development « European development cooperation

April 19, 2012

Sustainable Energy for All: Milestone on a road to where?

Posted by edcsp under Blog, Events | Tags: Andrew Scott, Andris Piebalgs, Ban Ki Moon, development, energy, EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit, International Year for Sustainable Energy for All |
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Four months old, the International Year for Sustainable Energy for All seems well down the road to successfully ensuring energy poverty has higher priority in development policy and programming. The EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit this week, brought together development ministers from the EU and Norway, energy ministers from developing countries, the Commission President, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, and three or four hundred others, to express support for the three objectives of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative: to achieve by 2030, universal access to modern energy services, a doubling of the rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and a doubling of the share of renewables in the global energy mix.

ODI Research Fellow Andrew Scott analyses the initiative in this EDCSP blog.

April 11, 2012

EDCSP update – April 2012

Posted by edcsp under News, Newsletter | Tags: aid effectiveness, development, EDCSP, EU, European development policy, European Report on Development. public consultation, ODI, Rio +20 |
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Click here to read the EDCSP team’s monthly update for April

April 11, 2012

Public consultations launched by the European Commission

Posted by edcsp under News | Tags: civil society, development, European Commission, external cooperation, grants, loans, public consultation |
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The European Commission has recently launched two public consultations. The ‘Proposed EU Platform for External Cooperation and Development’ takes a look at setting up a platform to oversee blending of loans and grants, while the second one focuses on the future EU policy on ‘Civil Society Organisations in development cooperation’.

March 29, 2012

Global growth and the environment: two issues, one solution?

Posted by edcsp under Blog | Tags: development, Dirk Willem te Velde, environment, ERD, European Report on Development, growth, resources |
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The planet is under pressure – a whole conference is devoted to the topic this week. Global growth is under pressure - full debt deleveraging has not yet taken place in Europe, and every day brings new evidence of a growth slowdown in China and India. The normal course of action is to see these as separate issues and discuss solutions in separate fora.

What if we argue that this is no longer considered efficient because short-term welfare and long-term planetary boundaries are increasingly linked? In what ways could environmental and growth thinking in the G20 and Rio+20 reinforce each other?

Building on findings from the forthcoming European Report on Development, Dirk Willem te Velde asks is it time address the crises facing global growth and the environment as one issue?

February 20, 2012

Meeting report: The European Commission launches its latest trade strategy

Posted by edcsp under Events, News | Tags: development, EU, GSP reform, Jodie Keane, Karel De Gucht, trade |
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The EU is the most open trading bloc in the world, around three quarters of EU imports from developing countries are duty free – this is a much larger share than imports to the US and China. However, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) continue to account for a low share of global trade, experiencing an increase in their share of global trade of just 0.4% (from 0.8% to 1.2%) over the last decade. In the view of recent trends, the European Commission has decided to review its traditional trade and development tools, in a bid to tailor them to those countries that are getting left behind.

On 7 February 2012, the European Commission held a public consultation meeting on its latest trade strategy – ‘Trade, Growth & Development: tailoring trade and investment policy for those countries most in need’, which was released at the end of January.

ODI’s Jodie Keane reports back in this meeting report.

February 3, 2012

Too much aid to middle income countries? The EU’s aid allocation conundrum

Posted by edcsp under Blog | Tags: "Simon Maxwell", development, differentiation, EU Development Policy, European Commission, MICs, Poverty focus |
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The high share of aid provided to relatively better-off middle income countries is one of the biggest challenges to the aid record of the European Commission. But what are the reasons behind this?

Simon Maxwell sets out to explore the issue in this EDCSP Opinion.

December 20, 2011

Re-thinking Europe: what development can offer

Posted by edcsp under Blog | Tags: "Simon Maxwell", development, eurozone crisis, policy |
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In development circles, we often ask what ‘Europe’ can contribute to our development objectives. However, with Europe in financial and perhaps even political crisis, isn’t time we asked what development can contribute to our European objectives? Simon Maxwell sets out three answers to this question in his latest EDCSP blog.

December 8, 2011

Modernising European Development Policy – Event at the European Development Days

Posted by edcsp under Events, News | Tags: Andris Piebalgs, Baroness Lindsay Northover, development, EDDs, EU, European Development Days, Poland, Warsaw |
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The EDCSP team is now all set for next week’s European Development Days.

On 16 December from 14.15 until 16.00, we will jointly host a panel debate, with our European Think-Tank Group partners and with French research institute FERDI. Our debate will look at ‘Modernising European Development Policy’ and boasts a high-level panel including:

Andris Piebalgs (European Commissioner for Development),
Baroness Lindsay Northover (UK Government Spokesperson on International Development, House of Lords),
Tertius Zongo (Former Prime Minister of Burkina Faso),
Alain Henry (Head of the Cabinet of Mr. Henri de Raincourt),
Paul Engel (Director of ECDPM),
Patrick Guillaumont (President of FERDI), and
Simon Maxwell (ODI) (chair).

