambia.

67 Secession of Nigeria's southern province Biafra. Civil war until 1970, and the first major famine to receive television coverage.

75 First UN World Conference on Women, held in Mexico.

Mozambique gains independence from Portugal, and a civil war results.

76 WHO declares smallpox eradicated.

70 UN adopts the target that wealthy countries should donate at least 0.7% of GNI to development assistance.

71 East Pakistan

becomes independent under the name Bangladesh, after disintegra-tion from West Pakistan.

73 First oil crisis. Crude oil prices skyrocket.

80 Southern Rhodesia gains legal independence from Britain and becomes Zimbabwe.

84 The HIV virus is first detected. An HIV epidemic spreads through sub-Saharan Africa. Famine in Ethiopia.

The World

1962 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

0.33%0.35% 0.33%

0.22%

92 UN Earth Summit on sustainable development is held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

62 Law passed on cooperation with developing countries. National collection for project fund.

63 First state development loan to India.

64 First research grant given to study development issues.

65 First grant given to support the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke volunteer programme becomes permanent.

71 The secretariat for technical cooperation with developing countries becomes Danida.

72 Referendum on EC membership (today the EU) leads to Denmark becoming a member in 1973.

76 Social Security Act passed, giving Danes the right to economic assistance.

78 Denmark reaches the goal of giving 0.7% GNI in development assistance.

79 Greenland gains home rule, with its own parliament.

08 The Africa Commission, established by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, holds its first meeting.

09 15th UN Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen.

02 Development assistance is cut by DKK 1.5 billion (EUR 200 million). Parliament agrees unanimously to the participation of Danish military units in the international security force in Afghanistan.

03 The Danish-Arab Partnership Programme is launched by Foreign Minister Per Stig Mller.

07 The Danish Broadcasting Corporation and collection organisations launch Denmark's annual national collection day.

67 Investment Fund for developing countries, dubbed the Coffee Fund, is established.

Denmark

93 MIKA frame adopted. Foreign Ministry's Private Sector programme (today the B2B Programme) is adopted. The Tamil Case leads to the resignation of the government.

94 Danish peacekeeping forces in Bosnia fight off an attack by Serbian forces. It is the largest Danish military engagement since the end of WW2.

95 UN World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen.

91 Ministry of Foreign Affairs is split into a north and south group, with the latter administrating development cooperation. The name Danida is put aside.

92 Denmark wins the European Football Championship.

80 Second UN World Conference on Women, held in Copenhagen.

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DAC countries average aid

0.53%

0.37%

0.74%

0.94%1.06%

0.91%

Danmarks aid 0.10%

05-06 Muhammad Cartoons crisis culminates.

Average development assistance (% GNI) given by the international donor community (black figures) and Denmark (red figures), 1962-2012. Source: OECD (DAC)

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60Danish red cattle are good value

There was an air of optimism in the 1960s. The austerity of the post-war years had ended, economies were booming, and in Asia and Africa dozens a new nations were becoming inde-pendent after the colonial era. They needed help to get started, and then growth would come. So thought the UN and Denmark wanted to take part.

So in 1962, official Danish develop-ment assistance was created. We could afford to help others, and so why not do it by showing them what worked well for us? The first decade of development assistance thus saw a procession of demonstration projects of the Danish model. Young Danish volunteers set out for the developing countries, and young people from the developing countries came to Denmark to take co-operative association courses and dairy courses. All designed to show them the Danish way.

Danish development assistance surged, and in 1969 Denmark for the first time provided proportionately more in as-sistance than the world's rich countries and has done ever since.

Denmark teaches the developing countries what works

Make a personal effort. Volunteer. A Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke poster from the 1960s.

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I don't think we need feel any shame that aid can have a promoting effect on Danish exports. It is provided without political intentions but naturally with the purpose of stabilising peace between nations, races and regions.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jens Otto Krag, 1962

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In Denmark, Saturday evening is a time for togetherness. A time to relax and en-joy the company of friends and family.

This is just how it was on Saturday 10 March 1962 the day when Danish development assistance was born. It was broadcast on the radio and on tel-evision, which was in its golden age.

On this particular evening, the Dan-ish Broadcasting Corporation transmit-ted directly from Tivoli's Concert Hall, where a gala show officially opened a public money-raising event to kick-start Denmark's development assistance programme. The Danish population sat glued to their radios and TVs.

King Frederik IX spoke from Amalienborg Castle, followed by the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ralph J. Bunche, and Prime Minister Viggo Kampmann. Entertain-ment was provided by the top Danish and international stars of the time. And it was all hosted by the popular Sejr Volmer-Srensen, who also received donations from the public.

During the evening, DKK 50,000 was raised at the televised event, while DKK 300,000 was donated by phone. Several radio and TV shows were subsequently broadcast, while towns across the country competed to raise the most money in the most sensational way. The extensive radio and TV coverage gave Denmark's money-raising efforts a flying start.

Multiple initiativesBut there were also critical voices, who described the entertainment in the service of a good cause as populist nonsense. Meanwhile, an extensive information campaign was under way.

It was placed in the hands of aid organisation Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, which at the time had more experience working with developing countries than the state. Leaflets, posters and teaching resources were printed. A cin-ema trailer was produced and a special stamp was issued (see photo), along with many other initiatives.

Everyone took part: schools, unions, companies, industry organisations and churches. Dansk Tipstjeneste, the com-pany running football pools, arranged an extra football pool day, a special lotto game was launched, and Klasselot-teriet, a Danish lottery, made a special developing-countries draw. Across the whole country, local collection commit-tees were established. The total money raised was DKK 12.3 million more than DKK 130 million in present day terms. In April, the money was handed to the Danish state, which had already promised to double the amount. The economic foundation for Danish devel-opment assistance was thus created.

Everyone involvedOn 19 March 1962, the Danish Parlia-ment passed the Act on technical coop-

eration with the developing countries. Having broad support was important, with all sections of Danish society involved.

As an autonomous part of the new structure, a board and a council were created and the various stakeholders in Danish development assistance were given seats at the table: popular organi-sations, the agricultural industry, the co-operative movement, industry, trade unions and universities.

The aim was clear: As many as pos-sible should be involved in and have co-responsibility for Danish develop-ment assistance.

And that is still how it is today.

a wanted chIld

Danidas birth is televisedDenmark's development assistance has always been a national cause involving everyone right from the day it was launched on radio and television

Development assistance and elephants share common characteristics. Both are large and can be rather difficult to keep under control. Danish Prime Minister Viggo Kampmann visits India in 1962.

A quater of the purchase price of this special stamp from 1962 was donated to the national collection for developing countries.

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Danish development assistance did not have many years under its belt before Tanzania emerged at the top of the list of recipient countries, a position which the East African country has more or less maintained ever since. But why Tanzania, which in just a few years overtook larger and more significant countries like India?

And why Tanzania, when other Afri-can countries have stronger historical ties with Denmark? Such as Ghana with its past as a Danish colony, and from the 1950s the home of a high school project administered by Danish aid organisation Mellemfolkeligt Sam-virke (MS). Or Kenya, of Karen Blixen fame. Or Nigeria, which was the base for several Danish missionaries? The answer is probably that it was actually Tanzania which chose Denmark.

