Goals

Poverty must be fought with human rights and economic growth. This is the strong message in the strategy for Denmark’s development cooperation, “The Right to a Better Life”.

Poverty has many faces. Hunger and high child mortality are among the harshest expressions of poverty. Others are conflicts, insecurity, oppression and vulnerability to disasters. But poverty is also about women, men, boys and girls who are unable to claim their rights and incapable of influencing their own life.

Denmark’s development cooperation must fight poverty and bring coherence to our policies. In order to do this efficiently we cannot just focus on the most obvious symptoms. We also have to confront the structures which maintain people in poverty and societies in inequality. Here human rights are central. If we help poor people fight for their rights we also fight the main causes to poverty. Therefore the objective of Denmark’s development policy is to fight poverty and promote human rights. They are closely interlinked.

However, we cannot fight poverty and realise fundamental human rights in societies without a solid economic foundation. Therefore lasting economic growth is key to lasting poverty reduction, but not in itself sufficient. Denmark will promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth and increased employment, which will remain a fundamental element in Denmark’s development cooperation. Through efforts to combat poverty and promote human rights and growth Denmark’s development cooperation will work to support the creation of societies that ensure people’s rights and promote equality, including access to decent employment, education, health and to social protection. With emphasis on the EU, Denmark will work to create better coherence between policies that impact developing countries. 

Four strategic priorities

Denmark will concentrate its development cooperation on four strategic priority areas which are interconnected and which will enable Denmark to make its contribution to combating poverty and promote human rights.

• Human rights and democracy
• Green growth
• Social progress
• Stability and protection

A rights-based approach

Denmark will apply a human rights-based approach to development. Human rights are part of our core values and are a driver of change, exactly because they are based on commitments made by the countries themselves. Therefore, Denmark will include the UN human rights conventions, standards, norms and instruments more systematically in our development cooperation. They will guide our political dialogue, concrete development interventions and the partnerships that we enter into. Denmark’s development cooperation will be strengthened by consistently integrating the principles of non-discrimination, participation, transparency and accountability - from initial analyses to final evaluation. The principles are fundamental standards and values in international human rights.

Flexible partnerships

Denmark will be a strong, trustworthy, active and committed partner in international development and will meet the commitments we have given the world’s poorest. Denmark's international development cooperation is based on partnerships where both parties are mutually accountable. Denmark will expect results from its partners, but also expects that they will hold us to account for fulfilling the commitments we make. This aims to ensure a more equal partnership where both sides contribute. We will work with the partners who are best able to promote our objectives. These we find both in the public and the private sector, in the multilateral system, civil society and among new development partners and global foundations. They are also found among our like-minded development partners, including the Nordic countries and the EU, with whom we will continue our active collaboration on common goals and priorities.

Read more:

The Act on International Development Cooperation has recently revised. The revised Act will be available in English on this website shortly. Until then, the Danish version of the un-revised Act can be found via the link below.