In 1997, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs joined with the Ministry of the Environment to develop a consistent strategy for environmental development cooperation. One of the main policies of the strategy is to strengthen the development partners’ determination and ability to address their environmental problems. Therefore, the focus is on formulating and implementing national environmental plans and strategies. This includes building institutional capacity and competence, mapping and monitoring of the resource base, as well as support for education and training in science and technology. Particular emphasis is put on capacity and development of systems for assessing environmental impacts. Development cooperation funding is also used in the development and implementation of national and global treaties and conventions, for instance, to address climate change, biodiversity and ozone issues. Norway today has special cooperation agreements with a number of developing countries, including China, Indonesia, and South Africa. In addition to these special arrangements on environmental cooperation, projects of varying size and length are being carried out in a number of other developing countries.
In Mozambique, institution cooperation between the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT) and the Ministry of Coordination of Environmental Affairs is aimed at further developing and strengthening the latter, in order to enable it to perform its role as an environmental authority effectively. Similarly, in Namibia, an adviser from SFT is assisting the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in Developing a Programme for Pollution Control and Waste Management. Also in Zambia, SFT is participating in projects that seek to regulate air and water pollution, in addition to improving waste management and environmental information. In Tanzania, the Directorate for Nature Management (DN) and various Norwegian research institutes are assisting the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in developing programmes for the management of renewable resources, forests, and biological diversity. In Vietnam, SFT has assisted the authorities in the development of management systems to improve pollution control in the State’s growing oil industry.