Diplomats from the South should not hesitate to urge countries like the Netherlands to maintain the effective scholarship programs for global south students as well as funding for joint research. But they should also urge their home countries to expand or start their own scholarship and research funding programs. Jointly investing in education and science will continue to be the key driver to flourishing people, societies, and international relations, as well as addressing the global challenges we jointly face.
For a small country, the Netherlands has always played an impressive international role. Not only in international trade, but also – and related to it – in science. The world would have been different without the law of the sea of Hugo Grotius and the humanism of Erasmus. In the field of diplomacy and development, the country has also for many years been willing to contribute to stable and mutually beneficial international relations. The constitution of the Netherlands makes this responsibility explicit in art 90: The Government shall promote the development of the international legal order. That is why there has been much support to develop The Hague into the international city of peace and justice. It has also led to strong commitment to international development cooperation.
As diplomats from the global south will know, many young people from the global south have made their way to study in the Netherlands or another European country. Some of our educational institutions are even specifically tailored to the needs and interests of students from the global south. Many mid-career professionals attended training programs under the rubric of ‘capacity building’. Whether it is in agriculture and food security, water or energy technology, or management and social sciences, global south education has become an important part of knowledge diplomacy since the 1950s. We might even call this the ‘development decades’. In returning to their home countries, the alumni have proven to become important connectors between the two countries. Many of them build mutually fruitful collaborations over decades.