Netherlands to push for international conference

The Netherlands has said it will press for holding an international conference on the Great Lakes region, an idea already mooted by France. Setting out the Netherlands’ new Africa policy in a green paper to parliament, Foreign Minister Jozias van Aartsen and Development Minister Eveline Herfkens said the country would adopt an “integrated” approach to the continent. This meant the Netherlands’ political, economic and developmental programmes would be considered and designed integrally. This would be applied if the international Great Lakes conference went ahead, the paper said. “In our view such a conference must deal cohesively with political and economic issues.” The paper said the Netherlands’ integrated Africa policy would not focus exclusively on countries meeting the criteria for Dutch bilateral structural aid, but would also take into account the “apparently hopeless countries” where there is no sound policy or good governance, and countries which because of their regional importance could play a special role in providing stability.