Euforic helps extend reach of DFID R4D portal

As a partner in the CIMRC consortium with CABI and ComsConsult, Euforic contributes to the "Research for Development" platform of DFID.

In 2007, we worked on four main elements:

• Newsfeeds on over 50 subjects and all target countries - see the full list at http://del.icio.us/r4dfeedfinder
  


• Subject views for each major subject area on the portal, combining news, case studies, projects and documents


• Marketing R4D content and services at international meetings: for example at the Web2fordev conference in Rome, the European Development Days in November, and at several Brussels Development Briefings.


• Knowledge Organization to enhance the search services and database structure behind the R4D site.


• DFID Research Strategy, helping to promote wider participation.
  

More:

• Research for development portal
• Euforic development research dossier
  
• Euforic research feedfinder
  
• CIMRC consortium

Web2Share: web2 guide for development organizations

Looking for an introduction to a new service on the web, and a guide on how to use it in your organisation? The new web2share site may be the answer.

A reference site for Euforic members and ICCO partners, the site has videos, presentations and a list of resources for various web2 services. The advantage of the site over a general guide is its examples from the development sector.

The screenshot shows a typical profile for the web2 services featured. Each section describes a service, with an introductory video or slideshow, a brief description and a set of resources and examples of the use of the service for development and international cooperation.

The reference site is integrated with the internal platforms of some of our members - currently these are available for ICCO through its ComPart 'flowers'.

The training site euforicweb continues and is integrated with the web2share site, offering exercises and 'training spaces' for euforic members and partners.

Other members can take advantage of the resources in web2share and backlinks to their intranets and sites can be included on request.

If you wish to join in further developing this site, please email us [info(AT)euforic.org].

See also Euforic newsfeed and dossier on web2.

IKM Vines - navigator for web content on development

As part of the IKMemergent project, Euforic is developing a navigator system to browse web content using development terms. This combines searching with browsing in a new interface. The system is intended to provide an alternative view of content available online by allowing presentation of materials produced by and in developing countries.

The idea is to investigate the idea that organizations and individuals working in development have a skewed view of the world based on their use of Internet services. This is something like the difference between a 'Mercator' projection of the world where North America and Europe are huge and a 'Peters' projection where Africa and India are suddenly prominent as their ground area is more accurately represented.

Each term or keyword will produce a 'leaf' page, where relevant news, searches of databases, videos, audio files, events and other content are displayed.
Each leaf may be linked to a series of others by branches forming an overall 'vine' of pages, hence the name IKMvines.

The first phase to design example pages and control content display is underway using content from the euforic website.

See also euforic newsfeeds on information, web2; more news on euforic projects

Living up to the expectations of the Lisbon Treaty?

Brussels, 26 February 2008. The second panel of the Friends of Europe Development Policy Forum roundtable covered a range of issues, emphasizing not so much how signatories would abide by the Lisbon Treaty but how they could live up to its expectations. We heard about the Lisbon "double hat", an African based Commissioner, a need to merge DG Development and EuropeAid, and a treaty which just describes what already happens.

Jean De Ruyt, Belgian Ambassador to the EU, emphasized that many aspects of the Lisbon Treaty still needed to be clarified. Of key importance to him was the creation of the "double hatted" high representative who would have responsibilities for both CFSP and External Assistance. This would ensure consistency between development aid and foreign policy. Moreover, the issues written into the Treaty such as the link between security and development, the central aim for eradication of poverty, a neutral and non-discriminatory approach, meant that it would be a question of living up to treaty rather than abiding by it.

Mr. Hany El Banna of Islamic Relief Worldwide gave a perspective from outside Europe. He felt that it was important for Europe to ensure that the external assistance planning takes into account the increasing cultural diversity in Europe. He highlighted the changing ethnic diversity of Europe in the next 20 years suggesting that a Development Commisioner would be needed no matter how EU aid was administered. Moreover, this person should perhaps be based, or at least spend much time, in developing countries.

Dirk Messner, director of the German Development Institute (DIE) concluded that the Lisbon Treaty has not weakened development policy but has actually stated existing goals morfe clearly. He pointed to the interdependence of the world in addressing global issues such as climate adaptation with integrated development policies. He also felt it was not convincing to have two EU organizations, one dealing with ACP countries the other dealing on a different basis with the rest of the world. There still seem to be two options for the emerging external service, one including development administration the other keeping it apart. The key role for the Treaty in his view is its ability to provide a framework for the 27 Member States to work within a European framework where different actors share the lead.

Klaus Rudischhauser, Director for ACP General Affairs in DG Development, emphasized that a discussion on the Treaty at this stage was rather speculative. However, he observed that the treaty is not a danger for development policy but instead puts down on paper what is already happening. He also stressed that development issues are already considered in tandem with foreign policy. Finally, he pointed to joint discussions with DG Defence on security issues. The MDGs are still at the centre of the treaty and the partnership focus of development cooperation is continued under the Cotonou Agreement until 2020.

by Chris Addison

See also the Euforic newsfeeds on EU cooperation.

