A joint review of Norwegian - South African development cooperation 1995-2001

This joint review of Norwegian - South African development co-operation was commissioned by the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD)/the Norwegian Embassy Pretoria and the South African National Treasury. The study provides an overview and an assessment of the Norwegian development assistance to South Africa since the first democratic elections in 1994. Nearly one billion Norwegian kroner were disbursed from Norway to South Africa during the first seven years. A relatively high proportion of this aid has been channelled through Norwegian NGOs to a variety of private South African organisations. 25 percent of the aid has gone directly from the Norwegian State to the South African State. This report's overall assessments and conclusions have both positive and negative elements. In some areas the Norwegian contribution has been highly relevant and effective, especially in some of the efforts to assist in developing new policies and planning institutional reform, such as in the support to the energy and fisheries sectors. The record is much more uneven in the Norwegian support to implementation and capacity building. The achievements have been fewer in the Norwegian support for poverty reduction and job creation. The study also welcomes the efforts to include a regional Southern African dimension in the co-operation programmes with South Africa, but finds that these regional components are small and suffer from an insufficient Norwegian strategy for assistance to regional co-operation. The review also notes that co-operation has been entered into between South African and Norwegian institutions in most areas. The political co-operation between the two countries is also judged to be solid and strong. The commercial and private sector co-operation on the other hand, is limited. Based on the lessons learnt and extensive interviews with stakeholders in both countries the review team recommends a continuation of the development co-operation programme. However, the study proposes significant changes in scope are focus and makes 18 sets of recommendations. A key proposal is the scaling up of support to regional development efforts in Southern Africa and a more systematic Norwegian support for regional co-operation.