Shall we start investing in development aid ourselves?

The Dutch cabinet has decided to make significant cuts to the development aid budget. Each year, €2.4 billion less. This week it was announced that NGOs dedicated to development aid will have to manage with a budget of €0.4 billion instead of €1.4 billion.

If it were up to Minister Klever for Foreign Trade and Development Aid, we would completely abolish support for developing countries. Nowhere is the motto ‘The Dutch first’ more evident than in the development aid budget.

The global gap between rich and poor is still immense. This gap is reflected, among other things, in the unmet credit needs of SMEs in developing countries. The IFC (International Finance Corporation) estimates this so-called financing gap at about 5.7 trillion(!) dollars.

Even more so than in the West, small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries are the main source of jobs and job creation. However, these enterprises lack access to fair financing and therefore have limited opportunities for growth. A cynic might even conclude that more local jobs would be an excellent means against the migration that this cabinet finds so undesirable.

I refuse to believe that the Netherlands has become an indifferent country or that we have suddenly become blind to global inequality. Let’s join forces and fill the gap that the Dutch government will create in the coming years. Lendahand cannot do this alone—and it doesn’t have to. There are plenty of groups that, just like us and our investors, dare to look at the world with a positive outlook.

For those who can afford it, this is by far the easiest form of protest. There! I had to get that off my chest.

Arno Hoogenhuizen, CEO of Lendahand, on behalf of the entire team.