Is EU development aid entering a new era in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty?

Brussels, 26 February 2007. Giles Merritt of Friends of Europe opened the first Development Policy Forum by questioning whether the stronger common foreign and security policy spelled out in the Lisbon treaty sidelines development aid. He reviewed progress to reach development aid targets of 0.7% of GDP in the EU members and questioned whether the Lisbon treaty would be able to reverse the decline in aid expenditure by member states.

Gareth Thomas, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the UK Department for International Development (DFID), began by praising the EUs recent achievements in development aid. He highlighted the effectiveness of EC interventions in India where EU aid had ensured that 11 million more children were now in school. The EU has been a global leader on climate change, and could be a still stronger force. The Lisbon treaty presents opportunities, it has clear strategic priorities, and it represents a European consensus on development.

In this regard, Thomas emphasized three elements of the Treaty;

• the focus on reduction/eradication of poverty;
• the statement of humanitarian principles;
• the need for the EU to improve coherence across foreign policy.

Following from the Treaty he saw a need to develop a stronger voice for development policy and its implementation. This needs a Commisioner for development who integrates the development aid cycles for ACP countries together with Asia and Latin America. He confirmed to Mr. Merritt that this would mean merging DG Development and EuropeAid. The EU delegations would also need a stronger policy capacity.

Elmar Brok of the European Parliament began by emphasizing the scale of EU effects on developing countries. The EU is responsible for 20% of world trade, therefore any attempts at fair trade will have more effect than development aid. Even so the EU and Member States collectively spend 47 billion euros each year on development aid, some 100 euros per citizen. He feels that the EU is presently a global payer not player. The Lisbon treaty gives a chance to address this lack of visibility through a one voice policy. The proposed external service should be linked to the Commission with a Commissioner for development. There is a strong need to evaluate the method of assistance. There is also a need to explain to citizens why development policy improves security and how migration issues can be addressed through development aid. He emphasized the need for new architecture in EU development assistance and pointed to the success of his own group in linking the European Parliament with national parliaments on development issues.

Patrick Child, Head of Cabinet of the EU Commissioner for External Relations, opened by stating that internal architecture is not the main problem. Instead the core issue is that member states need to live up to their political commitment to the MDGs. There is also a need for greater coherence and burden sharing between the commission and national programmes. Further, development policy objectives need to be linked with trade, agriculture and climate change policies. There should also be some realism about the capacity of a high representative to spend time on development policy and foreign relations. At present, 90% of their time would be spent on Kosovo, the Middle East and Darfur.

Simon Stocker, Director of Eurostep, added that he felt there were three elements missing from the Treaty. First, there needs to be a single policy for development for all countries and this should include the ACP countries. Second, there needs to be a Commissioner as a voice for development. Finally, citizen perceptions related to development need to be addressed. The public currently feel that policies are dictated by self interest. There is therefore a need for more transparency in development aid. He raised the challenge of increasing development budgets to the 0.7% of GDP through public awareness.

by Chris Addison

See also the Euforic newsfeeds on EU cooperation.

Aid agencies call on Irish Government to go beyond aid

Source: Dóchas press release, 26 February 2008

Representatives of Irish aid agencies met with senior government officials today, and called for greater efforts to end global poverty.

In their presentation to the Inter-Departmental Committee on Development (IDCD) - a body set up to coordinate the work of Government Departments - the members of Dóchas praised the high quality of Ireland's aid programme but warned that other areas of government policy could cancel out the benefits for poor countries.

Helen Keogh, Chairperson of Dóchas, the umbrella group of Irish aid agencies, said:

"The government has shown that it is serious about tackling global poverty and inequality by investing in overseas aid. “Today we congratulated government on its aid programme, and urged it to go further, by eliminating the negative impact on poor people of other areas of government policy. As long as trade and fisheries policies, for instance, keep poor countries at an unfair disadvantage, we will never be able to make poverty history" added Ms Keogh.

Dóchas members challenged the Committee to become "a champion for development" by playing a proactive role in the development arena. They stated the Committee should devise positive and coherent policies that support developing countries and not wait for problems to arise to react.

Dóchas made its comments at a meeting of the IDCD, an intra-departmental body that brings together the most senior civil servants of the 15 Government Departments. The creation of the IDCD in April 2007 was broadly welcomed by Dóchas members as it was seen as an effort to improve the quality of Irish aid.

"For several years, Dóchas members have called for a whole-of-government approach to global development. The creation of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Development is a significant step in the right direction. Dóchas will continue to support all efforts to improve coherence as a means to make a real difference in the lives of poor people", stated Hans Zomer, Director of Dochas. Read on...

