Country Profiles
Netherlands
Context
On July 7 2023, the Dutch government coalition fell. The cabinet members could not agree on an asylum policy. Consequently, elections were announced for November 22, 2023.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wopke Hoekstra of the Christian Democrats (CDA), resigned soon after and was replaced by former Minister of Domestic Affairs Hanke Bruins Slot, also of the Christian-Democratic Party (CDA). Liesje Schreinemacher of the Liberal Party (VVD) remained the Minister for International Trade and Development Cooperation until the elections. She started her pregnancy leave soon after and was replaced by Geoffrey van Leeuwen as interim outgoing Minister.
The November elections brought in a victory from the right-wing Party for Freedom, followed by Frans Timmermans’ Labour-Green alliance. At time of writing, the Party for Freedom are negotiating with the liberal party, the farmer’s party and the new party New Social Contract to form a coalition. It is still uncertain how long coalition negotiations will last and if they will succeed.
On June 24, 2022, the Minister for International Trade and Development Cooperation published the policy document ‘Do what we do best’. In this document, sexual and reproductive health and rights remain a priority. Furthermore, the Dutch Global Health Strategy (DGHS) and Africa Strategy were published in October 2022 and May 2023, respectively. Both maintain SRHR as a policy priority. In the DGHS, contributions to SRHR are intended to intensify. In May 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP). No policy document was published (yet), but an internal feminist foreign policy tool for civil servants was launched. The Ministry hosted a feminist foreign policy conference in early November 2024, where they announced this tool.
Policies & funding
Dutch Overseas Development Assistance (ODA)
ODA increased from 4.7 billion and 4.47 billion in 2020 and 2021 respectively, to 6.21 billion Euros in 2022. ODA is budgeted for 6.70 billion in 2023 and 6.713 billion Euros in 2024. Net ODA also increased in 2022 compared to the previous years, going from 0.59% and 0.52% respectively, to 0.62% in 2022. It is expected to further increase to 0.67% in 2023 and 0.65% in 2024.
An important note is that a large percentage of ODA will be spent on the costs for first-year asylum seekers in the Netherlands itself. In 2023, 1.19 billion Euros are budgeted for first year asylum seekers, amounting to 18%. This percentage will increase up to 20% in 2024, with a budget of 1.34 billion Euros. This budgetary increase for first year asylum seekers leads to cuts in funding on other development cooperation budget lines, including the budget line for SRHR. At time of writing, the budget for 2024 has yet to be discussed. This means the Netherlands will go into 2024 without an ODA budget, which is uncommon. The budgets will be discussed by the new parliament.
Funding for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Total official expenditure by the Dutch government for SRHR and HIV/AIDS amounted to 533 million in 2021 and 579 million Euros in 2022. These budgets increased compared to the budget in 2018 and 2019. However, this was mainly due to contributions to COVID. These contributions are included under the heading of social development of the budget, which is the same heading as for SRHR. Therefore, as the budget for social development increases, this does not automatically entail an increase for SRHR. The budget for global health and SRHR for 2023 is set at 507 million Euros and 508 million in 2024. As mentioned, the decrease in budget is due to the increasing budget for first year asylum seekers and the budget is still to be discussed by parliament at time of writing.
The Netherlands, within the framework of Family Planning 2030, committed to enable access to contraceptives for 3.5 million women and girls in 2022. In the budget report released in September 2022, the heading ‘Sexual and reproductive rights and HIV’ was changed into ‘Global health and SRHR’. The respective indicator on contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) was changed to ‘number of 20 selected countries with an annual increase of modern CPR’. A target has been set for 2024, which is at 20 out of 20 countries. The Ministry reported that 18 out of 20 countries showed an increase of CPR in 2022.
For the period 2020-2025 the Minister launched a new subsidy framework, including the SRHR Partnership fund of 315 million Euros.
Internationally vocal
The Netherlands is a strong supporter of SRHR, as shown in their statements at the annual Commission on Population and Development, the Commission on the Status of Women, Human Rights Council, and High-Level Political Forum. The Netherlands often takes a lead role in intergovernmental negotiations, cross-regional statements on SRHR and in 2021, during the Generation Equality Forum, the Netherlands led the action coalition of Feminist movements and leadership. The Netherlands is also involved in SheDecides and supported the movement at multiple occasions in international fora. Additionally, the country is vocal at the EU level and is part of the specific Team Europe Initiative on SRHR in Sub-Saharan Africa.
