In the first fifteen years, the Netherlands mainly focused on the multilateral structures regarding the organization of aid, based on the conviction that the Netherlands was too small to set up its own bilateral aid program.
Collaborating on UN projects from the beginning caused inter- and intraministerial competence disputes. In 1949, this was temporarily resolved by the formation of an interdepartmental Working Committee on Technical Assistance to Low-Developed Countries (Withall).
In the same year, the government decided to allocate an amount of 1.5 million guilders for technical assistance to the UN programme EPTA, which is seen as the beginning of official Dutch development cooperation (although larger amounts of money were sent to the colonies). The objectives of the new government activity were summarized in the note about the Dutch contribution to the programme of the United Nations for technical assistance to economically underdeveloped countries. In this Note, three reasonings were posed why the Netherlands should cooperate with the UN program: greater recognition abroad, possible export opportunities, and placement of intellectuals and technicians for whom there is no place in the Netherlands.