Listen to the interview on policy coherence for development with Michael Woods, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Irish Parliament

See also Euforic's newsfeed and dossier on coherence

Making EU aid a global benchmark for quality

Source: CIDSE Advocacy Newsletter 38, February 2008

Since the Paris Declaration in 2005, the European Union has adopted important measures providing for greater complementarity and harmonization through the adoption of an EU code of conduct on division of labour, as well as more predictability and support for partner country systems with its new form of budget support called “MDG contracts.” If the EU is serious about proving its credibility as a major actor within the international donor community at the OECD 3rd High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra next September, it has to go beyond the reforms it is undertaking to fix the efficiency of its aid delivery system and adopt measures that will improve the actual pro-poor impact of its development assistance.

The recently issued CONCORD position paper entitled "Delivering better aid: An opportunity for European Union leadership in the fight against global poverty", to which CIDSE and Caritas Europa contributed on the basis of their joint advocacy report "EU’s Footprint in the South", calls on the member states and the European institutions to grasp the opportunity for leadership that 2008 provides them with, and agree to a set of concrete EU targets to improve aid from member states and European institutions. The paper underlines the fact that “efforts made so far are essential, but won’t dramatically influence aid effectiveness if they aren’t followed by concrete actions at field level and accompanied by the decisive steps in favour of democratic ownership, accountability and better aid quality.”

Important dates:

• 2-3 April: OECD DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness
  
• 8-9 April: Release of EC Communication on Aid Effectiveness
  
• 21 May: OECD DAC High Level meeting
  
• 28-29 May: EU GAERC meeting
  

To know more, contact Melis Alguadis

See also Euforic's newsfeed and dossier on aid effectiveness

Development aid: compensation for injustice or instrument for justice?

Source: CIDSE Advocacy Newsletter 38, February 2008

CIDSE has been engaged in intense discussions on aid effectiveness in the past, what this imperative means for a network of Catholic development organisations and correspondingly, its views on the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

In April 2007, a forum bringing together the Heads of Programme departments of CIDSE member agencies discussed the challenges and opportunities posed by the Paris Agenda and the need to develop a definition of aid effectiveness specific to the network context and informed by values based on Catholic Social Teaching. A Reference group was charged with the task of developing a paper addressing this need and soon involved a larger group drawing expertise from the policy/advocacy and monitoring/evaluation sectors of CIDSE’s members. A Write-shop, a technique used for the first time in CIDSE, brought together members of this mixed group to develop a first draft of this paper. The paper then went through a long process of in-depth discussion which raised important points meriting deeper reflections at various levels within the network.

The paper, currently still a working document, is titled ‘Development Aid: Compensation for injustice or Instrument for Justice?’ and captures some of these reflections. The starting point of the paper is that aid can only truly serve development in association with other means of seeking economic justice such as trade reform. That is, development aid needs to be an essential instrument of justice, not a mere compensation for injustice. Critiquing the a-political and largely technocratic nature of current political discourse on the issue, it provides a framework to broaden and deepen perspectives on aid effectiveness. This is done on the basis of the principles which have formed CIDSE’s perspectives of its own aid effectiveness. It goes further to provide recommendations that CIDSE hopes will constructively contribute to future debates on aid effectiveness.

The paper was shared with NGO colleagues on the eve of the Multi-stakeholder forum on civil society and aid effectiveness in Gatineau, Canada, February 3-6, 2008. This forum was convened by the Advisory Group on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness established by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee and which included representatives from the donor community, partner governments in the South and civil society from all over the world. Joanne Mc Garry from CIDSE’s Irish member organisation Trócaire and François L’enfant from CIDSE’s Dutch member organisation Cordaid took CIDSE’s working paper to Canada to discuss it with other colleagues and government officials present during the three-day forum. The feedback received on the paper will be taken into careful consideration when finalising the paper. Moreover, recognising that the paper is not the end but the beginning of a process and appreciating the important questions that have arisen in its drafting process, CIDSE is presently reflecting on ways to further this discussion on promoting our aid effectiveness.

To know more, contact Jean Letitia Saldanha and Beth Masterson

See also Euforic's newsfeed and dossier on aid effectiveness

Web2share sessions with ACP Ambassadors

On February 4th and 5th Euforic, CTA and the ACP Secretariat organized an introductory workshop on 'web2' at the ACP House.

Attended by representatives of 27 African, Caribbean and Pacific embassies in Brussels, the presentations introduced web2, discussed remote collaboration tools, and explored new ways to retrieve information across the web.

Euforic looks forward to working with CTA, the ACP secretariat and the embassies on further development of web2 use in the ACP community in Brussels. Follow up sessions are planned later in the year.

See Euforic newsfeed, dossier and wiki on web 2.0.

See also Euforic newsfeeds on ACP-EU cooperation and ACP-EU trade; and from the ACP Secretariat.

