February 10, 2012
Posted: 15:32 PM UTC
by San Bilal on February 10, 2012
On Friday 27 January the European Commission published its Communication on “Trade, Growth and Development: Tailoring Trade and Investment Policy for Those Countries Most in Need” proposing “concrete ways to enhance synergies between trade and development policies”. It contains all the right words, but does not say much new. As is often the case with EC Communications, the document brings together a breadth of content from across different Directorates within the EC. This leads to a relatively un-controversial document that appears to draw on the main emerging consensus in both fields of trade and development ...
February 3, 2012
Posted: 15:53 PM UTC
by Melissa Julian on February 3, 2012
Development and poverty reduction should be a priority of European external affairs, according to the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. An indication of whether this is actually the case and what priorities are being pursued by Europe is given by how the EU plans its external aid programmes and how it allocates financial resources. Both are cornerstones of the political dialogue between the EU and its partner countries, and shape the character of cooperation. On the European side, two institutions have a say when it comes to planning aid: the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation-EuropeAid ...
February 3, 2012
Posted: 13:15 PM UTC
by ECDPM Editorial Team on February 3, 2012
On the 1st of February H.E. Shirley Skerritt-Andrew, Ambassador of Saint Lucia, took over as Chairperson of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors. She will preside the group for the coming 6 moths. In an interview with ECDPM, Skerritt-Andrew talks about the challenges and opportunities for the ACP Group in 2012 and beyond. ECDPM: In the global development context, fundamental shifts are under way at the moment. They will change the character international cooperation will have in the future. The development agenda now – in addition to the principal objective of eradicating poverty – embraces multiple ...
January 27, 2012
Posted: 12:30 PM UTC
by Alisa Herrero Cangas on January 27, 2012
The EU has a longstanding tradition of engaging in democracy promotion, using a wide range of strategies and instruments to support processes of democratic consolidation, including in difficult contexts. While some successes have been achieved, the task of building genuine democratic systems that go beyond formal structures and help to deliver development has proven very challenging – for both local democracy promoters and international partners. The need for “deepening democracy” has become a rallying cry in the last years. Growing attention is paid to the role of both the “political society’” (i.e. parliaments, political parties) ...
January 27, 2012
Posted: 10:53 AM UTC
by Bruce Byiers on January 27, 2012
Financing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) remains a major challenge. It is becoming clear that Official Development Assistance from donor countries will not be sufficient to fill the existing finance gap. A new OECD Working Paper zooms into domestic resource mobilisation – savings generated from domestic resources – as potential source of finance, and gives an updated estimate of the cost of meeting the MDGs. This article takes a closer looks at some details of the report. OECD’s research plays a valuable role in re-focusing minds towards the costs involved in meeting six of the MDGs ...
January 13, 2012
Posted: 13:14 PM UTC
by Andrew Sherriff on January 13, 2012
In the various analyses of the European External Action Service (EEAS) one year on, those who view the glass “half empty” (mostly independent analysts, journalists and think tanks) seem to have the upper hand on those who view it as “half full” (the official report). Key questions for assessing the EEAS’ performance in relation to Africa are: has the EEAS helped to upgrade the political dialogue between the EU and Africa, and increased the coherence of EU policies, while also furthering development commitments? Africa as a whole, like many other regions and issues, has struggled ...
January 13, 2012
Posted: 12:44 PM UTC
by Faten Aggad on January 13, 2012
In response to the Arab Spring the European Commission has proposed to create a new European Neighbourhood Instrument, based on the European Union’s reviewed approach to cooperation with its neighbours in North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. This new approach was set out in an EU Communication from May 2011 entitled “A new response to a changing Neighbourhood”, and is based on the following principles: “More for more” (“less for less” to be used only in extreme scenarios); Differentiation amongst countries receiving support; and Better coordination between different EU actors (European External Action ...
December 16, 2011
Posted: 14:36 PM UTC
by Jan Vanheukelom on December 16, 2011
Transparency is hot. Never before in debates about development or economic governance has there been such a strong focus on transparency. This has been well illustrated in the European Union (EU) over the past few months where the European Commission (EC) has taken action to promote transparency in three different arenas. One action related to private sector transparency. The European Commission proposed amendments to existing transparency requirements for companies in extractive industries. Stricter rules for mining, forestry and energy firms could improve governance in resource rich developing countries. Secondly, the EC’s new draft policy on ...
December 16, 2011
Posted: 14:23 PM UTC
by Bruce Byiers on December 16, 2011
This was the theme of a roundtable discussion held by the EIB earlier this month. With the ever-increasing interest in leveraging aid with loans, the issue of how to measure impact seems a pertinent question to ask. The discussion centered on how the EIB intends to measure and monitor the impact of their investment projects, as required under the renewed mandate for external EU financing given by the European Parliament and Council. But as the discussion progressed and they presented the broad categories of indicators they plan to use, one began to wonder what they have been using up to ...
December 9, 2011
Posted: 16:27 PM UTC
by Niels Keijzer on December 9, 2011
No, we don’t know enough about the results achieved through the EU’s old external action instruments. But that does not inhibit an evidence-based discussion on the future instruments, which can still be revised as they are currently subject of debate between the different EU institutions. On Wednesday, the European Commission presented proposals to amend the rules guiding the spending for EU external action from 2014-2020, the timeframe of the next EU budget. In expert jargon, these rules are called “financial instruments”, and there are 10 such instruments, each for a specific area of intervention. The ...
