Cordaid is the Roman Catholic organisation for development cooperation in the Netherlands. Cordaid was founded towards the end of 1999 following the merger of three Roman Catholic development organisations: Memisa, Mensen in Nood (Caritas Netherlands) and Bilance (formed in 1995 as a merger between Cebemo and Vastenaktie). Supported by half a million people in the Netherlands, Cordaid is working with more than thousand partners worldwide seeking a dignified existence for poor people and for those who are deprived of their rights.

Cordaid also cooperates with a range of groups in Dutch society such as authorities and civic organisations and with the corporate sector, for example in the field of socially responsible entrepreneurship. Cordaid is also a member of international networks of Catholic development organisations such as CIDSE and Caritas Internationalis.

Cordaid's approach is based on building on people’s own strengths. Cordaid does not implement projects in developing countries itself (except in cases of humanitarian emergencies). Instead, the organisation cooperates with local organisations.

The central issue in Cordaid's policy is poverty alleviation. Cordaid tackles poverty using a variety of approaches:

1. direct poverty eradication (financial support to local counterparts);
2. civil society building;
3. lobby and advocacy;
4. and structural assistance and emergency aid.

Cordaid’s priorities:

• Peace and conflict: Cordaid is working towards sustainable peace by offering people possibilities to combat injustice and inequality and to deal with conflicts in a peaceful manner;
• Access to markets: Cordaid wants to facilitate lasting improvements in the incomes of poor people in developing countries. To this end Cordaid is focusing on small farmers and entrepreneurs who are organised in cooperatives or other forms of cooperation;
• Healthcare: Cordaid works to create a permanent healthy, liveable environment and sufficient income for poor and vulnerable groups in cities in developing countries; Particular attention is paid to women, young people, the elderly and refugees.
• Urban liveability: Cordaid is working to achieve a permanently healthy, safe and supportive environment and sufficient income for poor and vulnerable groups in cities in developing countries;
• HIV/Aids: Cordaid focuses on preventing and fighting HIV/Aids and on its social consequences; particularly in Africa since this continent has by far the greatest number of HIV/Aids victims.
  

Cordaid is also involved in Capacity Building activities through I/C Consult, a joint advisory unit of ICCO and Cordaid. I/C aims at strengthening the capacity of ICCO and Cordaid partner organisations (see the ICCO-profile for a description of this facility).

In 1968, representatives of the humanist movement in the Netherlands established Hivos. In 1978 it became one of the Dutch CFOs. Hivos operates on the basis of humanist values. It aims to contribute towards a free, just and sustainable world. The organisation is committed to the poor and marginalised - and to the organisations that promote their interests - in countries in the South and in South Eastern Europe. Sustainable improvement of their situation is the ultimate benchmark for Hivos' work.

Hivos contributes to a sustainable and fair world by increasing opportunities for people in developing countries and giving them greater scope to develop themselves. Local NGOs play a key role in this. They support groups of citizens who defend their own interests and who fight for human rights and democratisation, thus helping to shape an active and resilient society.

Hivos supports autonomous NGOs that contribute to sustainable development and is their ally in the political debate on international cooperation. As an active member of Dutch and European networks, Hivos lobbies for a foreign policy that considers developing countries.

Hivos provides financial and political support to over eight hundred local private organisations in more than thirty countries in Africa, Asia, South America and South Eastern Europe. The activities of these organisations centre on the five Hivos policy themes:

1. economy and credit facilities;
2. culture and the arts;
3. women and development;
4. sustainable development;
5. human rights and AIDS.

Since the year 2000, Hivos also develops an ICT action and policy programme. With this programme Hivos helps developing countries utilise the chances and opportunities available in the field of information and communication technology (ICT).

In a European context, Hivos works closely with like-minded development organisations in Alliance2015. Hivos carries out international lobbying activities on issues with public appeal in close cooperation with pre-eminent southern or international partner organisations, or - in the case of the EU - within the Eurostep framework.

ICCO's mission is to work towards a world where poverty and injustice are no longer present. ICCO's work consists in financing activities that stimulate and enable people to organise dignified housing and living conditions in their own way. ICCO is active in countries in Africa and the Middle East, in Asia and the Pacific, in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Central and Eastern Europe.

ICCO has its roots in the Dutch Protestant-Christian churches and cooperates with church and secular organisations that are directly involved with the prime target groups.