Warm relationshipIn the early 1960s Denmark put out feelers to several African countries, but it was Tanzania, headed by the coun-try's young president Julius Nyerere, which responded most enthusiastically.

He was inspired by the Nordic model, and in 1962 the first shared Nordic project was introduced in the country: an educational centre on the outskirts of the capital Dar es Salaam.

Denmark also turned out to be enthusiastic about Tanzania. When MS started its voluntary programme in 1963, Tanzania was from the start the main recipient of the many Danish volunteers. Danish experts also flocked to Tanzania in large numbers. In 1967, the country had 31 resident Danish experts more than any other country that received Danish development assistance.

Bilateral bickeringIt was agreed at an early stage that the bilateral part of Denmark's develop-ment assistance i.e. the assistance provided directly from country to country should concentrate on a limited number of countries in order to be effective. But almost every time the countries were to be named, disagree-ments arose.

Danish industry and the Danish agricultural sector typically suggested better-off developing countries such as

Thailand, Indonesia and the Philip-pines, while the popular organisations preferred to concentrate on the poorest countries such as Malawi and Ethiopia.

Tanzania continued to be a Danish priority however. In the period from 1962 to 1975, the country received a third of Denmark's total bilateral development assistance, and it was undisputedly the largest recipient of Danish development assistance in 2010 with DKK 727 million.

1968Denmark selects eight priority countries:

India, Pakistan, Thailand, Uganda, Kenya,

Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi.

1975The eight becomes four main recipient

countries: India, Bangladesh, Kenya and

Tanzania.

1988Concentration of development assistance.

66 countries received Danish development

assistance in 1984-1986. This figure was

reduced to 24 programme cooperation

countries.

1989-2005The Danish Parliament agreed seven criteria

for country selection. This started a 15 year

process, which ended with the choice of the

last country, Mali.

country selectIon

Why Tanzania?Many have had opinions about which countries should receive Danish development assistance but one developing country in particular has always been a favourite

Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere is received at Copenhagen Airport by King Frederik IX.

2009Programme cooperation countries are

replaced by cooperation countries, which

also includes Afghanistan.

2010Danida now refers to partnership countries

26 in all.

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The Indian Ocean, October 1966. A ship with 40 Danish heifers in calf and six young bulls is on its way across the open sea. The destination for the cattle is Indiensgrden in Hessaraghatta in southern India, the first major Dan-ish state development project in the country.

During the journey, a severe storm blew up. The animals huddled together on the deck of the ship beneath a canopy which was ripped away by the winds as the ship sought emergency port in Goa.

From here the journey continued in a fitful fashion. First, the cattle were

stabled on the quayside. Then they were sent on a week-long train journey. 40 heifers had to share four railway carriages with two Danish vets, while the six bulls jostled for space in another carriage. A third Dane had to drive from station to station giving drinking water to the cattle.

the MIlky way to IndIa

Herds of red Danish dairy cattle, along with all the necessary equipment and expertise, head off to the developing countries as agriculture ploughs the way ahead for a while

Learning from the Danes

Thaigrden (The Thai Farm) in Muak Lek north of Bangkok was the first Danish model farm.

This was Danish agriculture in its earliest manifestation as development assistance. In the 1960s, Denmark's development assistance first needed to invent itself, and it was natural to reach for something that Denmark was good at. Agriculture was the obvious choice.

Do as we doIt started with Thaigrden, which in 1962 was inaugurated by the Danish king, Frederik IX, in the presence of the King of Thailand. The farm project was quickly followed by similar demonstra-tion farms in India, Iran and Zambia.

The farm projects were established in narrow collaboration with Danish agricultural organisations. Here was an opportunity to export Danish know-how in cattle farming and to demon-strate modern agricultural methods, for example cross-breeding of cattle, intensive cultivation of food crops and exports of modern dairy and abattoir operations.

The core of the farm projects was the demonstration effect: if we show how we do it ourselves, local farmers will copy it. And if developing countries cultivate their heathland, establish cooperative movements and replicate other Danish agricultural specialities, they will automatically evolve in the same way as Denmark, and the tech-nologies will ripple out in the countries concerned in ever-widening circles.

That was the idea.

Squires and milking machinesBut it was not how things turned out. Although the farms in many cases had a high yield, results in terms of the "rip-ple effect" were poor. Primarily because the projects were extremely equipment intensive from imported milking machines to advanced equipment for the artificial insemination of heifers. The modus operandi was impossible to transfer to the broad majority of farmers in the recipient countries. And certainly not to the poorest of them.

The projects were given nicknames such as squire projects because they were managed top-down with little in-volvement of the locals. Among the first and biggest of the projects was the dem-

onstration cattle farm Indiensgrden, where the aim was to increase the milk output of Indian cattle by cross-breeding with European breeds with a high output. The early years saw good results and many happy recipients. The first cross-bred cow that arrived with an Indian family was typically accorded special status. It was well looked after, washed every day, and had its horns painted in bright colours.

But it gradually became clear that red Danish cattle were not suited to the Indian climate.

Optimism and criticismIn Denmark, however, there was enthusiasm. In 1974, one year before the project was handed over to India, an article in Udvikling sported the headline India's white revolution. It described Danida's efforts with demon-stration farms as a very efficient three-stage rocket. Calculations were laid forth which showed that one breeding bull for new dairy cattle could create additional production of 64,000 tonnes of milk over a period of eight years, in addition to breeding more bulls.

Doubt is often expressed concerning whether development aid is at all worth it. There is probably no reason for doubt in this case. Danish efforts in the cross-breeding programme in India will help to significantly improve people's nutrition in relatively few years, it said optimistically.

However, there were also voices of criticism. Hanne Reintoft (Denmark's Communist Party) questioned certain aspects of Danish development as-sistance during a debate in the Danish Parliament in 1971. She noted that the many agricultural scholars coming to Denmark were being trained in Danish agricultural practices rather than in analyses and technologies that were rel-evant to the developing countries.

During the 1970s, the farms were transferred to the recipient countries, but no similar projects were initiated. In 1994, a highly critical evaluation of agricultural assistance was published: only half of the projects could be con-sidered acceptable, and there was no single success story.

The lacklustre results led to Denmark changing its approach. Just like other donor countries, it moved activities away from the poorest in the rural areas to creating economic growth as the path to development.

FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS AND COOPERATIVE MOVEMENTS

A grand portrait of N.F.S Grundtvig, the

ideological father of the folk high school in

Denmark, adorns the assembly hall of Mellem-

folkelig Samvirke's combined folk high school

and agricultural school in southern India.

In 1962, Danish Prime Minister Viggo

Kampmann laid the foundation stone for

the Danish-designed main building, called

Grundtvig Hall. The Danida-supported pro-

ject, located not far from Indiensgrden, is

the oldest Danish project in India.

Danish agricultural exports in the 1960s

consisted not only of agricultural technology

but also of the whole folk high school and

cooperative movement idea.

But it was not easy to recreate the Danish

cooperative movement under tropical skies.

The folksy foundation was lacking and politi-

cal support was often completely absent. The

cooperative movement instead ended up as

state enterprises.

In Pakistan, a costly consultancy project

was discontinued as it became clear that

the authorities had no interest in promoting

the cooperative concept. And support for a

Nordic cooperative project in Tanzania was

terminated in 1989, after 25 years with the

country's only permitted party controlling the

entire cooperative sector. Danish support of

cooperative movements stopped completely

a short time afterwards.

photo: lnborg/scanpix

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Chief physician Jacob Raft speaks at the Congo Hospital opening ceremony.