If you are attending the EDDs too, please come along!

December 6, 2011

Attention, MEPs: The future of EU external action is up for grabs

Posted by edcsp under Blog | Tags: "Simon Maxwell", Agenda for Change, development, European development policy, European Parliament, MEPs, Mikaela Gavas, Sian Herbert |
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As the European Commission is on the eve of releasing legislative proposals on the future financial instruments and regulations for external action, researchers from the European Think-Tanks Group identify six key points for Members of the European Parliament to keep an eye on.

What do Europeans think about development aid?

Posted by edcsp under Facts, Poll | Tags: aid, development, EU, Eurobarometer, opinion poll, support |
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Eurobarometer have just released an opinion poll on development aid, based on interviews with 26,856 people across the EU in September 2011.

The key findings reveal that 85% of Europeans find development aid very important or fairly important. The countries that are most supportive of development aid are Sweden (97%), Cyprus (95%), Poland (92%), Luxembourg (92%), Germany (92%) and Finland (91%). Overall support is the weakest in Hungary (75%), Bulgaria (75%), Estonia (74%) and Slovenia (71%).

A large majority of Europeans (70%) see sub-Saharan Africa as a part of the world that is most in need of aid in the fight against poverty. In a question that allowed respondents a maximum of three answers, North Africa and the Middle-East came second at 33%, followed by the Indian sub-continent (25%), the Caribbean (17%), South East Asia (16), Eastern Europe (outside the EU), Caucasus and Central Asia (15%), Latin America (15%). and the Pacific and Oceania (6%).

Read the report to learn more interesting stats.

November 14, 2011

Generalised System of Preferences graduation: will it reduce poverty?

Posted by edcsp under Research | Tags: development, EU, exports, Generalised System of Preferences, GSP, trade |
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The EU is reviewing the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), its broadest-based trade policy to support developing country exports. The European Commission has proposed the most radical changes in the scheme’s three-decade history, arguing that this will ‘focus the GSP preferences on the countries most in need’. But will it?

This Project Briefing summarises ODI research, and finds that only a very small part of any gains will accrue to poor countries and that workers in the graduates may be just as poor and vulnerable as those in beneficiary states.

October 31, 2011

EU budget support: both a ‘name changer’ and a ‘game changer’

Posted by edcsp under Blog | Tags: aid, budget support, development, EU, European Commission, European development policy, Heidi Tavakoli, ODI |
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In this ODI blog, Heidi Tavakoli analyses the European Commission’s new strategy for budget support.

As one of the biggest providers of budget support, any policy changes by the EC will not only affect the budget support landscape, but may also drive changes in many of its member states. Heidi notes that the new proposal introduces two significant changes: firstly, the EC proposes that budget support becomes a political instrument; and secondly, as with DFID, the EC will change the name of its budget support instruments to better reflect its objectives. Read more here to see how this could be both a ‘name changer’ and a ‘game changer’.

October 28, 2011

EU development policy: ambitious agenda for change or the same old story?

Posted by edcsp under Blog | Tags: Agenda for Change, aid, development, DIE, European development policy, German Development Institute, Mikaela Gavas |
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Following the Commission’s launch of its latest mission statement on development policy – ‘An Agenda for Change’ – the EDCSP’s Mikaela Gavas, with German Development Institute’s Svea Koch and Dr. Mark Furness, have written an article questioning is it really an Agenda for Change? Is it ambitious enough to equip the Commission to tackle global challenges such as poverty, the food crisis, the economic slump, climate change, and insecurity? And will it be able to deliver greater impact?

Read their analysis here (English) and here (German).

October 25, 2011

Simon Maxwell discusses the Commission’s new Agenda for Change

Posted by edcsp under Events | Tags: "Simon Maxwell", Agenda for Change, aid, Commissioner Piebalgs, development, EU, European Commission, European development policy, growth |
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On 19 October, the EDCSP’s Simon Maxwell was invited to speak on the panel at Commissioner Andris Piebalgs’ launch event for the European Commission’s new development strategy – An Agenda for Change. Simon welcomed the document and the new directions it signals, noting that it is still work in progress, with seven more months of negotiations ahead. He also identified some key points of unfinished business that the strategy uncovers.

To watch the panel discussion, click here.

To watch Simon’s speech, click here.

To watch Simon’s interview by Capacity4dev, click here.

October 18, 2011

An Agenda for Change for EU Development Policy

Posted by edcsp under Blog | Tags: "Simon Maxwell", Agenda for Change, aid, development, EU Development Policy, European Commission, Mikaela Gavas, Sian Herbert |
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After more than a year and a half of consultations, Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has released a new proposed strategy for EU development cooperation – in a document called ‘An Agenda for Change’.

