Danish International Development Agency
| Parastatal of the Government of Denmark | |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Headquarters | Copenhagen, Denmark |
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Key people
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Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen Permanent State Secretary of Foreign Affairs Kim Jørgensen State Secretary of Foreign Policy Martin Bille Hermann State Secretary of Development Policy Lars Thuesen State Secretary of Trade and Strategy |
| Products | Development finance, small and medium enterprise finance, export finance, import finance, foreign investment finance, development aid |
| Website | DANIDA |
Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), is the brand used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark when it provides humanitarian aid and development assistance to other countries, with focus on developing countries. There is no distinct Danida organisation within the Ministry.
The organisation's name was originally DANAID. In Greek mythology, the Danaids were daughters of Danaus who killed their husbands and were condemned to fill a bathtub with water to wash away their sins. Because the buckets they were given to do this were actually sieves, they worked for all eternity in Tartarus without making any progress. For this reason, the aid agency's name was changed from DANAID to DANIDA at the last minute when this unfortunate connotation was discovered. The term Danida appeared in 1963.
Denmark has been granting development assistance since the end of the Second World War. It is one of the five countries in the world that meets the United Nation's target of granting 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) in development assistance. In 2011 Denmark disbursed roughly DKK:15.753 billion (US$2.98 billion) in development assistance to countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Denmark's European Union neighbors. In 2009, DANIDA worked in close association with the Indian Government's Padmasree award winner, K.Viswanathan, and the prestigious institution Mitraniketan. Furthermore, DANIDA works in collaboration with many Danish NGOs such as Global Medical Aid.
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Wikipedia