Ted van Hees on Fairfood

Source: Concord Flash 48, January 2008

Most people realise there is reason to worry about the quality of consumer products. Who is not concerned to hear about too much lead in children’s toys from China? Still, reality teaches us that we are remarkably indifferent to how most products we use in our everyday life are produced. Often this occurs in a way which is not responsible towards either people or the environment. We all believe children should be in school instead of working in a factory. All over the world, workers should have the right to fair wages and proper working conditions. However, when these rights lead to higher prices for products, most people do not persevere. It is about time for a change. We need to take responsibility for the products we choose to consume, and towards the people who produce them.

All this was decided seven years ago and recorded in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the year 2000, world leaders agreed to provide education for every child and to ban diseases like malaria, HIV/Aids and tuberculosis. Health care should be brought to acceptable levels, including in developing countries. Five years later, in 2005, at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles and the UN Millennium + 5 Summit, these promises were repeated, to underline their importance. Despite this revived promise, most rich countries reduced their foreign aid, with the Netherlands as a positive exception. Moreover, the foreign assistance European countries do provide is often more beneficial for their own companies than for the people we, Europeans, claim we are helping. Overall, the MDGs are far from being reached. Without a dramatic improvement, achieving the goals will take another hundred years.

But how can this be done? One strategy that has proved to be effective is the fairness approach of Fairfood. Fairfood encourages people to consume fair products, the production and trading of which lead to less hunger and poverty in developing countries. Fairfood judges companies and supermarkets on their state of "fairness". This results in a list of companies and products which tells how "fair" they actually are, and which consumers can use as the ideal shopping list.

The Fairness approach is a very effective and elegant campaign model: companies which score below the average and are blacklisted will do everything to reach or surpass this average. This will lead to a progressively advancing average, which will encourage more and more companies to adjust the quality of their products to meet the most important criteria. In the same way as the climate campaign led to a breakthrough for energy-efficient light bulbs and other energy-saving practices, the Fairness approach will make both consumers and producing companies aware of the fairness standard.

Where governments fail, it is up to the public to take the lead. When enough people make an effort, in time governments have to listen to public opinion and start working seriously to implement the MDGs. In the Netherlands, for example, the main development NGOs have united under the banner of an "EEN campaign" to ask the government to take its responsibility. EEN means ONE and the campaign is asking each person to sign up against poverty so that all together they speak with one voice. The first step is asking people to give their vote against poverty on its website. In 2007, on World Poverty Day on 17 October, these votes were handed to the Dutch ministers for finance and development cooperation who presented them in Washington on 20-22 October when finance and development cooperation ministers from all over the world attended the annual meetings of IMF and the World Bank. With this second step, EEN has shown governments that the public is taking responsibility where they fail to do so.

The Fairness model can be easily applied to any other area of human consumption: clothing, cosmetics, and even dining in restaurants and travelling. An absolute condition for the success of the fairness strategy is the number of people that participate. The kind of action led by EEN also happens in 122 countries of the world under the banner of the Global Call to Action against Poverty and the symbol of the white band. You too can be one of the people acting against poverty.

Ted van Hees, campaign leader of EEN, An End to Poverty, Dutch MDG Platform, involving over 50 organisations.

Read more...

See CONCORD newsfeed

See also Euforic's newsfeed on fair trade

Dutch Africa Policy - On the Right Track?

In 2007, for the second year running, the Netherlands was ranked top of the Commitment to Development Index. How good are the policies in practice?

In February 2008, the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on its evaluation of Dutch Africa policy between 1998 and 2006. Download the report (PDF, in Dutch).

The February issue of The Broker featured some of the findings and several reactions to them:

Nils Boesen: ‘The point is not whether what the Netherlands did was partly good, partly less good – the point is that the donor community tends to move in the same direction until they discover that this was not exactly working as expected, whereafter they run collectively into a new direction. Herd behaviour, frankly’.

Stephen Ellis: ‘A point often overlooked is the degree to which the development policy of a rich country like the Netherlands has, in the end, to satisfy a domestic constituency. This is the main reason for some of the twists and turns of Dutch policy, such as the decline in support for rural development in favour of other policy areas that appeal more to the development lobby in the Netherlands itself or even to the broader public’.

Read more reactions in the special issue; sign up to submit your comments and reactions.

Euforic newsfeed on Dutch cooperation policy

More news from The Broker

First Presidency of a new member state: Slovenia leads the way

Source: Concord Flash 48, January 2008

The Slovenian government is taking its job seriously and has been preparing for its Presidency of the European Union (EU) for more than a year now. At stake is not only the country's image, as one of the most deserving in terms of European integration efforts, but also the burden that will be placed on its civil service, 10% of whose staff will be working on the presidency.

The key priorities for the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union have been decided, within the framework of the common programme established at the end of 2006 with Germany and Portugal to cover an 18 month period. Slovenia has also worked with France to ensure the best meshing of their presidencies and action priorities although the partnership with Mediterranean countries will not be one of its priorities as it is for France.

The four main priorities for the Slovenian presidency are:

• Enlargement: prioritising the Balkan states joining the EU and the continuation of talks with Turkey.
  
• Future of Europe: work will concentrate on a smooth Treaty ratification process.
  
