In 2020 Norway gave 39.5 billion Norwegian Kroner to aid in the development assistance budget. How the development assistance funds are distributed and further used, have been on the public discourse in 2021. The debate centered around whether aid works, how it is organised, and what needs to be prioritised. The Director for Norad’s department for Knowledge, Håvard Mokleiv Nygård wrote in an article on bistandsaktuelt.no in December 2021 that asking “whether aid works” is the wrong question, and we need to ask the right questions. He further argued that aid works and believes the discourse needs more nuance.

Fellesrådet for Afrika in collaboration with Rethinking Economics Norge invites to a panel discussion to discuss, among others, the following questions:

- What are the right questions we need to be asking?

- Should Norwegian aid prioritise economic growth or democracy?

- Is the current organisation of Norwegian aid working, or does it need to be reorganised and how?

- Is Norwegian aid taking the right considerations in assessing the dilemmas, challenges and conditions of aid?

- Which dilemmas do Norwegian decision-makers face in the organisation of aid, and how do they solve them?

Panelists:

- Adriano Nuvunga, Director of the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) & Steering Committee of the Mozambique Human Rights Defenders Network (RMDDH).

- Indra de Soysa, Professor at NTNU. He

has previously worked at the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO) and the University of Bonn in Germany. His research interests are primarily in the field of political economy and has published widely in top international journals.

-Jon Lomøy, former director of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) from 2015-2019. He has also served as Ambassador of Norway to Tanzania and Zambia. Lomøy is also a former director of the Development Cooperation Directorate of the OECD.

- Hamdi A. Mohamed, board member of Rethinking Economics Norway, an international network of students, academics and professionals seeking to building better economics. Mohamed has a masters in Social Economics from UiO and is currently working in Statistics Norway.

Moderator will be Rahwa Yohaness, the Norwegian Council for Africa.

Picture from: trendsnafrica.com