Country Profiles
Norway
Context
Norway continues to be a committed political and financial supporter of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
Parliamentary election was held in Norway autumn 2021, and the Labour Party and Centre Party formed a minority government, following eight years with a centre-right coalition government. The new government has women’s bodily autonomy as one of their six priority areas for Norwegian ODA. In their political platform Hurdalsplattformen, the Norwegian government states that they want to strengthen Norwegian efforts, establish new alliances, and increase support for family planning, contraception, and safe abortions. The Minister of Development has also been vocal about the importance of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), and an earmarked funding for this purpose was adopted in the ODA budget for 2022.
Norway’s total ODA expenditure in 2022 was 4.9 billion Euros (49,6 billion NOK). Even if there is a cross-party political agreement to spend 1% of GNI on international development, the past few years this principle has not been presented in the State Budget. The government proposed great cuts to ODA in the 2022 budget, due to the war in Ukraine and expected arrival of refugees. Large parts of the proposed cuts were renegotiated back, after great pressure from the Socialist Left Party and strong requests from civil society. For the 2023 budget, the suggested ODA amount is still below 1 % of the GNI, and a significant portion of the funds will go to Ukraine relief efforts, both in Ukraine, neighbouring countries and in Norway.
Policies & funding
Norway has over years been a strong supporter to SRHR, and there is a cross-party support for this. The Norwegian APPG has members from all parties in parliament. The current government has identified SRHR and bodily autonomy as one of six main priorities for Norwegian development cooperation.
In 2022, the Government developed a new, updated Guideline for sexual and reproductive health and rights (2022), intended for Norwegian foreign missions. In 2021, the Norwegian government adopted 16 Partner Country strategies for bilateral development cooperation for 2021 – 2023, and all of them emphasize the importance of gender equality, and in some is SRHR mentioned as an element in achieving this.
In 2023, several key policies have been in the process of being updated. In September 2023, Norway published the new action plan on Women, peace and security. The National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security has a more inclusive gender language compared to previous plans. Another positive aspect is the focus on both national and international targets, compared to only international emphasis in previous plans. However, specific SRHR measures are not sufficiently addressed. In October 2023, the new action plan on women’s rights and gender equality in foreign affairs and development cooperation was presented. In the action plan, SRHR is identified as the first of five main thematic goals, and harmful practices is the second. Norway is further expected to publish an updated humanitarian strategy and a new Africa strategy in 2024.
During the Nairobi Summit in 2019, Norway made great financial and political commitments to SRHR, including 1 billion Euros (9,6 billion NOK) to SRHR in 2020-2026, 76 million Euros (760 million NOK) to eliminate harmful practices in 2020-2023, and 100 million Euros (1 billion NOK) to prevention of GBV/SGBV in humanitarian crises for 2019-2021. Finally, Norway committed to increase the percentage of bilateral development assistance that has women’s rights and gender equality as a primary or significant goal from 33% to 50%.
For some years, Norway has been lagging behind on fulfilling the 1 billion Euros (9,6 billion NOK) to SRHR. In 2022, this backlog was taken in, and the government is now back on track on this commitment. The percentage of ODA projects with women’s rights and gender equality as a primary or significant goal has however decreased in 2022, from 41 % to 35 %. This is mainly due to funding directed towards Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees in Norway, inflating the total budget and thus affecting the percentage.
Internationally vocal
Norway remains vocal in global negotiations on advancement of SRH/FP such as the UN Commission on Population and Development (CPD) and the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). In 2024, Norway will be hosting the International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Action Programme.
Key documents
- Country factsheet 2022-2023-Norway.pdf
- Action Plan: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in the Foreign and Development Policy 2023-2030.
- Action Plan: Women, Peace and Security 2023-2030.
- SRHR Embassy Guidelines (2022)
- White paper: Partner Countries in the Development Policy (2017-2018).
- White paper: Norway´s Role and Interests in Multilateral Cooperation (2018-2019).
- Action Plan: Norway´s Humanitarian Strategy: An effective and integrated approach 2019-2023. In process of renewal
- Action Plan: Norway´s International Strategy to Eliminate Harmful Practices 2019-2023,
- Press release: Norway´s commitments to the Nairobi Summit (2019).
- White paper: Norway´s Action Plan to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 (2020).
- Action Plan: Action plan for continued reduction in the number of abortions – information and availability 2020 – 2024.
- Political Platform: The Norwegian Government’s political platform 2021 – 2025.