• The Lisbon Strategy: prioritising the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy for growth and employment, including energy policy and climate change.
  
• Inter-cultural dialogue: Slovenia will make the most of 2008 as the European Year of Inter-Cultural Dialogue to organise events with European civil society in the EU and the Balkans.
  

Regarding development policies, the Slovenian presidency is focusing on finalising the European Partnership Agreements, development education and the situation of children and women affected by armed conflict. Indeed, the first big event of the Presidency was the presentation of the study entitled "Enhancing the EU response to children affected by armed conflict" which took place in Brussels on 11 January. CONCORD’s photo exhibition, and members, were there as well.

CONCORD and SLOGA, the national platform of Slovenian Development NGOs is working closely with the Slovenian government. SLOGA's aim is to enable the Slovenian public to link their own lives with those of people throughout the world – with a special focus on Africa and the Balkans – and to increase people’s understanding of the interrelation between economic, social, political and environmental factors as the main causes of poverty.

The Slovenian NGO project is addressing the issues of climate change, aid effectiveness, development education and social inclusion (intergenerational dialogue with a focus on Africa, traficking of women, migration with a focus on women and children, and advocacy for children).

Read more...

See the CONCORD newsfeed

See also Euforic's newsfeed and dossier on the EU presidencies

Designing a value-based EU budget for the future – what role for NGOs?

Source: Concord Flash 48, January 2008

Over 90 participants, mostly NGO representatives, attended the Civil Society Contact Group conference on the EU budget review on 24 January in Brussels. The morning saw a training session attended by some 70 participants. Warren Krafchik, Director of the International Budget Project, an NGO that "works to enhance the effective participation of civil society organisations in public budgeting in developing and transition countries" made the case for citizens' involvement by outlining the value that civil society organisations can add to budget negotiations; the types of budget work; possible changes in budgets; the challenges for advocacy, and some successful strategies.

Jan Seifert, assistant to Helga Trüpel, Green MEP and member of the budget committee, explained how the EU budget currently functions and what the issues at stake in the review are. He explained the annual budget, the seven-year financial framework and the EU's own resources and gave examples of successful lobbying.

More political discussions took place during the afternoon session. European Commission representative Vasco Cal (a member of the cabinet of Commissioner Grybauskaité, responsible for the EU budget review) urged the participants to use the opportunity to submit to the Commission their own ideas on the future priorities of the EU. He underlined that this stage was not about amounts but about the headings in the budget. It was crucial to link such a vision to the values as set out in the Lisbon treaty, insisted Roshan Di Puppo, director of the Social Platform. Finding the synergies between sectoral interests of NGOs, and at the same time focusing on what the EU can do that member states can not do on their own, is the challenge NGOs are confronted with.

As part of this review, on 12 September 2007 the European Commission published a communication that launched a public consultation on the EU budget. The communication is intended to serve as basis for the debate about future EU priorities and the management of the budget and resources. After the consultation, ending on 15 April 2008, the Commission will prepare a proposal for a reform of the EU budget. The Commission is currently expected to publish its proposal during the French presidency in the second half of 2008.

CONCORD members have participated in the EU budget review conference and will meet early in February to discuss a CONCORD response to the Commission’s consultation. This input will no doubt combine the CONCORD input that we gave for the Financial Regulation review in 2007 with the brand-new CONCORD vision and documents from several CONCORD working groups.

More info: 2008 EU budget and briefing on consultation.

Read more...

See the CONCORD newsfeed

See also Euforic's newsfeed and dossier on civil society

A coherent 2008?

Source: Concord Flash 48, January 2008

"The best way to ensure policy coherence is to affirm a principle under which the EU’s development work is not only done by the commissioner for development", according to Commissioner Michel in a recent interview with David Cronin. Sometimes it is hard to agree with Michel, but this time he was completely right. Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) is the shared responsibility of all decision-makers working on policies that affect developing countries, at either national or EU level.

To demonstrate this, the EU Coherence Programme published a manual on PCD, giving concrete examples of incoherent EU policies and putting forward recommendations for making policies more coherent. The examples vary from fisheries partnerships and biofuels to illegal logging. The guide was presented during the European Development Days last November 2007 to Louis Michel, to the Portuguese Secretary of State João Gravinho, and several Members of the European Parliament. Since then, it has been distributed to most of the key players in development.

It has also been used as a tool for NGDOs interested in becoming involved in the promotion of PCD amongst their own constituencies. As a result, the EU Coherence Programme has been actively involved in two capacity-building events, in Portugal (November 2007, in co-operation with the national platform and IMVF) and Austria (December 2007, in co-operation with the Austrian EU platform). In 2008 new capacity-building seminars are planned for Finland (organised by CONCORD members such as Kehys) and, once again, Portugal (as a follow-up to the 2007 workshop). Hopefully others will follow!

