The death of the aid percentage: An analysis of what Norwegian aid goes to

Never before has the share of Norwegian aid going to poverty reduction and development been lower. More and more is going to security policy, climate and issues other than poverty reduction -- and to Europe instead of the world's poorest countries. Here are two different ways to illustrate this, with roughly the same result, based on the government's budget proposal for 2026:

1. Thematic dilution: 20% of Norwegian aid goes to non-humanitarian aid to Ukraine (primarily energy and budget support), 13% to climate and environment, 5% to refugee spending in Norway, and 4% to something not even the Ministry of Finance considers expenditure (safe capital investments in Norfund). Then only remains 59% of the aid budget to traditional aid measures, including in the fields of health, education, gender equality, peace, human rights, food security and humanitarian work outside Europe.
2. More to global common goods: In 2023, a government-appointed group of experts (the “Sending Committee”) recommended a new framework for aid, splitting aid into two: “traditional aid” (the one with a primary focus on poverty reduction and development in the poorest countries as well as humanitarian assistance), and investment in global common goods. In addition, they believed that some of the government's aid is not aid at all (measures of low development relevance). Based on this, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned an analysis from Norad of the aid budget for 2022 and 2023. Based on Norad's methodology, we have reviewed the budgets up to and including 2026, and find that Only 54% of Norwegian aid now goes to development, poverty reduction and humanitarian efforts (“traditional aid”). This is over ten percentage points lower than in 2022, and most likely the lowest proportion in Norwegian aid history (over 70 years).

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Here is a summary of the analysis for the budget years 2022-2026:

The aim of this analysis is to show a trend in Norwegian aid, where it is watered down and used to a greater extent for global common goods and Norwegian self-interests. This is happening almost without public debate, and without any resolution from Parliament on new direction. If Norway's commitment to international solidarity is to stand by, this trend must be stopped and reversed.

The policy report is only in Norwegian - contact kontakt@langsikt.no for an English version.