ECDPM

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso made his first ever “State of the Union address” (click also here for details) to the European Parliament on 7 September. Setting out proposals for the 2011 EU work programme, Barroso outlined that he, together with EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, will present a vision of how the EU can maximise its role in the world.  He informed MEPs that the Commission will commit an extra €1 billion to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) at the UN summit on 20-22 September. A major review of EU development policy and ...

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A meeting of the European Union Civil Society Organisations (EU CSO) Steering Group and the African Steering Committee was held in Brussels on 7 September to prepare for a broader inter-continental Civil Society Forum, agreed to be held from 8-10 November in Egypt. ECDPM was involved in the facilitation of this meeting following a request from both the EU and AU groups. The inter-continental forum will discuss CSO inputs to the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) new Action Plan to be agreed at the 29-30 November AU-EU Summit.  Participants also agreed that the meeting in Egypt ...

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Economic Partnership Agreements are one trade option that African countries can pursue to support coordinated trade and regulatory reform in services together with unilateral, regional and multilateral reforms. However, according to this paper from the World Bank, an EPA is unlikely to offer much in terms of improved access to EU services markets, especially for temporary movement of unskilled workers, a key issue for African countries. Hence, the rationale for signing an EPA will be driven by African countries own domestic reform strategies. The main impacts of a services EPA for African countries would come ...

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The current post-crisis environment—and fragile economic recovery—increases the importance of aid for trade. Global rebalancing and tightened fiscal budgets in the short to medium term also place renewed emphasis on aid effectiveness. This note by Bernard Hoekman and John S. Wilson of the World Bank identifies four options to enhance the effectiveness of the multilateral aid for trade initiative: (i) expanding market access for least-developed countries through leadership by middle-income G-20 members; (ii) creating a mechanism to identify good practices in domestic regulation of service markets and other “behind-the-border” trade-related policies; (iii) leveraging the dynamism ...

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Politics often explains why development assistance has been effective or not. This paper from The Policy Practice explains how political economy analysis (PEA) is being more systematically used by development agencies to understand political issues in partner countries.  It highlights Nigeria and Bangladesh as two positive examples where PEA has demonstrated its analytical and operational usefulness. Much remains to be done, however, to ensure stronger uptake of political economy analysis the paper argues. On the supply side, this includes getting the ‘product’ right, and better communicating the message. On the demand side, there is a ...

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Heads of State will meet on 20-22 September to review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). International Alert argues in its report entitled “Working with the grain to change the grain: Moving beyond theMillennium Development Goals” that the MDGs are poor measures of development progress and calls for a new development narrative to replace the MDGs based on a global vision for change in which development is recognised as a local, endogenous process while the role of international agencies is to promote, catalyse and nudge change, based on a sophisticated understanding of the political ...

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Recent EU policy proposals note that greater globalisation has led to EU’s policies on developing countries having many more systemic ‘side effects’. The old dividing line between the EU’s domestic and external policies is rapidly losing relevance.  ECDPM’s latest Discussion Paper argues that notwithstanding these changes and the legal obligation in the Treaties, the EU has not really been successful in fundamentally reforming some of its more obviously incoherent policies.  The only way for Europe to move forward with PCD and consolidate its international credibility and legitimacy under the present multitude of global challenges is ...

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The African Governance Architecture (AGA), established under the leadership of African Union Commission (AUC), is the evolving political and institutional framework to facilitate, coordinate and promote democracy, governance and human rights in Africa. The AUC has organised a series of consultations with stakeholders to build consensus on its design, mandate and function. In these, a recommendation has been elaborated to establish an African Governance Platform (AGP) as a mechanism for strengthening dialogue, coordination and synergy amongst African Union Structures with a formal mandate in governance, democracy and human rights, including Regional Economic Communities, with a ...

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