The hospital that died

whIte coats

There was no lack of ambition in Denmark's efforts to help Congo ensure healthcare provision but the plan was flawed

Today the hospital is an empty shell. It treated several thousand patients and trained Congolese healthcare person-nel, but it is remembered mostly as a glaring example of the pitfalls of large demonstration projects. The experi-ence resulted in a change of approach to Denmark's healthcare support in developing countries.

The Congo Hospital. What was once Denmark's largest project in a develop-ing country started with money from national collection day in 1962. For almost 20 years, the hospital received Danish development assistance cor-responding to a present day value of more than DKK 500 million (EUR 67.3 million). In addition, the hospital em-ployed 50 Danish doctors, nurses and other staff, all at the same time.

The back story was a serious one: When Belgium left Congo in 1962, the new nation had a huge need for hospitals and healthcare personnel. So the aim was to make the hospital in the capital Kinshasa a model that would demonstrate how to run a hospital, and it would also train doctors and nurses. The idea came from chief physician Jacob Raft, who headed the hospital until his death in 1971.

There was scepticism right from the start. The plans were too ambitious, crit-ics said. And they were right. The Congo Hospital never became a Congolese model. It was too Danish. The Danish staff did not share their leadership and responsibility sufficiently with the Con-golese, who for their part could not live up to the high Danish wage subsidies paid to local employees when the Dan-ish subsidies ceased in 1981. When the last Danish employees went home, the decay really took hold.

A patient is attended to by one of the team of 50 Danish nurses stationed at Congo Hospital.

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1967 saw the establishment of the Industrialisation Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), which was initially financed from customs duty on coffee and hence was known as the Coffee Fund.

The fund, whose aim was to invest in developing countries, was a long time in getting started, however. By the end of 1969, IFU had made just one investment, together with De Forenede Papirfabrikker, in a factory in Turkey.

But despite the difficult start, the fund turned out to be a fountain of vitality. From 1967 to 2010, IFU in-vested in more than 700 projects in 85 countries. Total investments in these projects amounted to almost DKK 100 billion, of which 9 billion came from IFU.

The investments are estimated to have directly created around 140,000 jobs. IFU has also proved to be good business for the Danish state. IFU has received a total of DKK 1 billion in state subsidies, but the fund has gener-ated such a large surplus, that a similar amount has been paid back.

photo: sara skytte/polfoto

The coffeefund

InvestMents

p. 20/ 60s

I could see with my own eyes how women throughout Asia were doing most of the work in the fields and in Africa I have since seen that it is just the women who are doing the agricul-tural work.

Unlike many other women in the 1960s, Ester Boserup was not driven by feminism when she got the plight of women onto the developing-countries agenda. It was her experience from the third world that brought her back-wards into the problems of women in developing countries as she put it in an interview with Danish national daily newspaper Politiken. Three years in India made a special impression on her.

It was also in Asia that I first dis-covered what was to be one of the big themes in my research: the position of women in the development process.

The Marxism-inspired political economist and researcher in the field of developing countries had a long career behind her. At the age of just 28 she was head of the Danish National Bank's currency office. She also became one of

the first female Danish economists to have an international research career.

From the 1960s onwards, Boserup published several research works which reverberated everywhere. Prin-cipal among them was Womans Role in Economic Development, which was translated into numerous languages and gave her practically iconic status a few years later at the first UN confer-ence for women in 1975.

The committed pioneer died in 1999 at her home in Switzerland, aged 89. She had by then long since put her mark on the way the world discusses women and development assistance.

ester the firebrand

p. 21/ 60s

EstEr BosErup

Born 1910. Graduated as an economist in 1935. Employed for 11 years in Denmark's central administration, followed by 10 years in the UN system, after which she was a freelance researcher for Danish and international institutions, principally the UN and World Bank. Died 1999 at her home in Switzerland.

photo: jan jrgensen /scanpix

the PIoneerthe early years

Youthful and refreshing

The 1960s was the time of pioneering in Danida, where the newly appointed assistance consultants could largely act without the systems and forms which were introduced at a later stage. In 1968, Kaj Baag started his Danida career, which he later described in Udvikling:

Things were a lot simpler back then. These days you can't even cross the bridge to Malm without preparing terms of reference.

I just received some admonitions, bought my ticket and collected a bundle of traveller's cheques. Then I set off, and excepting trips to India, no one bothered where I went or how long I was away. After six weeks of travel I returned and presented new project ideas. Naturally experts were sent out to plan large-scale projects in detail, but the proposals that we called cash subsidy went directly to the Board. There was something youthful and refreshing about the whole enterprise,

and even though I was told shortly after my appointment that it was a misun-derstanding and even dangerous to be committed, some of us actually were.

Kaj Baag made a significant mark on Danish development assistance. When he died in November 1987, he was serving as the Danish Ambassador in India.

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An innocent and somewhat naive pioneering spirit characterized development assistance in the early 1960s. Villagers in Kenya.

Assistance in itself is wrong It does not solve the problem of world poverty, and it disguises the reality, namely the international economic and trade system's exploitation of poor countries. president Julius Nyerere, tanzania, 1973

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Dark days and white elephants

Winds of political change were blow-ing. Denmark joined the European Community. Mogens Glistrup and his new Progress Party were voted into the Danish Parliament. And industry joined the development assistance fund battle, which passed one billion kroner a year.

The 1970s was the decade of large projects. Some failed and ended up on the front pages of newspapers as scandals or white elephants. At the same time, development assistance was made more professional and focused on the countries to which Denmark provided most: Bangladesh, India, Tanzania and Kenya.

Winds of change were blowing elsewhere too. The oil crisis had a jolting impact. Denmark was hit hard,

and car travel was banned on Sundays. The poorest developing countries, which the oil crisis hit the hardest of all, sharpened their tone, demanding that the rich countries fulfil their promises of more development assistance. And they wanted a new economic world order.

Gone was the optimism of the 1960s. The belief that growth in itself could eradicate poverty, evaporated.

Activities should instead be directed at hunger and disease, water scarcity and education. The strategy of elementary needs gained pace.

Developing countries are dissatisfied, and Denmark changes its approach

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A Danish-built high-tech state loan dairy plant in Kenya

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80 million kroner in development as-sistance rusts away.

Danish tabloid newspaper Ekstra Bladet didn't mince its words when in 1979 it exposed one of the most spectacular fiascos in Danish develop-ment cooperation history: an abattoir in Sudan that handsomely rewarded Danish suppliers, but which turned out to be completely unusable.

The story from southern Sudan was ideal shock-horror headline mate-rial for the popular press. It became an object lesson for Denmark in how wrong things could go when develop-ment assistance was provided in the form of a state loan, i.e. money loaned to the developing country to stimulate its economic growth, with the proviso that the money was used to buy things made in Denmark.

The story of the Sudanese abattoir helped Danida to become a lot more careful when providing development assistance. Both before the decision of supporting something, and after.

But first, a couple of colourful details.

Rich hopes poor researchIn 1972, peace returned to Sudan after a civil war. It created an atmosphere of

cautious optimism, and raised hopes that Sudan could become a breadbas-ket for the whole region. But it needed investment. In an abattoir, for example.

