Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the channel through which the Dutch Government communicates with foreign governments and international organisations. It coordinates and carries out Dutch foreign policy. The Ministry has two halves: its headquarters in The Hague and its missions abroad (embassies, consulates, and permanent representations).

Poverty reduction is the main objective of Dutch development policy. All the Netherlands’ development cooperation activities are designed to help alleviate poverty and hunger. The Netherlands works to improve conditions for enterprise in developing countries. Special attention is given to agriculture due to its importance for employment and poverty reduction.

The Netherlands supports entrepreneurs’ organisations and Chambers of Commerce in developing countries. It also cofunds measures to strengthen the financial sector, fight corruption and improve the customs and tax services.
Specific examples:

• The ministry provides support via Agriterra, a Dutch organisation which promotes international cooperation between farmers’ organisations, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, and a West African farmers’ organisation. This is helping to strengthen the position of producers’ organisations from developing countries on the international market, and will in turn boost the income of farmers, both male and female.
• The Agri-ProFocus alliance has been established by approximately 20 development cooperation and agricultural development organisations (including Solidaridad, Agriterra, Rabobank, Oikocredit, ICCO, Novib, Cordaid and KIT). Agri-ProFocus matches producer organisations in developing countries with Dutch organisations which can help to answer their questions. These range from questions about markets, administration and management to financial services, micro-credits, information and capacity-building. Agri-ProFocus also supports organisations representing cotton producers in West Africa (www.agri-profocus.nl).

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the past donors of the Forum for Agricultural Risk Management in Development (FARM-D).