Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Focus UK development cooperation Dutch development cooperation reform No development model Eastern Europe Multilateralism versus bilateralism in foreign aid The Utstein Group The Millennium Development Goals Development Assistance Committee (DAC) 03/2003		The Utstein Group The Utstein Group – U4 for short – was formed in 1999 by the development ministers of Germany (Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul), the United Kingdom(Clare Short), Norway (Hilde Johnson) and the Netherlands (Eveline Herfkens). The event took place at Utstein Abbey near Stavanger in Norway. Owing to the change of government in the Hague on 22 July 2002, Eveline Herfkens dropped out of the U4 line-up; the Group's latest meeting on 16/17 July in Wiesbaden was attended for the first time by Sweden's development minister Jan Karlsson. The Utstein Group meets on a regular basis in pursuit of its aim of showing by example how common goals can be achieved by informal, practical cooperation. The objective is to coordinate donor efforts, i.e. to discuss national strategies and enhance their coherence, primarily through cooperation in the field in developing countries. This process is monitored by a joint evaluation group. One model Utstein project at present involves health sector cooperation in Tanzania, where concerted action gives each partner access to the human resources and expertise of the others and lightens the administrative load on the recipient side. Such ventures also encourage initiative on the part of developing countries themselves. One major U4 success has been the implementation of the international debt relief initiative providing a total of 70 billion dollars worth of relief for the world's poorest, most heavily indebted countries. The Utstein members see themselves as an "impulse group" for the donor community, a group proposing ideas and courses of action on major issues. U4 activities are open to participation by non-member countries and are all based on cooperation with developing countries in a spirit of partnership.