The Danish firm Atlas saw opportu-nities. It had already delivered equip-ment for abattoirs to several developing countries that was financed through Danish state loans. Moreover, the agent for Atlas at the time was the Danish Consul General in the country.

Denmark wished to support Sudan, so in 1974 Danida provided a state loan of DKK 25 million to be used for a num-ber of projects including an abattoir. This was followed by an even larger export credit to Atlas, and the abattoir equipment was duly dispatched.

But it was never installed. Nor should anyone have been surprised, a subsequent investigation revealed.

The abattoir, with sufficient capacity to slaughter 400 cows per hour, was to be part of an industrial project in the town of Mongalla, which lacked both roads and electricity supplies. But the local nomads had no tradition for either selling their cattle or buying meat and certainly not refrigerated meat. For the project to work, massive additional investments were required

faIlure

An abattoir with no meat, a murdered man, and a fortune in wasted development assistance money resulted in Denmark dropping the once-popular state loan

The industrial-scale Danish-financed abattoir in Mongalla, Sudan, had a capacity of 400 cows per hour! A Sudanese postage stamp shows some of the cattle that never made it that far

the foundatIon

The whole purpose of Denmark's devel-opment assistance over the decades can be condensed into two words: poverty orientation. Combating poverty is the foundation of Danida's programmes, strategies and plans.

But Denmark's first piece of legisla-tion on development assistance from 1962 a practically-oriented document covering just three pages has no preamble. It mostly comprises the new board and the new council for techni-cal cooperation with the developing countries.

The first line of the Act mentions that its purpose is to provide assis-tance to the developing countries, and then the focus shifts towards the board, council and administration.

Not a word about poverty or the poor.

1970s legislationIn 1971, the law was changed and became the Act on international development cooperation. It is still a slim document, but does however state an aim in 1:

The aim of Denmark's state assis-tance to the developing countries is to support their efforts via a cooperation with the authorities and governments of these countries to achieve economic growth in order to contribute to ensur-ing their social progress and political independence in accordance with the

United Nations Treaty, purpose and leading principles, and also through cultural cooperation to promote mu-tual understanding and solidarity.

No mention of poverty or the poor in this 1971 law either. The belief at the time, that economic growth leads to social progress, is clearly reflected.

Including povertyAlthough poverty orientation has frequently been confirmed in a steady flow of agendas in the Danish Par-liament, it has never been directly included in the law.

But its time could soon come. Because the bill submitted for consul-

A law without the poorAlthough poverty is the core of Danish development cooperation, it has never been mentioned in the law

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A vehicle in the west African state of Liberia displays an appeal to a higher authority in case earthly legislators fail to remember.

tation in January 2012 is introduced with the words:

The aim of Denmark's development cooperation is to combat poverty and promote human rights, democracy, sustainable development, peace and stability in accordance with the UN Treaty, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and UN conventions on human rights.

in buildings and infrastructure. This never happened.

Futile rescue attemptWhat remained was an unused pile of abattoir equipment in which millions had been invested. So Denmark began various attempts to rescue the invest-ment.

A further DKK 2 million was given to build a storage facility, so that the equipment could at least be stored in >

The scrapheap in Sudan

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> dry conditions, and a local man was hired to keep an eye on the equipment. But he was later found murdered. So a team was sent to investigate whether the equipment could be used else-where. But it was a futile mission.

One can easily see why the Danish tabloid press leapt on this story.

Right up to 1982, when the project was finally abandoned, the story regu-larly surfaced in the newspapers to the great regret of Danida's chairman Christian Kelm-Hansen, who acknowl-edged that the project had been a

fiasco, but lamented the fact that the media only seemed to interest itself in Danish development assistance when something went wrong.

State loans criticisedState loans represented a large propor-tion of Denmark's development assis-tance in the first decade. They brought business to Danish companies, opened new markets for them, and created new jobs in Denmark.

At the time, this was common prac-tice among all donors. And state loans

were rather popular in developing countries, which were hungry for new technology.

But a lot went wrong, especially because up to 1975 state loans were given without proper feasibility studies being carried out. If a recipient country asked for Denmark to supply some-thing such as an abattoir the loan was provided.

In 1975 Danida set up a state loan office and began to undertake feasi-bility studies which became increas-ingly thorough and resulted in several

successful Danish state loan projects, including the financing of several hundred small water utilities for health clinics and local areas in West Africa. They were supplied by the Danish com-pany Scan Water, and were successfully taken into use.

But the howling criticism of state loans continued, especially because they were tied to supplies from Den-mark. This led to inflated prices and technology that did not suit developing countries, and left them with enormous problems with spare parts and mainte-

When elephants change colour

success

I am tired of hearing about cement factories, said Jrgen K. Hansen of the Confederation of Danish Industry to Udvikling in 1993.

Cement factories had indeed become a major topic in the debate on develop-ment assistance. In particular, three large-scale cement factories in Tanza-nia gave rise to criticism, because for long periods they operated far below capacity. Cement factories from FLS-midth led the way in Danish develop-ment assistance throughout the early years, greatly helped by the tied nature of Danish state loans. Over the years, no fewer than 19 different countries received state loans for purchasing from FLSmidth.

Principal among them was Tanzania, which in the period 1968-1985 alone, received close to DKK 500,000 for a ce-ment factory in Mbeya. Subsequently, further Danish support was provided for another two cement factories in the East African country. And since, like much of Tanzania's industry, they be-came dilapidated and ran at low output for lengthy periods, criticism mounted and these factories were labelled 'white elephants' another way of saying 'development assistance fiasco'.

But in more recent times, these cement factories like many other things in Tanzania have got their act together and are considered locally as successes. Some of the white elephants have reverted to their natural grey.

nance, because equipment was sourced from so many different countries.

The end came in 1988, when state loans were abolished. Hereafter, virtually all Danish development as-sistance became donations. Developing countries could now buy from whoever they liked.

The abattoir project in Sudan overlooked the fact that nomads neither buy nor sell meat.

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I have always spoken for development assistance. To me it is a natural extension of my basic position, which is based on the concept that in simplified terms can be called solidarity.prime Minister Anker Jrgensen Interviewed in Udvikling [Development] magazine, issue 1, 1976, by editor Kika Mlgaard

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It was 1974. Orla Bakdal had just com-pleted his training as a social worker. Through his job as a student worker in the Danish Refugee Council he had acquired a taste for development work. So instead of doing military service, he went to Botswana as a volunteer for the Danish aid organisation Mellemfolke-ligt Samvirke (MS).

I had become interested in foreign cultures through my work in the Danish Refugee Council. We met a lot of people there who had come to Den-mark, and it was rewarding and instruc-tive to be with people from other places and cultures, he says.

Orla Bakdal stayed in Botswana for 27 months before hitching his way home from the south of Africa a jour-ney that took six months.

The trip to Africa became the start of four decades of development work. He worked 11 years at MS before joining Danida, where he rose quickly through the ranks with ambassadorial positions in Nicaragua, Malawi and Zambia.

He sees his many years of practi-cal development work and slightly offbeat educational background as an advantage, but admits that not many social workers have ended up as ambas-sadors.