The new policy directly descends from the European Consensus on Development, however also signals four important shifts:

a higher profile for good governance and human rights, linked to greater conditionality;
a higher profile for growth, with a strong focus on leveraging in private sector money;
the introduction of the concept of differentiated development partnerships, with new allocation criteria for aid; and
an attempt to boost EU joint work.

Read our response to the Commission’s proposal here

October 3, 2011

EADI-DSA conference “Rethinking Development in an Age of Scarcity and Uncertainty” – EDCSP trip report

Posted by edcsp under Events | Tags: "Simon Maxwell", development, EADI-DSA conference, EU, European development policy, Mikaela Gavas, Rethinking Development in an Age of Scarcity and Uncertainty, Sian Herbert |
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From 19 to 22 September, the EADI and DSA hosted a conference in York looking at “Rethinking Development in an Age of Scarcity and Uncertainty”. The EDCSP team held a panel discussion, jointly with its partner think tanks, as part of the European Think Tanks Group (ETTG), which explored the subject of “Modernising European Development Policy in a Changing World”, and posed the question, ”What can Researchers bring to the Table?”

Click here to read our reflections on the conference, and for some insights from our panel discussion.

October 2, 2011

EDCSP update – October 2011

Posted by edcsp under News, Newsletter | Tags: development, EDCSP, EU, European development policy, News, ODI, policy |
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Click here to read the EDCSP team’s monthly update for October

September 28, 2011

EU aid factsheet

Posted by edcsp under Facts | Tags: aid, DAC, development, DFID, EU, facts, statistics |
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For everything you want to know about EU aid, have a look at this handy factsheet

September 15, 2011

‘EU aid: What’s it for?’

Posted by edcsp under Events | Tags: "Simon Maxwell", aid, development, EDCSP, EU, ODI, poverty |
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If you have ever found yourself questioning what EU development aid should be for, then you should have been at our recent event hosted by the EDCSP team and Open Europe in London on 13 September 2011.

Around 120 government officials, academics, consultants, journalists and NGOs representatives turned up to grill our panel of experts, which included Baroness Glenys Kinnock (opposition spokesperson for the Department for International Development (DFID) in the House of Lords), the EDCSP’s Simon Maxwell (Senior Research Associate at ODI), Chris Heaton-Harris MP (Member of Parliament for Daventry), Stephen Booth (Open Europe’s Research Director), and Liz Ford as chair (Deputy Editor of the Guardian’s Global Development website).

To catch up on the event, read a summary here, or watch it on video here.

August 31, 2011

Budget support is becoming an endangered species: what Busan must do to save it

Posted by edcsp under Blog | Tags: "Simon Maxwell", aid, aid effectiveness, budget support, Busan, development |
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Developing country Finance Ministers arriving at the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in November may be surprised to discover that their favourite way of receiving aid – budget support – is fast becoming an endangered species: swept away by donor scepticism about good governance and budget accountability; and swallowed by the contemporary need to demonstrate that every dollar or pound of aid delivers demonstrable development results. In this EDCSP Opinion, Simon Maxwell sets out a way forward for Busan to help shape future policy on budget support.

Register your vote on whether the EU Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, was right in setting a target of 50% of EC aid as budget support.

July 14, 2011

Budget support – good or bad for development?

Posted by edcsp under Events | Tags: Andris Piebalgs, budget support, development, Edward Mountfield, Friedrich Kitschelt, Helen Magombo, Marcus Manuel, ODI, Oxfam, Samura Kamara, Serge Tomasi, Simon Maxwell. European Commission, World Bank |
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ODI and Oxfam International hosted an event looking at budget support in Brussels on 13 July.

The event opened with presentations from ODI’s Marcus Manuel and the World Bank’s Edward Mountfield; and followed with a high level panel debate involving European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, Sierra Leone Finance Minister Dr Samura Kamara, Serge Tomasi from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Friedrich Kitschelt from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and Oxfam’s Helen Magombo. The event was chaired by ODI’s Simon Maxwell.

The debate focussed on the following questions:

Does budget support deliver development results? What kind of results?
What are the benefits of budget support in fostering domestic accountability and how can they be strengthened?
What are the right criteria for allocating budget support (notably in fragile states)?
Political dialogue. How to react to human rights breaches?
Should the political dialogue apply to just budget support or to all aid instruments?

To read more about the event click here.

Events

On 14 June, EDCSP will host a private round-table on aid effectiveness with panellists from the European Commission, the University of Gothenburg and ODI.

On 25 June, EDCSP will hold a public event "Tackling global poverty: Where next for Brussels?" - with panellists from the UK and European Parliament and the OECD-DAC peer review team.
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