2008 will prove to be – yet again – an important year in terms of enhancing Policy Coherence for Development, starting with the online consultation of European civil society actors about the Report on PCD recently published by the European Commission. Afterwards, ongoing work needs to be done to monitor progress on PCD-related issues, such as migration, the upcoming CAP reform, the ongoing EPA negotiations, etc.

The website www.eucoherence.org is regularly updated with all the latest news on PCD, and to make sure you miss none of it, you can subscribe to our newsletter by filling in your e-mail address on the site. And to order your free copy of the manual "Policy Coherence for Development: a practical guide", check out the details on our website.

Read more...

See the CONCORD newsfeed

See also Euforic's newsfeed and dossier on coherence

From the Slovenian to the French EU Presidency

Source: EU News, January 2008

On 1 January, the Slovenian Government took over the EU presidency, whose priorities were to a large extent determined by the 18-month programme of the German, Portuguese and Slovenian Presidencies. Hence, it is expected that the Slovenian presidency will build on its predecessors work and boost the effectiveness of current EU policies rather than proposing "endless initiatives."

Slovenia is inheriting a significant project initiated by Germany, that had used its political leverage to push through the EU Code of Conduct on Complementarity and Division of Labour in Development Policy, aimed at rationalizing the number of EU donors present in a country and/or across sectors, according to donors’ "comparative advantage".

It would be big success for the EU, if the French Presidency starting in June could present a comprehensive and positive report, citing examples of successful implementation (Ghana, Vietnam) in the third high level forum in Accra. Until June, however, the Slovenian Government has committed to take forward several other issues as well. Read more...

For more information, please check the Slovenian Presidency website

See also the Euforic highlights on the EU Presidency

MDF becomes publisher of Vice Versa magazine

Source: MDF Newsletter, February 2008

Euforic member organization MDF Training and Consultancy has become the publisher of Vice Versa, the Dutch magazine for development practitioners, policy makers and researchers. MDF has taken over this role from SNV, the Netherlands Development Organisation, who has published the magazine for over 40 years.

Each issue of Vice Versa focuses on a specific theme relevant to development aid, with feature articles, reports on policy and practice, interviews and columns, and annotated links to related web resources, publications and events.

For more information see www.viceversaonline.nl (in Dutch)

Euforic highlights on information, knowledge and communication

Political ways and means to address climate change

Amsterdam, 18 February 2008 – Since climate change is the hot topic on European political agendas, SID Netherlands invited two high-profile speakers to shed some light on ways to tackle global warming.

Gurmit Singh, Executive Director of the Centre for Environment, Technology and Development (CETDEM) in Malaysia provided a passionate and critical 'Southern' perspective. Pier Vellinga, Professor in climate change and environmental science at Wageningen University and the VU Amsterdam, gave a 'Northern' viewpoint, emphasizing the recent political achievements.

Singh started by arguing that climate change is deeply submerged in politics. The post-Kyoto regime negotiations are obscured by vested interests, and characterized by a divide between North and South, between the largest greenhouse gas emitters and the most affected countries. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is just one example of the North-South domination. While the South gets "peanuts", the North makes money trading certificates at the stock markets. The CDM is a very unequal mechanism, because Africa is left out and does benefit at all. For Singh, the Kyoto and Bali agreements are "a lot of hot air, but almost nothing is done/"

The fight against climate change is just like "going to war", argued Singh, because it is "a greater threat than any war before." We have to mobilize resources and shorten the timeframe to achieve the 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that is needed to avoid more than a 2C rise in the world temperature. However, the context must be sustainable development, because the fight against climate change has to be accompanied by the fight against global poverty.

The EU disappointed hopes of strong leadership in Bali. Internal divisions, uneven commitment of its Member States, inconsistency and an incapability of creating alliances foreclosed strong leadership. Singh called on the EU to stop being subservient to the USA and giving way to the business lobby. Further, he lamented that “you have to de-carbonize yourself before asking Brazil, China and India to reduce emissions.” The EU should concentrate on actions instead of words, which lso applies to January's climate change action proposals of the European Commission. In the end, it is not the Commission who decides on commitments, but the Member States.

For Singh, the solution consists of sacrifices and toning down aspirations. On the one hand, people of all countries, and especially in wasteful areas, have to make sacrifices, while still having a good life. Developing countries, on the other hand, have to tone down their aspirations for an energy and resource intensive path of development, while still having a better quality of life. “Nothing comes easy”, Singh appealed, “we have to really change our lifestyles”.

While Vellinga agreed with Singh’s main points, he stressed recent political achievements. “During the last months, more has changed than in the 15 years before”, he reasoned, which is why we can be “slightly optimistic”. Climate change is the ultimate test for international cooperation. Without the EU, the USA and Russia, there cannot be an effective start, because they have the biggest power to reduce. And without China, India and Brazil participating within a decade, the initiative will be ineffective. The “polluter pays principle” will be the major fundamental for future commitments, and Vellinga estimated transfers of 50 billion Euro a year to be necessary.