ICCO focuses on three main themes:

1. Access to basic social services such as education, food, water and health care. In the North, ICCO’s advocacy activities focus mainly on the recognition and granting of economic, social and cultural rights, especially to women, children and minorities.
2. Fair Economic Development (FED), which is directed at improving income, employment and environment in the developing countries.
   In the Netherlands, ICCO joins forces with other organisations working on development assistance and trade. It lobbies for a coherent policy on trade and development cooperation and it draws attention to ethical investments, socially responsible entrepreneurship, biotechnology, the plundering of raw materials and (economic) globalisation.
   In October 2002, ICCO and partner-organisations founded the international SFU (Sustainable Forest Use) Working group that focuses on use-rights, identification of products, capacity-building and commercialisation of products. For real economically viable development initiatives, processing of these products is needed. Sound and fair co-operation with both governments and businesses is also considered necessary to create better market opportunities.
3. Democratisation and Peace Building, which increases the chances for economic and social progress. ICCO pays extra attention to conflict prevention and peace building as well as to the conciliatory role of religion and churches. In the North, ICCO strives for good global governance by exposing violations of human rights and seeking more attention for the role of churches and religion.

ICCO uses the following instruments for its policies:

• Co-financing.
  Emergency aid. In emergency situations, ICCO works with local partner organisations as well as in the Global Ministries of the Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands (ACT Netherlands) to provide help. The activities are directed towards conflict prevention and stimulating peace, rehabilitation and human rights issues.
  ACT Netherlands is member of ACT International, an ecumenical international alliance of more than two hundred churches and church-related agencies that respond to emergencies.
• Capacity Building:
  This takes place through two specialized agencies, I/C Consult and the Medical Co-ordination Secretariat.
  I/C Consult, the joint advisory unit of ICCO and Cordaid, provides tailored consultancy services on programmatic and organisational issues.
  The Medical Co-ordination Secretariat is a health advisory body for and of the Department for Global Ministries (MDO) of the Uniting Churches in The Netherlands, ICCO and the Reformed Mission League of the Netherlands Reformed Church (GZB).
• Personnel Cooperation:
  Personnel cooperation not only supports local organisations in developing or upgrading their capacities, but also provides contacts and ensures effective exchange and sharing of experience.
• Loans and guarantees:
  ICCO has developed a special programme concerning loans and guarantees. Through cooperation with Dutch banks, local banks and specialised financial institutions like Oikocredit, ICCO manages to multiply, with a limited amount of this investment-capital, the amount of available funding. ICCO gives financial support to promising economic projects that do not qualify any longer for start-up aid.
• Front Desk:
  To increase public support for development cooperation in the Netherlands, ICCO has set up a Front Desk, which provides financial support, staff and advice to development projects actively supported by social organisations in the Netherlands. ICCO’s Front Desk also offers these groups and organisations the opportunity to translate their involvement in development cooperation into a financial or knowledge-based contribution to ICCO’s work. To this end, the Front Desk will be building a network of volunteers in the Netherlands over the coming years, which will promote ICCO’s work to the general public and specific target groups.

Novib was set up in 1956. Novib’s activities during those initial years were characterised primarily by campaigns to combat hunger.

In order to increase the effectiveness of its work, Novib joined Oxfam International in 1994. Oxfam International is an alliance of 12 independent organisations that work together on the basis of the conviction that poverty and exclusion are unjust and unnecessary. In 2006 Novib decided to continue under the name Oxfam Novib.

Oxfam Novib's aim is to try to put a structural end to poverty and marginalization in the world and to encourage worldwide justice. A variety of means are used to work towards achieving this. On the one hand, Oxfam Novib supports counterparts directly and, at the same time, tries to influence the policies of governments, the corporate sector and international organisations in such a way that these contribute to structural poverty eradication.

Oxfam Novib works within the Oxfam 'codex' which centres on a rights based approach because poverty is in fact the same as a lack of rights. There are five rights to which anyone in the world should be able to appeal to:

1. the right to a sustainable livelihood;
2. the right to basic social services;
3. the right to life and security;
4. the right to social and political participation;
5. the right to identity.
   

These rights are all recognised individually by various organisations throughout the world and are laid down in a large number of agreements, conventions and declarations. Oxfam Novib and the other Oxfam members base their work on these international agreements. Within these five rights Oxfam Novib focuses primarily on the following themes:

• income and trade (right to a sustainable livelihood);
• education for girls (right to basic social services); living in safety (right to life and safety);
• social and political participation (right to social and political participation); and
• rights and security for women (right to identity).

To attain its objectives, Oxfam Novib is active in three fields:

1. initiatives to ensure that poor people have access to basic rights by means of support for local development projects initiated by private organisations in developing countries;
2. advocacy by lobbying national governments, the European Union, international organisations such as the World Bank or the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations; and
3. campaigning, to make people worldwide aware of the injustices in the world and to show what they can do about them either via Oxfam Novib or in some other way.

