It is one of the few nations to make serious inroads into a global initiative to help raise the standards of living and protect the environment in the developing world. As of 2009, Norway can claim to have reached its goal of spending 1 percent of its annual Gross Domestic Income (GDI) purely on development aid.
Norway’s spending on foreign aid has been steadily increasing in recent years. The budget for 2009 will include NOK 26.2 billion, crossing the 1 percent GDI threshold, and catapulting this altruistic Nordic nation into an elite group with only one other member: Sweden.
According to the newspaper Afterposten, all of the political parties in the Norwegian parliament, except for the Progress Party, fully support the plan to give 1 percent of the nation’s GDP to development projects and aid. One of the Norwegian government’s main priorities is to help reduce global warming. It believes protecting the world’s remaining rainforests is essential to this goal.
Next year, Tanzania, Congo and Brazil will get even more money to save their rainforests than in previous years. Other projects that the government plans to spend its aid money on centre around education, women’s rights and clean alternative energy.