Clearer division of responsibilities between the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Norad
The Norwegian Government has decided that the Foreign Service will further refine the ministerial and directorate model. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have a clearer responsibility for policy formulation and governance. Norad will have more responsibility for Norwegian aid administration. A clearer division of responsibilities will result in better and more efficient Norwegian aid administration.
In general, the aid administration currently performed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be transferred to Norad from early 2024. Among other things, Norad will assume responsibility for the following budget items:
- Humanitarian budget items
- Global security issues and disarmament
- Human rights
- Large parts of the support for the UN
- Programmes in Europe, Central Asia and Afghanistan
Bringing more experts together
“We are strengthening Norway’s international efforts for the future by ensuring that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs becomes better at what it should be best at: gaining international support for Norwegian policies. At the same time, we are gathering expertise in Norad to build a strong, comprehensive, professional aid environment. Norad is already our leading aid environment. By strengthening this expert environment, we want to ensure Norwegian aid has the greatest possible impact in the future, together with our partners,” says Anniken Huitfeldt, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have administrative responsibility for core contributions to certain multilateral organisations where the level of support has been decided by the Storting (Norwegian parliament), and peace and reconciliation programmes.
The Ministry will continue to allocate aid money to foreign service missions, which will administer the funds as before. Grants to Norfund, Norec and the Research Council of Norway, as well as debit authorisation granted to other ministries and directorates, will continue to be administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Norad to get responsibility for emergency aid
Until now, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has administered emergency aid and humanitarian aid. This responsibility will now be transferred to Norad.
“To produce the best possible results on the ground, both emergency aid and long-term development aid must support each other. We are currently bringing together the knowledge environments in order to achieve a more comprehensive approach,” says Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Minister of International Development.
“We have very good administrative environments in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and I want to ensure that we transfer that important expertise to Norad and build even stronger expert environments there,” says Tvinnereim.
Bård Vegar Solhjell, Norad's Director General, believes the decision is a good move.
“It will ensure even higher quality and more efficient Norwegian aid. While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously administered humanitarian aid and Norad long-term development aid, a comprehensive expert aid environment will ensure that we are even better equipped to face a reality in which many regions of the world are affected by conflict, acute need, climate crises and the need to build up capacity over the long term,” says Solhjell.
Process going forward
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Norad have initiated a restructuring process designed to facilitate the new division of responsibilities from early 2024.
Until further notice, civil society organisations and others who have agreements with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Norad must adhere to the same procedures and contact points as before.