Danida, Denmark's foreign aid organisation, will receive DKK 600 million (EUR 80 million) more in 2007 than it did this year. In all, the government will allocate DKK 12.8 billion (EUR 1.72 billion) to foreign aid next year, reported national daily Politiken on Monday.
The increase is the first time the current Liberal-Conservative government has increased foreign aid since it came to power in 2001.
Most of the new funds will go to programmes in Africa, according to the minister for development cooperation, Ulla Tørnæs.
The government's focus on Africa was highlighted by the choice of Mali as its newest programme partnership country. As a programme partnership country, Mali will work with Denmark over the next 20 years to reduce poverty.
Mali will join Benin, Burkina Faso, and Ghana as Danida programme countries.
In addition, Danida will nearly double its aid to Niger, contributing DKK 80 million (EUR 11 million) to improve water supplies and food safety in the world's most impoverished country.
The decision to raise aid in 2007 is a result of a government decision not to let aid fall to below 0.8 percent of GDP.
GDP has risen at a rate of four percent annually the past five years. Aid levels have remained unchanged, however, causing Denmark to fall from the most generous giver of foreign aid as a percentage of GDP to third after Norway and Luxembourg.
Aid organisation DanChurchAid welcomed the decision to use more money on African programmes. Henrik Stubkjær, DanChurchAid secretary general, hoped that the extra aid would be put towards long-term projects.
'With the catastrophes we've seen recently, it is tempting to allocate more money to emergency assistance. But it's easier for us to collect money after an emergency than it is for development,' said Stubkjær.