The OECD Development Assistance Committee's 1999 review of Finlands development aid programmes and policies. It finds that following a steep decline in its development co-operation programme in the early 1990s Finland is engaged in redesigning and building up its aid programme. The Cabinet Decision-in-principle of September 1996 is now the main point of reference for Finnish development co-operation. It includes a firm target of 0.4 per cent by the year 2000 for the ratio of Finland's official development assistance to the gross national product (the ODA/GNP ratio), the integration of development co-operation into a coherent foreign policy framework and the reorganisation of the aid administration within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

At the DAC review of Finland's aid policies and programmes on 16 October 1998 the Committee commended both the partnership orientation of Finland's policies, as set out in the Decision-in-principle, and the growing volume of Finnish aid, a welcome reversal of the situation at the time of the last DAC Peer Review of Finland in 1995, when aid volume was in a deep decline. This Review addresses several other key issues: Finland's long-term partnerships with primary orientation countries; the flexibility concept, included in the Decision-in-principle; the need for clear sectoral and cross-cutting policy guidance; field management and delegation to the field; and the revised screening process for project and policy proposals that is part of the quality control system of Finnish aid.