Netherlands, Nederland

Netherlands - Global Development

A small country with global reach. Explore Dutch contributions to water management, agriculture, and climate action, alongside its open questions on tax policy and aid.
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Netherlands Global Development: Aid Cuts, Tax Haven Status, and a New Government’s Reset

The Netherlands has long punched above its weight in global development. Yet its foreign policy shifted sharply after 2024. Aid fell, tax criticism grew, and climate targets slipped out of reach. A new government now tries to reset course. This article explains what changed, why it matters, and what it means for the Sustainable Development Goals.

A History of Outsized Influence

With just over 18 million people, the Netherlands has consistently ranked among the world’s top ODA donors. In 2024, it was the seventh-largest donor by volume and by share of gross national income. Its water management, agriculture, and trade expertise shaped decades of development cooperation worldwide.

However, this reputation began shifting after the November 2023 election. A new right-wing coalition, led informally by Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom, took office in 2024. Development policy became a central target of budget cuts almost immediately.

The 2024-2027 ODA Cuts: A Historic Reversal

In September 2024, the new coalition announced a structural cut of €2.4 billion to the annual development budget, starting in 2027. This was described at the time as the largest development cooperation cut in Dutch history.

The plan reduced Dutch ODA from 0.62% of gross national income in 2024 to roughly 0.44% by 2029. This fell well short of the country’s long-standing 0.7% commitment. Interim cuts of €350 million and €550 million were also scheduled for 2025 and 2026.

The policy shift went beyond numbers. The new Policy Memorandum redirected Dutch aid toward trade, security, and migration interests. It ended funding for women’s political participation, UN Women, and the Leading from the South program entirely.

NGO funding took the heaviest hit. The government cut civil society grants from €1.4 billion over five years to between €390 million and €565 million. Starting in 2026, Dutch NGOs also lost funding for domestic lobbying activities entirely.

Critics called the cuts historic in scale, not just amount. Dutch NGOs warned this would silence Global South voices in negotiations in Brussels, The Hague, and Geneva. Rutgers International specifically warned of harm to sexual and reproductive health funding for women and girls.

A New Government Tries to Reverse Course

Dutch politics shifted again after the October 2025 election. The Wilders-aligned coalition collapsed after just one year, following disputes over asylum policy. A new government, led by D66’s Rob Jetten, was sworn in on February 23, 2026.

This coalition of D66, VVD, and CDA holds only 66 of 150 seats, forming the Netherlands’ first minority government in decades. Still, it announced plans to reinvest ODA in humanitarian aid, climate, education, women’s rights, and civil society.

The new coalition also commits to global health funding, including sexual and reproductive health and rights. However, a large share of the available aid budget remains earmarked for Ukraine, which limits funds for other priorities. It remains uncertain whether reinvestment can fully offset the earlier cuts.

This reversal illustrates a wider pattern. ODA levels reflect political choices, not fixed national policy. They shift with elections, coalition agreements, and changing government priorities, in the Netherlands as elsewhere.

Tax Policy Contradictions Worsen

Dutch tax policy continues to undermine the country’s development reputation. This contradiction runs through Dutch global development policy for decades. The Netherlands funds international aid while its own tax system drains revenue from developing countries elsewhere.

The Tax Justice Network’s Corporate Tax Haven Index ranks the Netherlands seventh among the world’s most complicit jurisdictions. Over €4 trillion flows through Dutch special purpose entities every year. Much of this reflects the so-called “Dutch Sandwich,” a well-known corporate tax avoidance structure.

The European Parliament has specifically identified the Netherlands as a facilitator of aggressive tax planning. Research shows developing countries lose billions of dollars annually to profit shifting through conduit countries like the Netherlands. These losses often exceed the total aid these countries receive.

This pattern connects directly to the Sustainable Development Report’s Spillover Index, which measures how one country’s policies affect others’ ability to reach the SDGs. The Netherlands’ poor spillover ranking stems partly from this same corporate tax haven status, alongside its weapons and plastics exports.

Despite recent reforms, including new substance requirements for holding companies, the Netherlands remains one of Europe’s leading conduit jurisdictions. Real reform would likely help developing countries more than any single aid program the Netherlands funds.