Development assistance has had 50 wonderful years, but we have to realise that it is changing in character. Whereas previously it was a form of assistance that required manual work and practical knowledge, today it is moving towards a more theoretical approach, says Orla Bakdal, who at 62 is now Alternate Executive Director at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington.

the social worker turned ambassador

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the volunteer

orlA BAkdAl

Born 1949. Graduated as a social worker in 1974 and went to Botswana the same year for the Danish aid organisation Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke (MS). Employed for 11 years in MS, before joining Danida in 1985. In 1996 appointed ambassador to Nicaragua. Since 2009, Alternate Executive Director at the Inter-American Development Bank.

photo: mikkel noel lanzky

Spreading the message

When the first issue of Udvikling [Development] came out in 1974, Por-tugal still had large colonies in Africa, apartheid was still being practised in South Africa, and the United States had not yet left Vietnam.

The great struggles were taking place in the southern hemisphere, and solidarity with the third world took up a fair amount of the agenda in Denmark.

Danish organisations involved in assisting developing countries were providing information in order to focus attention on poverty in these lands, and to drum up support for more Danish development assistance.

Danida was also seeking to reach a wider audience. For while Denmark's development assistance was growing in the 1970s, so was the need to communi-cate what Danida was doing.

So in 1974, Udvikling was founded with Kika Mlgaard as editor. An an-nual subscription comprising six issues of the non-colour magazine cost 50 kroner.

As Denmark's development assistance grew in the 1970, so did the need to tell people about it

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Five decades of Danida's magazine Udvikling.

1976 1990 2005 2011

There is a broad popular understanding that Denmark should help resolve the pressing global development problems. Not only as an expression of humanitarian awareness and social responsibility, but also from an increasing recognition of a real global destiny community. Minister for Foreign Affairs, uffe Ellemann-Jensen, 1988

Frustration in the austere 80s

Fiscal intervention, youth unemploy-ment and empty purses. Denmark was in crisis and internationally there were problems too. There was a Cold War between the Eastern and Western world and poverty, hunger and a surge in the population in Africa.

Global development assistance stagnated, and debt spiralled in the developing countries. In 1984, terrible TV images from the famine in Ethiopia confirmed the misery. Spectacular cam-paigns such as Band Aid and Africa starves raised sympathy and money.

Despite the crisis, Denmark continued to increase its development assistance. It also became more focused and pro-fessional, and began supporting certain selected countries and evaluating the efforts. And attention was turned to new areas such as the environment, women and human rights, which were incorporated into all of Denmark's development assistance work.

Denmark keeps the flag flying despite the economic crisis

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Take note of the name Noakhali. It will emerge many times over the com-ing years in the domestic debate on development assistance.

This was one of the first references to the enormous Noakhali project in Bangladesh. It appeared in Udvikling [Development] in 1977, and the writer's prediction was correct.

At the time, it was the most ambi-tious Danish development project, with costs totalling DKK 389 million in the period until its closure 14 years later. During those years, legions of journal-ists, development cooperation experts and politicians visited Noakhali, a district in south east Bangladesh. Never before had there been such attention on a Danish development assistance project.

A problematic provinceNoakhali province is an agricultural area largely without industry, and marked by deep and widespread poverty. The River Ganges periodi-cally bursts its banks here, bringing death and destruction to the low-lying province.

The aim of the development project was to help the whole region by creat-ing integrated economic growth and social development, with a large num-ber of activities launched simultane-ously. Economic growth was nurtured through building infrastructure, creat-ing jobs and increasing food produc-tion. Social development was promoted through furthering the provision of healthcare and education.

The Noakhali project, targeted mainly at the poorest and most vulner-able groups, was launched in 1978 three years after Bangladesh became one of Denmark's four main recipient countries.

Fertilising Danish exportsBut there were problems. Right from the start, the project was beset by delays, which with the passing years caused the flagship project to be re-garded in domestic debate as more of a misadventure, with little to show in the way of results.

Another challenge for the poverty-oriented project was that Bangladesh was not as interested in socially-oriented assistance as in assistance in the form of goods, which could save

regIonal develoPMent

Broken dreams in BangladeshThe Noakhali project set sail as the flagship of Denmark's development cooperation, but was not seaworthy and ran aground

the hard-pressed state the expense of currency-requiring imports. This was the approach that the Danish busi-ness sector adopted. Fertilisers from Superfos at a total cost of DKK 450 million were supplied to Bangladesh until 1986.

In 1985, a Canadian report began a more fundamental discussion of the underlying causes of development assistance difficulties in Bangladesh. It concluded that the rural population, despite the growth in assistance, was in a worse condition as a whole than when the country gained its independence in 1971. And that the biggest barrier to development for the poorest was the country's political and social power structure.

The report provided ammunition for the critics of two core principles in Danish development assistance at the time: that the assistance should not be such as to cause political interference in the recipient country, and that it had mainly to be channelled through exist-ing public power structures, whereby >

The Noakhali project was one of the most personnel-intensive Danish development initiatives, concurrently employing over 60 Danish consultants.

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> as in the military dictatorship of Bangladesh it contributed to consoli-dating the power of the governing elite.

In 1988, Danida launched an action plan which marked a shift away from flagship projects like Noakhali to smaller, more low-tech projects in for example agriculture.

Press coverage became increas-ingly critical. The only thing that will remain when we leave is probably the Danida Guesthouse. It is still the best house in town, a former employee on the project said to Danish newspaper Information in 1990.

Marginal effectDenmark's enthusiasm gradually waned and in 1991 after 14 years of substantial costs and mixed results the project was closed. A planned phase leading up to 2000 was cancelled. At that time, major regional projects such as Noakhali had long since gone out of fashion and been replaced by sector programmes focused on one sec-tor at a time.

The ambitious project was closed with-out any evaluation being carried out, leaving unanswered the question of whether the many millions provided in assistance had been useful. It was not until nine years after the closure that Danida undertook a comprehensive evaluation of the project, which kept eight researchers occupied for a whole year. They concluded that the project had achieved a positive impact for many poor, but the significance in most cases was marginal.

It is not a success story. It is a mixed story. Many things have lasted and some things were forgotten long ago, while other things never materialised or were utter failures, said Steen Folke, senior researcher at the Centre for Development Research, which headed the evaluation.

The evaluation criticised the exten-sive use of consultants. More than 60 primarily Danish long-term consult-ants were employed. This was problem-atic because activities came to a stop when the Danish consultants left and took their knowledge home with them. And these consultants were expensive. In 1992, a Danish company consultant

cost DKK 1.45 million, while a local consultant cost DKK 300,000.

Money misspent?Development assistance can be dif-ficult to assess. Living conditions for hundreds of thousands of people were improved because of the ambitious development assistance project, and the educational programme was a lasting success. Was it worth the money that 135,000 children learned to read? And that 125,000 men and women were no longer illiterate? But the educational area was also criticised because of lack of collaboration with the Ministry of Education in Bangladesh, so the educa-tional programme ceased when Danida withdrew.

As Danida wrote in the evaluation summary: The Noakhali project did not achieve everything that was hoped for and expected. Countless complica-tions and difficulties appeared during the project. It set out as the flagship at the head of the fleet, but ended up be-ing overtaken by newer vessels. And yet there are still traces to be seen in the wake of the flagship.

