In recent years, Belgium introduced a number of reforms to development cooperation. This included an amendment to the Federal strategy to incorporate the Millennium Development Goals, and a consolidation of the institutional structures for managing development assistance. In 2003, the Government post for Development Cooperation was promoted to Ministerial rank reflecting the increasing importance of development in government policy-making.

As per the Law of 25 May 1999, the prime goal of Belgian development cooperation policy is sustainable human development, to be achieved by combating poverty. The October 2004 policy note of the minister for Development also confirmed that the MDGs are central to cooperation policy, and to some extent this is behind Belgium’s concentration in the LDCs and in the fragile states of Central Africa.

The 1999 law also introduced the principle of the concentration of direct Belgian aid. The country-focus of direct aid has increased substantially, targeting essentially 18 countries since 2003. Nevertheless, geographical concentration could be increased further in order to increase impact. Direct aid is also supposed to target five priority sectors (basic health care, education and training, agriculture and food security, basic infrastructure, conflict prevention and the consolidation of society), but this policy needs to be more fully implemented. In particular, the OECD suggests a further increase in aid for social services and basic infrastructure and better integration of cross-cutting themes. Further, the OECD suggests that the policy of increasing the focus of aid should also be extended to indirect aid provided through partners.