Climate Targets Slipping Out of Reach

As a low-lying coastal nation, the Netherlands faces direct exposure to climate change. Nearly one-third of the country sits below sea level. Yet its own climate record increasingly falls short of its legal targets.

Dutch law requires a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, matching EU commitments. However, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency rates the odds of hitting this target below 5%. Current policies point toward only a 44% to 52% reduction instead.

Climate policy weakened further under the previous government. In June 2025, parliament voted to abolish a national carbon levy meant to help meet EU obligations. Climate experts noted policy had stagnated, or even reversed, since 2024.

The new Jetten-led coalition offers a potentially different direction. D66 now controls the Ministry of Climate and Green Growth, alongside Foreign Trade. The €35 billion Climate Fund survives, though with modest spending reductions of roughly €1.2 billion.

Dutch renewable energy capacity, particularly offshore wind and solar, continues expanding rapidly. However, experts stress that grid infrastructure investment must accelerate to keep pace. Whether the new coalition can close the emissions gap remains genuinely uncertain.

Trade Policy and Tariffs

As one of Europe’s most trade-dependent economies, the Netherlands felt US tariff policy immediately and directly. In 2024, roughly 6.5% of Dutch export value went to the United States. Yet indirect effects through wider European trade proved equally significant.

A July 2025 EU-US trade agreement settled tariffs at 15% for most EU-origin goods, replacing an earlier 20% rate. Steel and aluminum still face 25% tariffs. Dutch chemical, machinery, and steel sectors absorbed the heaviest direct impact.

The Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest, plays a unique role here. More than half of tariff-affected goods passing through Rotterdam are simply re-exported elsewhere in Europe, limiting the direct burden on the Dutch economy. Still, transshipment rules require true Dutch origin to qualify for EU rates.

Unlike the US, the Netherlands has not used tariffs against developing countries. It continues to remove trade barriers for developing-country exports through programs tied to the Dutch Good Growth Fund. This trade openness remains one of the country’s genuine development strengths.

What the Netherlands Still Contributes

Despite these contradictions, Dutch global development expertise remains genuinely valuable. Water management is the country’s most distinctive contribution. Programs like “Water for Development” share flood control and coastal knowledge with countries such as Bangladesh and Indonesia.

The “Room for the River” approach, which works with natural water systems rather than against them, has become a global model for climate adaptation. Dutch agricultural innovation matters equally. Despite its small size, the Netherlands ranks as the world’s second-largest food exporter by value.

Wageningen University leads global research in precision farming and vertical agriculture. Programs like Seeds of Growth combine agricultural products with knowledge transfer, targeting smallholder farmers and women specifically. The Dutch Good Growth Fund also finances small businesses across emerging markets directly.

These contributions show genuine Dutch strengths in global development. However, they exist alongside the tax and aid contradictions described above, not instead of them.

How This Connects to the SDGs

ODA, tax policy, and climate action all shape Dutch contributions to the SDGs directly. Cuts to women’s programs and UN Women funding weakened SDG 5, on gender equality, immediately. Falling NGO funding undermines SDG 17, on global partnerships, specifically.

Dutch tax haven status drains resources developing countries need for SDG 1, ending poverty, and SDG 10, reducing inequality. Missing domestic climate targets undermines the credibility behind SDG 13, climate action, even as Dutch water expertise supports climate adaptation elsewhere.

The Sustainable Development Report’s Spillover Index captures this contradiction precisely. It measures whether a country’s economic and financial policies help or harm other nations’ SDG progress. Corporate tax facilitation and high per-capita consumption both weigh against the Netherlands here.

Because these policies touch trade, finance, and climate simultaneously, their combined effect ripples across many SDGs at once. This is why RYB tracks ODA, tax, and climate together, rather than as separate national stories.

A Pattern, Not an Isolated Case

The Netherlands was not alone in cutting ODA after 2024. Germany, France, the UK, and the US all reduced aid budgets around the same period, for different domestic reasons. The Dutch cut was distinctive mainly for its scale relative to the country’s size.

