Danish International Development Assistance

Danish development assistance is directed toward alleviating poverty by
promoting economic growth and social development. Recent DANIDA policy is
to increase aid quality by establishing long-term program cooperation with
fewer (20-to-25) developing countries, by emphaiszing grants instead of
loans, by strengthening the role of women in development, and by promoting
respect for human rights and democractic values. About half of Danish aid
is bilateral assistance intended to reach the least privileged in the
poorest countries, about half the bilateral assistance is allocated to the
countries classified by the UN as least developed countries. Most of the
remaining aid is granted as multilateral assistance through international
orgnizations -- the UN system, the regional development banks, the European
Community, and as humanitarian assistance. Following a May 1991
restructuring of Danish aid administration, DANIDA has ceased to exist as
an organization but is used to denote official Danish cooperation with
developing countries. That reorganization established a South Group in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the locus of development assistance. South
Group headquarters are in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Copenhagen,
Denmark.