GREEN GLOBE YEARBOOK 1996 81 Development Assistance and the Integration of Environmental Concerns: Current Status and Future Challenges

Increasing awareness of resource degradation and pollution has formed a new and complicated cross-sectoral challenge to development policy and aid programmes. The bilateral as well as multilateral development community has had to address pressing environmental concerns, and adjust organizations and policies to new demands and expectations relating to the nature of development assistance. However, little is known yet about the content, quality, and effectiveness of these responses. In this article, we synthesize the findings of one of the first detailed assessments of a donor country’s performance in this area. The article is divided into three sections: (1) an overview of the overall environmental challenges to development aid, including a discussion of the trade-offs between environmental and other aid goals; (2) a summary of key findings of the evaluation of Norwegian ai