Vellinga underlined that “we don’t have the wrong regime, but the wrong overtones”. The USA was simply not ready to join an international climate agreement. Also the CDM was in principle a very good and useful initiative, but it was in practice that it became an inequitable mechanism. However, it should still continue to stimulate money flows from North to South.

Concluding, Vellinga reminded that before stepping to action, we need thorough analysis of what climate change will do to different countries. The Netherlands, for example, will spend 50 million Euro for a strategy to firstly understand what adaptation means for the country, before even touching possible adaptation strategies.

Since October 2007, SID Netherlands and partners have organized monthly lectures around the theme 'Emerging Global Scarcities and Power Shifts.' The January lecture discussed biofuels. The The SID lecture series 2007/2008 continues until June 2008.

Story by Birthe Paul

Climate change and agriculture was the topic of recent discussions in Brussels and Lisbon.

See also Euforic newsfeed on climate change.

The climate challenge and ACP responses the focus of the fourth Brussels briefing

On 13 February, CTA, Euforic, and other partners organised the fourth in the series of Brussels Development Briefings.

The briefing hosted two panels: the first discussing 'Climate change and Development - Overview of some key and emerging issues'; the second focussing on the 'Impacts of climate change on rural development'.

Speakers included the EC, ODI, ACP Secretariat, ENDA, Development Commmittee of the European Paliament, Concord, African farmers organisations (SACAU), the Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly. The programme, presentations and video materials, speaker information, video interviews, and further readings are available at the Brussels Briefings website.

Climate change and agriculture was also the topic of a CTA-Euforic side session at the EU Development Days.

Earlier Brussels Briefings looked at 'Aid for Trade', 'Advancing African Agriculture' and 'Challenges to rural development in ACP countries.'

See also Euforic news on rural development and climate change.

A Mediterranean Union?

While French President Sarkozy’s proposal to establish a Mediterranean Union has been hotly debated in the European Union, it is unclear what such an organization might actually look like.

According to the original plans, it would work closely with the European Union but remain a separate organization. It would include all Mediterranean countries including Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. It would aim to enhance regional cooperation in fields such as energy, security, counter-terrorism, immigration and trade (see International Herald Tribune)

Reactions by other EU member states range from hesitant support by Spain and Italy to strong resistance from Germany and other Northern EU member states.

According to the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) the proposal provokes more questions than it answers. It remains unclear how the new organization would related to other regional organizations including the African Union, the Union of Arab Maghreb or the International Gulf Cooperation Council and, last but not least, to the European Union and its various Mediterranean policies including the EU Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and Barcelona Process. The paper suggests that:

“a constructive version of the ‘Union of the Mediterranean’ could thus translate into a restructuring of the ENP, a reconsideration of the policy content of the present Barcelona+ENP and some reconfiguration of the role of ‘most interested member states’.”

A recent analysis for the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) by Dorothée Schmid sheds further light on the French proposals. It puts Sarkozy's Union plans into a larger framework of French Mediterranean policy. According to Schmidt, France never fully supported the European Neighbourhood Policy. The Europe-Mediterranean Partnership under the ENP is criticized as being inefficient, indolent, non-transparent and lacking a strategic vision.

Although France managed to gain support by some EU member states and could appease others, it remains unanswered why a Mediterranean Union would be more successful than another initiatives. Furthermore is dubious how such a new organization could be financed. Schmidt points out that neither the ENP - which will only support EU projects - nor so called 'enhanced cooperation' can be considered since the project includes non-EU members.

Considering all this, one has to remain skeptical whether the new French proposal can bring a solution towards a peaceful and prosperous development of the Mediterranean region.

Paris plans to hold a summit for potential members of a Mediterranean Union on July 13, one day before an EU summit in Brussels.

by Martin Behrens

Further reading: See the EuroMeSCo January 2008 newsletter on the EU-Mediterranean Partnership.

See Euforic's newsfeeds on EU-Mediterranean cooperation and EU neighbourhood policies.

Introducing web2 at CIDSE

On 8 February, Euforic organized a one day web2share awareness session for CIDSE staff on the 'new' web.

Participants created personal home pages and got to grips with newsfeeds to track the content of their favorite sites. They explored how to create their own newsfeeds, from their own blog and by tagging content with social bookmarking applications. They finished by editing their own wiki pages and learning ten ways to search the new web, using different 'spaghetti forks' to unravel the web's content spaghetti.

Discussion at the end of the day showed that most participants had some clear ideas how they could put their new skills into practice.

See Euforic newsfeed, dossier and wiki on web 2.0. See also Euforic's newsfeed on CIDSE

ÖFSE strategy paper 2008

The Austrian Research Foundation for International Development (ÖFSE - Österreichische Forschungsstiftung für internationale Entwicklung) recently published a strategy paper (in German) with its vision and objectives for the coming years. Hereby, the organization wants to adjust to new developments within Austrian development cooperation and the international cooperation environment.