Equality Denmark puts its mark on Noakhali

Job distribution between rich and poor, depicted here by Danish cartoonist Claus Deleurans (1946-1996). The poster was produced in 1978 by Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, which for decades led the way in providing information about the plight of the developing countries work which was largely financed by Danida.

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If you want to create development in the world's poorest countries, women must be included every step of the way

Empowering women

equalIty

The decade started with a bang. In July 1980, Denmark hosted the UN Conference on Women, which marked the midway point of the UN Decade for Women. It was a mega-event with 10,000 attendees and heavy publicity. But it was light on results. The Cold War and world politics affected the con-ference: the West wanted to talk about equality and the East about peace and disarmament, while developing coun-tries wanted to talk about independ-ence and economic development. And the Israel-Palestine question received special attention.

There were plenty of other things on the agenda too. Women in the develop-ing countries had poor access to health-care, education and work. Thousands died in childbirth and few girls went to school. Violence against women was also a major problem.

Women are the keyNot long had passed since development policy like most aspects of public life was totally dominated by men. But as women during the 1970s won influence and attention, a special angle on women started to establish itself in

development work: to get development assistance to work, women must be included.

The big focus on two key develop-ment policy issues helped women to move higher up the agenda: population growth and family planning.

During the 1980s, women and equal-ity continued to be a separate action area. Women were "campaign material" with separate conferences. And in 1987, Denmark was one of the first coun-tries to formulate an action plan that focused on biased gender distribution both among those who benefited from development assistance and those who planned it.

Difficult in practiceAt the time, only 10 percent of Danida's stationed bilateral advisors were wom-en. And only one woman shared the same senior executive level as 25 men in Denmark's development assistance administration.

But equality now had to be incorpo-rated in every development assistance project all the way from planning to implementation.

Even so, an evaluation conducted seven years later concluded that al-though good results had been achieved

in projects targeted at women, there was a lack of integration in other pro-jects: Women were still considered a group that could benefit from a project rather than take part in the planning and implementation of it.

New focusWomen and equality became a recur-ring theme for Danish development assistance henceforth. Denmark also promised this to other countries in 1995, when the UN held a conference on women in China and adopted "the constitution for women" the Beijing Declaration which put special focus on women and poverty.

When the Liberal-Conservative gov-ernment came to power in 2001, there was further focus on the theme in Dan-ish development assistance. Denmark established a special pool for equality and combating poverty, as well as a new gender strategy, while the embassies were to work on integrating the equal-ity aspect throughout development assistance activities.

Men and women have different roles and duties in life and childbed can be a life-threatening place for women in developing countries.

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In those days we were practical people, almost all of us. We built things schools, dairies, and so forth, says Erik Nissen-Petersen about the previous generations of development assistance experts stationed abroad.

This was before highly-educated academics made their entrance into development assistance work. In Erik's day, advisors went out with bricklay-ers' trowels and blackboard chalks instead of laptops and briefcases. Being stationed abroad was in many ways easier back then, he thinks. Today, the experts have moved into offices and are managing large programmes.

They often seem frustrated, because in contrast to us practitioners, they work in cities where they frequently encounter fraud and corruption. They are only there for two or three years, then they travel on.

For 14 years Erik Nissen-Petersen had been a builder in the Danish town of Kge, when in 1973 inspired by a holiday trip to drought-stricken Gambia the year before he applied for a job with Danida as a bricklayer to

build cattle dips in Kenya. Having got the job, he quickly discovered that the Kenyan farmers had a greater need for utilising the sparse water resources for their cattle and their crops, than for dealing with parasites in cattle dips. So he started developing techniques for collecting and utilising rainwater and river water, and achieved fame in the development assistance world by creat-ing the green valley in a parched area of eastern Kenya.

In the early 1980s Danish television (DR) broadcast a series called The De-velopers, which took place in Africa. The idealistic main character, played by actor Ole Ernst, was modelled on Erik Nissen-Petersen.

Today Erik Nissen-Petersen is one of Africa's leading experts in water exploitation. He is 78 years old and is still working flat out with projects in 15 different African countries.

Practical hands and a resourceful mind

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the exPertdanIda In cartoons

Bo Bojesen, for decades a regular cartoonist at Danish daily newspaper Politiken, frequently focused his char-acteristic comment on the relationship between Denmark and the developing countries.

This cartoon is from 1983, but the topic is as relevant today as it was then. The caption to the cartoon reads:

Products that are banned in Western countries are freely and carelessly sold to the developing countries, which can-not assess their danger.

The label means that the product strengthens your bones, so you smile and become cheerful.

You smile and become cheerful

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Born 1934. Military service as a carpenter at a Danish Naval Station. Moved to Kenya in 1973 and two years later married his Kenyan housekeeper, with whom he still lives. Continues to work with water utilisation throughout most of Africa.

photo: mia collis

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The pharmaceutical industry versus a couple of Danish doctors. The battle lines were sharply drawn when Danida granted DKK 5 million to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1982 to kick-start its controversial Essential Drugs programme, which Danish doctor Ernst Lauridsen had been ap-pointed to head.

With another Danish doctor, Halfdan Mahler, as the Director-General of WHO since 1973, the organisation had com-pletely changed its focus.

In 1978, WHO published a list of 208 essential drugs for treating the vast majority of diseases that flourish in developing countries. The idea was simple: public sector health authorities were required to purchase the most essential and non-patented but ap-proved drugs in such large quantities that discounts could be obtained. But the pharmaceutical industry saw it as a declaration of war, and the idea didn't really catch on.

Medicine for the massesBut in 1981 Kenya implemented, with support from Danida, a successful pilot programme with collective purchasing

of just 40 drugs for selected remote areas. The result was the desired one: inexpensive drugs for more people.

The following year, Danida sup-ported a similar but larger programme in Tanzania. 120 firms submitted a bid, resulting in the lowest prices ever.

Even so, the roll-out of the concept was sluggish until Ernst Lauridsen, who for some years had worked with es-sential drugs in a number of developing countries, was employed in 1982. Lau-ridsen's department was placed directly under Halfdan Mahler's office and had its budget increased many times over.

Other countries gave their support, pressure from popular organisations mounted, and then something hap-pened: in the course of a few years, around 100 developing countries shifted over to acquiring drugs accord-ing to the WHO list of essential drugs.

Drama at WHONot everyone was happy however, and the clash with the pharmaceutical industry was one of the reasons why, by 1988, Halfdan Mahler no longer had the backing of the US and Japan, among others, to continue as the Director-General of WHO.

He was succeeded by Hiroshi Naka-jima of Japan, who came directly from

one of the world's biggest pharmaceuti-cal firms and immediately set about reorganising the department of es-sential drugs. Ernst Lauridsen resigned in protest and the programme was weakened for a number of years.

But fortunately the World Bank and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) took up the idea, so the concept of essential drugs spread. It is still used in child health programmes and to combat HIV, malaria and tuber-culosis, says Lauridsen today.

And Ib Bygbjerg, professor of international health at Copenhagen University Hospital thinks that the idea has had a lasting effect and is one of the heart-warming stories of develop-ment assistance.

