Utenriksdepartementet

Governance index 2024

The agency is in the second-highest quartile among the ministries (17 agencies). Its development over three years is in the second-lowest quartile.

• Financial control: 71 of 100
• Audit: 100 of 100
• Employer: 94 of 100
• Procurement: 50 of 100

Quartiles within the group, not a ranking. Parts without figures are left out and the weights spread over the rest.

Efficiency and quality 2024

In the group «the ministries» (17 agencies) the agency falls in the box «Well governed, high use of resources».

Efficiency (use of resources)

• Operating cost per full-time equivalent: 6 of 100 · 5,874,170 kr
• Growth in cost per full-time equivalent, 3 years: 13 of 100 · +78.5%
• Consultancy share of operating cost: 69 of 100 · 1.4%

Quality of governance

• Financial control (budget deviation): 71 of 100 · −4.4%
• Stability of the budget deviation, 3 years: 67 of 100 · ±0.9%
• Audit: 100 of 100 · not named among the accounts with material errors
• Competition in procurement: not included (no open figures) · 100%

The placement is a quartile in the group, not a score or a rank. A low use of resources can reflect different tasks or underfunding, and quality here means quality of governance, not quality of service. Parts without figures are left out.

Not measured: quality of service and user satisfaction, cost per output, and staff turnover.

State accounts

The deviation from budget covers the agency's own operating chapters (posts 01–29), where it posts at least 95 % of the amount. The budget is the adopted budget, changes during the year and what was carried over from the year before. Source: DFØ, state accounts.

As an employer, 2025

• Employees: 1,519
• Agreed full-time equivalents: 1,504
• Full-time equivalents lost to certified sick leave and parental leave: 3.1% (state average: 5.6%)
• Departures as a share of employees: 0.0% (0 departures, 0 new hires)
• Women: 56% · Leaders: 34.1% · Average age: 49.2

Agreed full-time equivalents by year: 2022: 1,421 · 2023: 1,448 · 2024: 1,525 · 2025: 1,504

Source: Statistics Norway (SSB), tables 12627, 12876, 12877 and 12827 (CC BY 4.0), unit «Utenriksdepartementet». The share lost compares full-time equivalents excluding parental leave and certified sick leave with agreed full-time equivalents: it mixes the two and is not sick leave alone. It counts in the employer part of the governance index, where lower is better.

Salary costs, 2025

Two of the key figures DFØ asks agencies to report, computed the same way for all from the state accounts and SSB full-time equivalents. Against the median for agencies of the same type (17 agencies). Operating expenditure per full-time equivalent and the consultancy share are under efficiency.

• Salary per full-time equivalent: 2,150,589 kr (median 1,189,044 kr)
• Salary share of operating expenditure: 39.6% (median 63.6%)

Source: DFØ (state accounts, NLOD) and Statistics Norway (SSB), table 12627 (CC BY 4.0). Salary is account class 5 in the state accounts (payroll costs, which may also include employer’s contributions and pensions). A high salary per full-time equivalent can be the task, not waste: the figures are context and do not count in the index.

Documents from Kudos

• Evaluation · 15 December 2025
  Rapport om norske nasjonale eksperter i EU
• Evaluation · 15 October 2025
  End Review of the Fish for Development Programme in Ghana
• Evaluation · 30 September 2025
  Israel/Gaza: Evalueringsrapport av UDs krisehåndtering høsten 2023
• Evaluation · 6 November 2025
  A comparative study of Swedish and Norwegian Development Aid to Afghanistan 2015–2021

Source: DFØ (Kudos), the documents are held by Kudos. Annual reports and evaluations are tied to the agency that owns them, letters of allocation to the agency that receives them.

The annual audit

Source: the Storting's recommendation on the annual audit (Document 1). «Not among» means the agency is not named there, not that we have read the audit report.

Procurement in Doffin

The single-tender share is computed from awards where the number of tenders is given. Source: Doffin (DFØ).

The Storting

Questions from members of the Storting to the ministry's minister, and cases naming the ministry in the title.

Latest

• 27 October 2026 · Written questions · to the utenriksministeren
  Hva gjør regjeringen for å sette kristenforfølgelse høyere på dagsorden i norsk utenrikspolitikk, og hvordan reagerer Utenriksdepartementet på de rapporterte angrepene mot kristne i Etiopia?
• 26 October 2026 · Written questions · to the utenriksministeren
  Bisto Norge i valgobservasjonen i Serbia og vil utenriksministeren ta opp med den serbiske ambassadøren hvordan serbisk diaspora i Norge ved fremtidige valg kan få reell mulighet til å avgi sin rettmessige stemme?  
• 23 October 2026 · Written questions · to the utenriksministeren
  Vil regjeringen nok en gang stemme for resolusjonen som fordømmer USAs blokade mot Cuba og hva gjør regjeringen for å følge opp de uavhengige FN-utnevnte menneskerettighetsekspertenes oppfordring om å handle raskt for å hindre at USAs folkerettsbrudd fører til en helt unødvendig og fremprovosert humanitær krise?
• 14 October 2026 · Written questions · to the utenriksministeren
  Den 28. september offentliggjorde vietnamesiske myndigheter at de hadde pågrepet den norske statsborgeren og menneskerettighets aktivisten Thuan Doc Nguyen, sammen med en australsk og en vietnamesisk statsborger. Hvilke tiltak setter norske myndigheter i gang for å bistå og hente hjem den norske statsborgeren?
• 12 October 2026 · Written questions · to the utviklingsministeren
  Norfund framstår som den klare vinner i regjeringens forslag til bistandsbudsjettet for 2027. Bevilgningen til Norfunds utviklingsmandat økes med 1,46 mrd. på bekostning av annen bistand til Afrika, fredsdiplomati, utdanning, matsikkerhet, fornybar energi med mer. Hvilke analyser ligger til grunn for denne tydelige prioriteringen, og foreligger det uavhengige evalueringer som indikerer at de arb
• 9 October 2026 · Written questions · to the utviklingsministeren
  Hvor mye må må Klimainvesteringsfondet trappes opp, år for år fram til 2035, dersom man skal nå et mål om en klimafinansiering på 100 milliarder kroner årlig i tråd med anbefalingene i rapporten "Norway’s Fair Share of Meeting the Paris Agreement Goals"?
• 9 October 2026 · Written questions · to the utenriksministeren
  Skal Norge delta på tilsynskonferansen til FNs atomvåpenforbud 30. november til 4. desember 2026?
• 9 October 2026 · Written questions · to the utenriksministeren
  To år har snart gått sidan Manal og mora Tamara vart evakuerte frå Gaza til medisinsk behandling i Noreg. To år sidan dei såg far og veslebror. Familien har fått innvilga familiegjenforeining, men utan bistand maktar dei ikkje å bli gjenforeint. Kva vil utanriksministeren gjera for at denne og dei andre svært få familiane dette gjeld, blir gjenforeinte?

Source: the Storting (data.stortinget.no, NLOD). Not counted in the index: much attention in the Storting is not bad, and little is not good. Questions are linked to the ministry by the minister's title, and to other agencies only when the name is in the title. We do not show who asked or answered.

Sub-units (3)

• Direktoratet for eksportkontroll og sanksjoner (DEKSA)
• Direktoratet for utviklingssamarbeid (NORAD)
• Norsk senter for utvekslingssamarbeid (Norec)

What we do not measure

We do not assess policy, goal attainment, the quality of services or individual cases. We look only at what can be measured in open data and what the agency itself controls: financial control, audit and procurement. Sick leave per agency is not openly available and is therefore left out.

See an error, or does the agency want to comment on the figures? Write to post@morninganalytics.com