ÖFSE sees itself as an internationally linked research, information and documentation centre with a prominent position within Austrian Development Cooperation. It wants to increase knowledge within the Austrian development community and the public in general.

As priorities for the up-coming years the paper states:

• further organizational development towards an internationally linked research institute which works on edged-cutting issues;
• stabilize its position as a forum for discussion on private and public development cooperation, through the organisation of events and conferences
• extend its consultancy work and applied services

According to the paper, access to information and knowledge is key for future-oriented action. ÖFSE wants to sharpen its profile by:

• further developing country profiles and regionalized content
• continuing the collection of documents and publications related to Austrian Development Cooperation
• the development of new information services

ÖFSEs research profile is based on the target of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Future research areas outlined in the paper are:

• International Development Policy and Cooperation: especially of the EU and development and cooperation of donor strategies through the OECD
• Austrian Development Policy and Cooperation: including policy objectives, financing issues, private development cooperation
  
• International Development Policy and Global Economy: strategies of International Finance Institutions, International Finance and Trade Policy and its influence on development countries
• Fundamental approaches and strategies in poverty alleviation and sustainable development
• The role of the education sector in development processes, strategies of educational development within Bi- and Multilateral Cooperation

See also the information service of ÖFSE on Austrian Development Cooperation at eza.at

See Euforic's dossier on Austrian development cooperation,or sign up for our OEFSE newsfeed or our German language newsfeed on German, Austrian and Swiss Development Cooperation.

by Martin Behrens

Human Rights Watch Report 2008: Despots masquerading as democrats

Human Right Watch recently launched its eighteenth annual review of human rights practice in the world. In his introductory essay, Kenneth Roth, executive director of the organization, accuses the established democracies of diminish democracy standards to allow fake democrats to join their club.

“Rarely has democracy been so acclaimed yet so breached, so promoted yet so disrespected, so important yet so disappointing.”

According to Roth, this trend is not new but has become increasingly striking in 2007. He identifies the organization of fraudulent elections as a main strategy for autocratic leaders to pose as democrats. This fake democratic legitimacy is accompanied by political violence, silencing of media, shutting down civil society and undermining the rule of law.

The West's relaxed attitudes can be explained by competing commercial interests or by the fact that autocracies are allies in the fight against terrorism. He mentions fraudulent elections in Kazakhstan (2002), Jordan(2007), Ethiopia(2005), and Nigeria(2007) to support the argument. Furthermore Roth blames the USA and the European Union for banking more on personalities who claim being democrats than on the strict compliance to democratic rules.

“…when autocrats manage to deflect criticism for violating these rights by pretending to be democrats, when they can enjoy the benefits of admission to the club of democracies without paying the admission fee of respect for basic rights, the global defense of human rights is put in jeopardy.”

Human Rights Watch calls on the established democracies to more rigorously defend the concept of democracy.

See also the video of the launch of the report, listen to audio comments; sign up for the Euforic human rights or democratisation newsfeeds.

by Martin Behrens

Reviewing the Dutch Africa Policy

In February, the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs published the report of its evaluation of Dutch Africa policy between 1998 and 2006. The report contains several hard-hitting conclusions on the direction of Dutch development policy.

The February issue of The Broker features an exclusive report on this IOB evaluation and the first external reactions to its findings.

The issue highlights the good policy intentions, points to the mixed results, and examines results in areas including budget support, sectoral approaches, education, agriculture-urban, governance, ownership, coherence, conflict management, debt, and knowledge and research.

Register online to obtain a print version of this special edition of The Broker.

As lead-in to an online discussion, the issue presents comments on the report from Africa development specialists including: Ernest Aryeetey (ISSER, Ghana), George Ayittey (American University), Joan Boer (OECD), Nils Boesen (Denmark), Solveig Buhl (OECD), Anders Danielson (Sweden), Han van Dijk (Wageningen University), Stephen Ellis (ASC), Leo de Haan (ASC), Paul Hoebink (CIDIN), Wil Hout (ISS), Simon Maxwell (ODI), Nadia Molenaers (University of Antwerp), Oliver Morrissey (University of Nottingham), Steven Ndegwa (World Bank), Francis Nyamnjoh (CODESRIA), Brian Pratt (INTRAC), Joseph Semboja (REPOA, Tanzania), David Sogge (Netherlands), Marian Tupy (Cato Institute), and Doris Voorbraak (World Bank).

At The Broker, you can also sign up for the online discussion on the Dutch Africa policy.

Read the evaluation report (PDF, in Dutch)

More news from The Broker

More about Dutch cooperation policy

Euforic dossier on the Netherlands; also our news in Dutch

Donors urged to restrict aid

Source: IDS News, January 2008

A leading academic has made a controversial proposal for donors to limit their aid spending to 40 per cent of a developing country's tax revenues. Professor Adrian Wood explained his far-reaching plan at the launch of a book which explores the vital links between taxation and governance.

More news on cooperation policy