The programmes have helped to get cheap drugs of good quality out to the many remote health clinics, and have saved the lives of millions of people, he says.

develoPMent assIstance for health

Drugs drama with a Danish touchEssential and inexpensive drugs that can help vast numbers of sick people in developing countries makes for a heart-warming story and a strongly controversial one

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Ministers for development cooperation

62Jens Otto Krag Prime Minister, supervises the implementation of the Act on technical cooperation with the developing countries

62Per Hkkerup Minister for Foreign Affairs, from 3 September

66Hans Slvhj Minister without portfolio concerning foreign policy issues

67 Hans TaborMinister for Foreign Affairs

68

Kresten Helveg PetersenMinister for cultural affairs and for technical cooperation with the developing countries and for disarmament issues

71K.B. Andersen Minister for Foreign Affairs

73Ove Guldberg Minister for Foreign Affairs

75 K.B. Andersen Minister for Foreign Affairs

77

Lise stergaard Minister without portfolio con-cerning foreign policy issues

80 Kjeld Olesen Minister for Foreign Affairs

82 Uffe Ellemann-Jensen Minister for Foreign Affairs

93

Helle Degn The first actual Minister for Development Cooperation

94

Poul Nielson Minister for Development Cooperation

99

Jan Trjborg Minister for Development Cooperation

00

Anita Bay Bundegaard Minister for Development Cooperation

01

Per Stig Mller Minister for Foreign Affairs

04

Bertel Haarder Minister for Development Cooperation and for Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs

05

Ulla Trns Minister for Development Cooperation

10

Sren Pind Minister for Development Cooperation, and from 2011 also Minister for Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs

11

Christian Friis Bach Minister for Development Cooperation

CHAirMEN OF THE DANiDA BOArD

The aim of the Danida Board (the Board for International Development Cooperation) is to advise the minister for development cooperation and discuss new programmes, recommend grants etc.

62 Poul Nyboe AndersenProfessor, Doctor of Economics and chairman of FDB (COOP)

68 Kjeld Philip Former minister; reappointed for 1969-1971

72 Kai PetersenDeputy chairman of LO, the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions

75 Christian Kelm-Hansen Principal of Esbjerg Folk High School and later MP

90Peder ElkjrBank director

96Holger Bernt HansenProfessor, Center for Africa Studies, Doctor of Theology

08 Klaus BustrupFormer director of the Danish Agricultural Council, reappointed to 2013

For many years, Denmark provided development assistance without having a specific minister for it; the work was mainly handled by the minister for foreign affairs

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Results round-upDenmark and the poor countries in charts and figures

1962-2012 FOLD Out

Danida's footprint 1962-2012

Kenya 1965 - Pakistan 1965 - Tanzania 1965 - Thailand 1965 - Uganda 1965 - Ethiopia 1966 - India 1966 - Malawi 1966 - Malaysia 1966 - Nigeria 1966 - Zambia 1966 - Afghanistan 1967 - Botswana 1967 - DR Congo 1968 - 1983 and 2005 - Ghana 1968 - Indonesia 1968 - Egypt 1969 - The Philippines 1969 - Sri Lanka 1969 - Cambodia 1970 - Senegal 1970 - Vietnam 1970 - Benin 1971 - Bangladesh 1972 - Bolivia 1972 - Lesotho 1972 - Somalia 1972 - Sudan 1972 - Nepal 1973 - Yemen 1973 - Niger 1974 - Angola 1975 - Burkina Faso 1975 - Iraq 1975 - 1980 and 2003 - Mozambique 1975 - Burma 1976 - Nicaragua 1978 - Bhutan 1978 - 1981 and 1985 - China 1980 - Zimbabwe 1980 - Cameroun 1981 - Mali 1983 - Namibia 1990 - Eritrea 1993 - South Africa 1993 - Palestinian Authority 1994 -

These are the 46 countries to which Danida has provided most development assistance since 1966. Today Danida's bilateral assistance is concentrated on 26 partner countries.

Level of activity/decadeAssistance periods46 countries

60 70 80 90 00

Assistance periods

Includes decades where assistance was provided for at least five years. Minor breaks in assistance are not shown, nor is assistance provided in single years. This is especially relevant to the early assistance era, e.g. assistance to Egypt 1965-1967 is not shown. Source: Denmark's reporting to OECD/DAC

Partnership countries

A yellow dot signifies a partnership country. These are countries on which Denmark focuses particularly in its assistance and cooperation work.

Activity level per decade

The same colour tone does not indicate that the same amount of money was provided, but shows the relative level of activity.

Where transfers were made for a period of five years or more within a decade, the whole decade is registered as the period in which assistance was provided.

None

Low

Moderate

Significant

High

Cover portraits: Young girl from Bhutan and a Touareg man from Mali. photos: jrgen schytte/danida

Bolivia

Burkina Faso

Senegal

Mali Niger

DR Congo

Angola

NigeriaBenin

Cameroun

Ghana

Nicaragua

Namibia

Botswana

Lesotho

South Africa

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Mozam

bique

Malawi

Tanzania

KenyaUganda

Ethiopia

Somalia

Sudan

Eritrea

Yemen

Egypt

Palestinian AuthorityIraq

Pakistan

Afghanistan

India

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Bhutan

China

Burma

ThailandVietnam

Cambodia

The Philippines

Malaysia

Indonesia

Nepal

With support from Danida, large land areas have been given back to Bolivia's indigenous people. Five million of these people have obtained deeds to their own land.

Countries on which Denmark especially focuses support. These countries are still among the world's poorest. Among them are Nepal, Mali and Tanzania.

Countries on which Denmark especially focuses support. These countries generate enough earnings to be classified as middle-income countries, but still have significant levels of poverty. Among them are Vietnam, Bolivia and Pakistan.

Countries to which Denmark previously gave substantial support, but now gives modest support. Among them are Senegal, Angola and Yemen.

Countries to which Denmark previously gave substantial support. In some of them, Denmark's assistance has now ceased. In others, Denmark still provides support in certain areas, such as the environment or the development of a well-functioning state. These countries generate enough earnings to be classified as middle-income countries. They still have significant levels of poverty, but many of them are now making rapid progress and can manage their own affairs. Among them are Nigeria, South Africa and India.

Many developing countries were very poor in 1962, but today they are on course towards fending for themselves.

The map shows Danidas activities in the 46 coun-tries to which the majority of Danish development assistance has been given over the past 50 years. The countries are divided into four categories as shown below. Countries marked in yellow are Denmark's partner countries, i.e. selected countries that Denmark cooperates with and supports to a high degree.

PArTNErSHiP COUNTriES wHiCH ArE STiLL vEry POOr

PArTNErSHiP COUNTriES ON THEir wAy

COUNTriES DENMArK ONCE SUPPOrTED HEAviLy STiLL POOr

COUNTriES DENMArK ONCE SUPPOrTED HEAviLy ON THEir wAy

The map shows the 46 poor countries to which Denmark has provided most development assistance since the country's state development assistance was established 50 years ago

Around the World:Where Denmark has provided most assistance

Bolivia

Burkina Faso

Senegal

Mali Niger

DR Congo

Angola

NigeriaBenin

Cameroun

Ghana

Nicaragua

Namibia

Botswana

Lesotho

South Africa

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Mozam

bique

Malawi

Tanzania

KenyaUganda

Ethiopia

Somalia

Sudan

Eritrea

Yemen

Egypt

Palestinian AuthorityIraq

Pakistan

Afghanistan

India

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Bhutan

China

Burma

ThailandVietnam

Cambodia

The Philippines

Malaysia

Indonesia

Nepal

Cookers, solar panels and mini hydropower plants have given five million Nepalese access to clean and cheap energy, with Denmark's support.