Unlike the United States, however, Dutch politics already produced a partial reversal. The 2025 Wilders-aligned coalition lasted barely a year before collapsing. Its replacement moved quickly to restore some ODA funding within months of taking office.

This contrast matters. US aid cuts in 2025 remain largely intact, softened only by a partial Congressional restoration in 2026. Dutch cuts, by comparison, are already being partly reversed through ordinary democratic change.

This shows ODA, tax, and climate policy remain political choices everywhere, not fixed national character. They shift with elections and coalition agreements. RYB will continue tracking this pattern across its country pages.

Looking Forward

The Netherlands enters 2026 with real momentum for change, but real constraints too. A minority government cannot simply reverse two years of cuts through legislation alone. Every budget decision will require support from parties outside the coalition itself.

Ukraine’s continued claim on the aid budget limits how much reinvestment reaches other priorities, including women’s rights and civil society. Meanwhile, Dutch tax haven status remains largely unaddressed by the new coalition’s early agenda.

Climate policy offers the clearest test case. With D66 controlling the Climate Ministry, ambition may return, but the 2030 target likely remains out of reach regardless. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency’s next annual outlook, expected late 2026, will show whether new policies are enough.

RYB will continue watching whether reinvestment in aid, tax reform, and climate policy translate into results, not just intentions. This page will be updated as new government decisions and data emerge.

How we build this page

This page is part of the RYB five-page country profile for the Netherlands, covering Global Development, SDGs, Culture Women’s Day, Gender Gap, and VAWG. Our country pages methodology explains the sources, reports, and research approach behind every page in this series.

Sources and References

Flag of the Netherlands

Netherlands

Kingdom of the Netherlands • Nederland

Population
18,081,939 (2025 est.)
17,463,930 (2023)
17,337,403 (2021)
17,280,397 (2020)
17,084,719 (2017)
Capital: Amsterdam
Internet country code: .nl

Government
Official website: government.nl
Official Dutch tourist office: holland.com
Netherlands Enterprise Agency: english.rvo.nl
Statistics Netherlands (CBS): cbs.nl

UN
KingdomNL at UN: PR UN, New York
UN Women Nederland: unwomen.nl
UNESCO Nederland: unesco.nl
Universal Periodic Review: ohchr.org/upr/nl

Population counter
The counter shows how many registered inhabitants there are in the Netherlands at this moment according to the most recent estimate of Statistics Netherlands.
> cbs.nl/population-counter

Ethnic groups
Dutch 75.4%, EU (excluding Dutch) 6.4%, Turkish 2.4%, Moroccan 2.4%, Surinamese 2.1%, Indonesian 2%, other 9.3%

Religions
Roman Catholic 20.1%, Protestant 14.8% (includes Dutch Reformed, Protestant Church of The Netherlands, Calvinist), Muslim 5%, other 5.9% (includes Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish), none 54.1% (2019 est.)

How fast has the population of the Netherlands grown?
In 1900, the Netherlands had just over 5 million inhabitants. By 1950, that number had doubled to 10 million. Growth accelerated after the Second World War, reaching 13 million by 1970. The growth rate has slowed since: it took 11 years to grow from 15 to 16 million, but 15 years to grow from 16 to 17 million.

How many people will live in the Netherlands in the future?
The population is projected to reach 19 million by 2037, and 20.6 million by 2070. Migration and rising life expectancy drive most of this growth. By 2040, a quarter of the population will be 65 or older.

Background

The Dutch United Provinces declared independence from Spain in 1579. Through the 17th century, they grew into a leading seafaring and commercial power, with colonies and settlements worldwide. A Kingdom of the Netherlands formed in 1815, after 20 years of French occupation. Belgium seceded in 1830, forming its own kingdom.

The Netherlands stayed neutral in World War I, but suffered German invasion and occupation during World War II. Today, the country is a modern, industrialized nation and a major agricultural exporter. It co-founded NATO and the EEC, now the EU, and adopted the euro in 1999.

In 2010, the former Netherlands Antilles dissolved. Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba became special Dutch municipalities, while Sint Maarten and Curaçao joined the Netherlands and Aruba as constituent countries within the Kingdom.

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