After the establishment of the wide NOVIB in 1957, and the SOH, the SIH and more (see the previous bullet here), in the 1960s more protestant and catholic organisations came to being. The Catholic CEBEMO was founded in 1961. Another catholic organisation was founded the same year, called Vastenactie. In 2000 Cebemo merged with other organisations and became Cordaid, as it is known today.
The protestant counterpart of Cebemo was ICCO (Interkerkelijke Coördinatie Commissie Ontwikkelingssamenwerking), which was founded in 1964 by the merger of various smaller protestant organisations. In 2021, it became part of Cordaid. Other protestant organisations are AMREF, founded in 1969 and ZOA, founded in 1973.
There were also new general and inter-church organisations established, like the Service Over Borders (Dienst over grenzen, DOG), which became a part of ICCO in 2000. There were also non-religious organisations founded, most well-known is HIVOS, founded in 1968 and based on humanistic principles.
The co-financing programme
After years of back-and-forth between the government, parliament, churches and development organisations, in 1965 the first Minister for Development Cooperation, Theodorus Bot, launched the co-financing programme (medefinancieringsprogramma, MFP). Initially, the MFP was focused on private / civil society development activities by the three main NGOs along the ‘traditional pillars’ of Dutch society: Novib (general), Cebemo (Catholic), and Icco (Protestant). In 1970, Hivos (humanistic) became the fourth organisation within the MFP. The MFP provided these organisations with a fixed subsidy. For 1965, 5 million guilders was available in subsidies. Other, often smaller NGOs, missed out.
These years can be characterised by tensions between the state and civil society organisations about the mission and purpose of development cooperation, as well as between civil society organisations themselves, often based on religious and ideological cleavages.
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