In just 20 years, life expectancy in the small kingdom of Bhutan has increased by 19 years, thanks to the substantial support Denmark has given to the healthcare system.Almost a million

Tanzanians now have their own bank account, with Denmark's support. This gives them an opportunity to take out loans and deposit savings.

Benin: 800,000 people have gained access to clean drinking water. 3,350 water pumps and wells have been estab-lished since 2000 with support from Danida.

A world of difference If you think the world is falling apart, take heart and take a look at these figures which show the development of ten poor countries across four selected parameters. Danida has worked or is still working in all ten of these countries, although no claim is made of any direct con-

nection between Danida's presence and the progress achieved. The four indicators have been chosen because they are considered solid markers of development, and can also be documented with data going back as far as 1960.

Source: GapminderGapminder is a Swedish non-profit enterprise, which produces computer-animated displays of global development, based on UNDP's Human Development Index, data from the World Bank, and others. *The statement describes GDP per capita adjusted for local purchasing power, i.e. GDP PPP (Purchasing Power Parity). The high index weighting of real purchasing power means that, for example, Bangladesh is relatively highly rated in the index.

income development over 50 years*

1962 2012 GNP per capital in USD

Afghanistan

Bangladesh

India

Kenya

China

Mozambique

Nicaragua

Tanzania

Vietnam

Zambia

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000

Mortality in children under 5 years (%)

1960 2010

Afghanistan

Bangladesh

India

Kenya

China

Mozambique

Nicaragua

Tanzania

Vietnam

Zambia

0 10 20 30 40

Births per woman

1960 2010

Afghanistan

Bangladesh

India

Kenya

China

Mozambique

Nicaragua

Tanzania

Vietnam

Zambia

0 2 4 6 8

Life expectancy (years)

1960 2010

Afghanistan

Bangladesh

India

Kenya

China

Mozambique

Nicaragua

Tanzania

Vietnam

Zambia

0 20 40 60 80

p. 47/

The fall of the Wall a new era?

New optimism: The Wall came down, the Cold War ended and the Eastern Bloc was disintegrating. Optimists talked about a peace dividend the billions that would be redirected from military expenditure to the battle against poverty.

But the optimism was transient: Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the Balkans exploded into conflict. The Cold War seemed to have been replaced by a wildfire of local and regional conflicts around the world. Global development assistance decreased by almost one third in this decade.

But not Danish development as-sistance: it actually increased. Because when the UN conference in Rio in 1992 put the environment on the international agenda, a broad majo- rity in the Danish Parliament allocated extra money for environmental and

catastrophe assistance in addition to the ordinary assistance budget. The so-called MIKA frame earmarked for these purposes was established.

In proportional terms Denmark became the world's leading donor and made the environment, democracy and human rights into an export article.

Denmark becomes the leading donor in a conflict-ridden world

90Our condition is not that there is democracy, but democratisation.

Minister for Development Cooperation, Poul Nielson, 1997

s

p. 49/ 90s

The developing countries were scepti-cal, to put it mildly, when in 1972 the UN held its first environmental confer-ence in the Swedish capital Stockholm. Environmental protection was a luxury for rich countries to afford. Poor countries, on the other hand, needed to focus on growth and development.

Much had changed however when the UN held an environmental confer-ence again 20 years later this time in Rio in Brazil. The primary issue at the conference in 1992 was the environ-ment and development. The world saw new phrases such as ozone hole, desertification and sustainability.

Rich and poor countries alike realised that the threat to the environ-ment was global and had to be tackled internationally. At the same time, the end of the Cold War meant that there was the political will and the resources to engage in other things than military threats.

A new Danish exportDenmark established a Ministry of the Environment in 1971, but more than 15 years passed before environmental considerations were incorporated into Danish development assistance. In

1989, Danida introduced its first envi-ronmental action plan.

Real environmental projects started to emerge, for the benefit of the environment and Denmark. Danish companies and public sector authori-ties were well advanced in the environ-mental area, so there was a basis for system exports. Things did not work equally well every time, however.

Take for example the Danish-financed waste combustion plant built in New Delhi in India in the 1980s. The DKK 150 million plant was no use in a country where much of the combus-tible waste was sorted and reused, so there was only a tiny amount of waste remaining for combustion.

A leading positionSummit meeting statements are often accused of being empty promises. But when the Rio Conference was held in 1992, Denmark took on its part of the responsibility for the global environ-ment and the words were followed by action. The same year, a broad majority in the Danish Parliament established a new Environmental and catastro-phe frame. A special organisation for environmental assistance, Danced, was established under the Environmental Protection Agency in 1994. This was

a break with Danida's monopoly in state development assistance, and the enthusiasm showed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was commensurately modest.

Not only was DKK 100 million grant-ed for environmental initiatives under the new frame. It was also decided that the frame should gradually grow so that from 2002, it represented 0.5 percent of Denmark's GNI.

The money was added to the tradi-tional Danish development assistance. Denmark thus became the only coun-try to fulfil the Rio Conference aim of making funds for the environment additional i.e. not taken from, but added to the development assistance money.

The new frame became the start of a wide range of Danish environmental initiatives in a number of develop-ing countries. This work continues, although the frame was ended in 2001, environmental assistance being integrated into the other development assistance, now all under Danida's control.

envIronMental assIstance

Helping the world go greenOzone holes and sustainability Denmark takes the lead when development assistance needs to be environmentally friendly

ph

oto

: j

rgen

sch

ytte

/dan

ida

Greens are good for you. Touareg tribesmen cultivate their kitchen gardens in Niger, as Danish environmental assistance flourishes in the 1990s.

p. 48/ 90s

p. 51/ 90s

p. 50/ 90s

BusIness PartnershIPs

Seamstress Madam Loc in Vietnam has a workroom in Hanoi and is looking for customers. LS Flag in the Danish town of Hjrring makes flags but prefers to outsource production since it is too expensive to manufacture them in Den-mark. They get together and receive help to start their collaboration with a contribution from Danida's Private Sec-tor (PS) Programme.

The programme began in 1993 as a pilot project in Egypt, Ghana and India, and gradually spread to other Danish programme cooperation countries including Vietnam. The aim is to help entrepreneurs and private sector com-panies in developing countries to get started by matching them with Danish partners.

In 2000, Tu Thi Bich Loc visited the Fair Trade exhibition in Copen-hagen at the invitation of the Danish Embassy in Vietnam. At the exhibition

she met Lisbeth Scott Reinbacher of LS Flag in Hjrring, and before long, 50 Vietnamese workers were busy sewing Danish national flags, festival flags and all kinds of other flags for the Danish company.

The PS programme, later renamed Business-to-Business (or B2B pro-gramme for short), has over the years supported several hundred partner-ships between Danish companies and businesses in developing countries. It creates jobs and helps local en-trepreneurs and Danish companies operating in new markets, although the programme has received some criticism and far from all the projects are going as well as the flag production in Vietnam.

The little flag-waving land to the north creates jobs in Vietnam and so helps combat poverty.

Many were more than a little uneasy when Danida established a business office in 1986. As Danish Industrial Confederation director Ove Munch commented in the magazine