Oxfam Novib cooperates with the eleven sister organisations of Oxfam International and with local organisations (in total 3,000) across the world and in the Netherlands.

• Projects:
  Oxfam Novib is convinced of the power of people to solve their own problems. Local organisations in developing countries are best equipped to know what is needed.
  Oxfam Novib supports local counterparts in a variety of ways: financially, with advice, and through linking & learning. Because counterparts often tackle similar problems, Oxfam Novib regularly organises meetings between them. In this way, experiences can be exchanged per country or per region and successful methods of working can be shared.
• Lobbying:
  Poverty and inequality are often perpetuated or aggravated by the policies of governments and large companies. Oxfam Novib uses advocacy to try to change such policies and to work, in combination with direct poverty eradication, towards achieving a just and poverty-free world. Oxfam Novib works on advocacy in two ways: indirectly by providing support to our counterparts in their activities in the field of advocacy, and directly via its own activities primarily in the Netherlands and - in Oxfam International context - at European and international level.
• Campaigning:
  Oxfam Novib campaigns in order to bring people’s attention to the injustices in the world and to increase the basis of support for, and involvement in, structural poverty alleviation. Another goal is to mobilise people to make a contribution to a just and poverty-free world.
• Cooperation:
  Oxfam Novib works at the national level with other Dutch development organisations, private initiatives and the corporate sector. At the international level Oxfam Novib works within the context of Oxfam International and with governments, international organisations, civic organisations and the corporate sector.
• Microfinance:
  Oxfam Novib’s core objective is that micro finance is used in such a way that it contributes profoundly to improve income and to overcome the injustice, faced by the millions of people living in inhumane conditions across the world.

Oxfam Novib is the publisher of Onze Wereld (Our World), which is a main Dutch monthly magazine on globalisation issues.

PLAN Netherlands was founded in 1976 as Foster Parents Plan Netherlands (FPP). During the eighties the organisation changed its focus from direct aid to children and their families to structural aid for communities. In 1999 FPP became an official CFO and two years later the name was changed into PLAN Netherlands.

PLAN's vision is of a world in which all children realise their full potential, in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity. PLAN believes the answer lies not in handouts, but in building the foundations for long-term, sustainable improvements in the lives of children and the communities in which they live.

PLAN's projects can be grouped into five key areas:

1. Building relationships -or the right to listen and to be heard-. Plan seeks to create a worldwide community sharing a common agenda for development that focuses on children;
2. Health -or the right to grow up healthy-. Plan’s health projects cover a broad range of areas, such as projects to immunise children against disease, to train medical staff or build a health centre;
3. Livelihood -or the right to an income-. Projects in this area target the root causes of poverty to ensure that the families' improved financial position leads to increased economic and social benefits for their children;
4. Habitat -or the right to a decent place to live-. Plan helps communities provide themselves with the resources they need to create decent living conditions, such as a constant supply of clean water, secure housing, lighting, roads and bridges; and
5. Education -or the right to learn: Plan works to ensure that children, young people and adults get the basic learning and life skills they need to realise their potential and contribute to the development of their communities.

The Terre des Hommes movement was founded in 1959 in Lausanne (Switzerland). Subsequently, Terre des Hommes groups were created in various countries. In 1966, they joined together to form the International Federation Terre des Hommes which links ten national organisations in Europe and one in Canada. Over the years, the activities of the Terre des Hommes movements evolved from an initial concept of assisting individual children towards a community based approach. The present trend is to address the causes of the problems that affect children, whilst respecting local cultures.

The Dutch branch of Terre des Hommes, founded in 1965, fully subscribes to the Charter of the International Federation, including the article not to interfere with and not to be influenced by political and religious motives. The objectives of TDH are to provide effective, rehabilitation and care for orphans and homeless children and medical treatment in developing countries. TDH mainly funds small-scale projects in developing countries that strive to bring sustainable improvements in the local living conditions of children.

Primary areas of work:
Through local non-governmental partners, TDH provides funds for a wide variety of activities such as basic education programmes, primary health care, mother and child care, health/education/preventative health programmes, vocational training, income generating projects, feeding programmes for malnourished, shelter for homeless and abandoned children, special programmes for deprived/disabled children, assistance for children who are victims of war and violence, action against child labour and support for neglected children.

Besides supporting projects in developing countries, TDH also works to raise awareness and change attitudes and behaviour among the Dutch public. In 1996, TDH launched the campaign ‘Stop Child Prostitution’ to create public support in the Netherlands to combat these violations of children's rights. The aid provided by TDH to children in developing countries is underpinned by campaigns designed to place children's rights in an international context.

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