On 12 April, EU Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, presented the priorities he plans to focus on for European development policy in 2012 to the European Parliament’s Development Committee in order to have their views on these (you can click here to watch a recording of the meeting). This Talking Points blog post provides the only detailed written summary available of discussions at this meeting. Commissioner Piebalgs said that a major focus will be the negotiations for the post-2013 EU Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) and the amounts of financing that will be made available for external ...
Earlier this week, the European Commission published the 2010 annual report on the activities of the EU-funded African Peace Facility (APF). The APF was created in 2004 as an innovative instrument for EU support to African-led peacekeeping operations on the African continent. It has received EURO 740 million since its inception. For the past two years the APF operates under an enlarged scope that includes pre-conflict and post-conflict phases. One noteworthy innovation of the APF mentioned in the report is the Early Response Mechanism under which the EC funded several mediation operations in 2010 including ...
Key donors and international experts attending the 28-29 March OECD workshop on implementation of the Aid for Trade Initiative discussed how developing countries can undertake the reforms necessary to improve their supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure in order to benefit from international trade opportunities and achieve economic growth. Participants also discussed how to evaluate the impact of AfT on trade. The background documents and presentations are posted on the workshop’s website. According to a report from ICTSD, participants agreed that AfT efforts have in general been successful, but that further policy coordination is needed, not ...
Looking at Small and Vulnerable Economies (SVE), the lead article of the April issue of ECDPM-ICTSD’s Trade Negotiations Insights analyses the rationale and effectiveness of Aid for Trade (AfT) and provides suggestions for donors and policy-makers. Continuing on AfT, Eleonora Canigani reviews Uganda’s experience in promoting Sustainable Land Managements and stresses the importance of joint planning to improve policy coherence between trade and agriculture. ICTSD’s Paolo Ghisu presents an alternative methodology to measure the effectiveness of AfT in areas such as additionally, ownership, alignment, predictability and impact. A TNI feature provides an “on the ground” ...
Using a gravity model for 35 countries, a new study by the International Institute of Social Studies finds that membership in ECOWAS and SADC regional agreements increases bilateral trade flows more than having preferential trade agreements with the EU. Furthermore, the study points out that the impact of simultaneous membership of some countries in multiple RTAs may undermine their effectiveness. It finds a positive impact if an additional membership complements the integration process of the original RTA which provides a lesson for the direction into which regional trade agreements could be broadened and strengthened. The ...
Nicu Popescu writes on EU Observer that the revolutionary upheaval in the EU’s Southern neighbourhood and the failures of reforms in most of the Eastern neighbourhood are begging for a revised EU approach to the neighbourhood policy (ENP). In March, the EU presented some ideas on ‘a partnership for democracy and shared prosperity’ with the Southern Mediterranean. Some time in May, the EU will present also a full review of the ENP. A central concept of the updated ENP is the idea of ‘more for more’ – the EU should give more political and financial ...
Development news hardly ever presents success stories. Usually, we read about misery, need and the lack of progress. “Living Proof”, a new campaign website launched by the organisation ONE, focuses on showing “real stories of the incredible progress being achieved by some of the world’s poorest people”. The site gives access to various resources ranging from statistics to multimedia content, and is available in three languages. “Living Proof” is supported by the European Commission and the Gates Foundation who agreed this week to cooperate on agriculture and health issues.
Cash on Delivery, a new aid modality currently being introduced by donors, is perceived rather positively by development practitioners. One of them, Rakesh Rajani, the founder and head of Twaweza, an initiative that promotes transparency and accountability in Tanzania, makes his point very clear in his entry on the Center for Global Development’s blog giving five reasons why he is a “fan of cash delivery” and pointing out five ways to make it even sharper.
African civil society organisations (CSOs) met in February to discuss their key messages to the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in November. According to a report from BetterAid, African CSOs note that in order for Africa to see a fundamental change, the continent needs the aid effectiveness debate to shift towards the development effectiveness agenda. This requires that discussions and negotiations on aid and development take cognisance of the need for an inclusive process of all citizens of the continent, a rights-based approach and democratic ownership principles. While African CSOs note progress on ...
On 6 April, the OECD and the EU released figures for official development assistance flows in 2010. While the highest ODA levels ever where reached, donors are failing to reach their promises made in 2005 and the EU did not meet its collective target of 0.56% of GNI. Some countries, such as Germany, fell significantly short with reaching an ODA level of 0,38% only, despite strong economic growth. And prospects for increasing ODA in the future are not bright unless new financing for development can be mobilised. Besides the quantity, the quality of EU aid ...
