Summary: May 1, 2004: The enlarging European Union at the United Nations: Making multilateralism matter. Published by the European Union, agreed by the Troika and Member States in New York - Chapter 3
Development cooperation - A new focus on aid effectiveness and global commitments
By far the largest provider of official development assistance in the world, the European Union accounted for around half of the world's ODA total, some USD 35.5 billion in 2002 (7). Moreover, the EU pledge in Monterrey (Financing for Development (FfD)) will bring the amount of EU ODA up to EUR 39 billion by 2006.
The European Community itself is also a major source of financing support for UN programmes, specialised agencies and funds. During 1999-2001, the EC contributed an average of more than EUR 350 million annually to the UN system, putting it consistently among the top three donors in its own right for the WFP and UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
A new era of EU-UN development cooperation
The EU places high priority upon intensifying and enhancing its relations with the UN in the field of development. Progress has been achieved in the policy field and in operations over the years, but there is scope for an improved, more effective partnership. EC cooperation with the UN system is changing from ad hoc, project-based collaboration towards more systematic and programmatic cooperation. The policy dialogue is also being strengthened, recognising the added value and core capabilities that UN bodies can bring in relation to EU development policy priorities.
Three major elements continue to shape the EC's approach to development cooperation:
These three important decisions help the EU respond to the dual challenge of how to make its external aid more effective, and how to meet the internationally agreed development goals arising from the Millennium Declaration and the major international conferences of the past few years. The EU sees this new global partnership as having a fundamental impact on how development policy is understood and implemented across the world.
More specifically, concerning cooperation with the UN, the Commission is implementing the recommendations found in the Commission Communication of May 2001 on 'Building an effective partnership with the UN in the fields of development and humanitarian affairs', which looks at ways and means for improving the quality and impact of EC development policy within the UN system. The Commission is increasing its policy dialogue with UN organisations, stepping up its activities in UN policy and decision-making bodies as well as establishing strategic partnerships with a number of UN agencies, funds and programmes.
To facilitate cooperation between the Commission and the UN organisations, an updated financial and administrative framework agreement, designed to facilitate a closer partnership between the two bodies, was signed in April 2003 by UN Deputy Secretary General Louise Fréchette, and EU Commissioner for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid Poul Nielson. The agreement will pave the way for a closer partnership between the EC and the UN, lowering costs for projects and programmes.
Mr Poul Nielson, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, New York, April 2003. UN/DPI photo by Eskinder Debebe.
The development policy of the European Community
Reduction of poverty is the central focus and overall objective of the EU's development policies and activities. To foster this, the EC pursues an integrated approach, addressing political, economic, social, environmental and institutional dimensions on all levels - global, regional, national and local - with partners in the public, private and civil sectors. The EU also considers that the gradual integration of developing countries into the world economy is one of the major components of a global strategy to achieve international development targets.
UN Millennium Development GoalsBy the year 2015, all 191 United Nations Member States have pledged to meet these goals |
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| Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger | • Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day • Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger |
| Achieve universal primary education | • Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling |
| Promote gender equality and empower women | • Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015 |
| Reduce child mortality | • Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five |
| Improve maternal health | • Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio |
| Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases | • Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS • Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases |
| Ensure environmental sustainability | • Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources • Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water • Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020 |
| Develop a global partnership for development | • Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Include a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction - nationally and internationally • Address the least-developed countries' special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction • Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States • Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term • In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth • In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries • In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies - especially information and communications technologies |
In its poverty eradication efforts, the EU emphasises the importance of reducing hunger and malnutrition, halving poverty by the year 2015 and improving the living conditions of rural populations.
Six core tasks for development assistance
EC development policy identifies six areas where it can offer comparative advantage:
Cross-cutting issues, such as gender aspects, environmental sustainability and human rights are being fully integrated into all activities.
Training for sustainable management of tropical forests, funded by the European Union, Papua New Guinea. Photo: European Commission.
The European Commission targets its efforts in areas where it has a proven track record, and where it can provide added value compared with other development partners, especially EU Member States. The Commission is increasing its cooperation with its Member States, other bilateral and multilateral donors - in particular the UN system and the Bretton Woods institutions - to ensure other areas are covered as well.
As one of the largest donors, the EC will also play an increasingly active role with its development partners. The EC is making best use of existing frameworks, such as the poverty reduction strategy programme and the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).
Furthermore, the EU is in the process of adjusting its policies to support the results of the major international conferences. EU initiatives on water and energy were launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in September 2002, supporting the WSSD plan of implementation. These initiatives demonstrate the EU's commitment to translate the political agreements made in Johannesburg into concrete action.
'The EU energy initiative for poverty eradication and sustainable development' followed an agreement reached at the WSSD on the need for joint action to improve access to reliable and affordable energy services sufficient to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This initiative emphasises the development of partnerships, at policy level as well as at practical level for implementation, with recipient countries, the private sector, other donors, financing organisations and civil society.
The EU water initiative, 'Water for life', will make a positive contribution towards achieving the targets of clean water provision and access to basic sanitation.
The European Commission coordinates both initiatives and chairs the multi-stakeholder advisory group of the water initiative, involving the EU Member States, NGOs, private sector and professional associations and the European Investment Bank. It has also suggested boosting the EU water initiative by proposing the establishment of a European Union water fund, with a budget of EUR 1 billion, to help give people in the ACP countries access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.
Another priority area for action arising from the WSSD is the 'EU action plan for forest law enforcement, governance and trade', which aims to address the growing problem of illegal logging and related trade.
The landmark Cotonou Agreement
The EU and its ACP partners achieved an important milestone in their relations with the entry into force of the Cotonou Agreement on 1 April 2003. The Europe-ACP partnership has significantly developed during the past 40 years: from the association system in 1957 to the Yaoundé Conventions in 1963 and 1969, and the four Lomé Conventions (1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, plus 1995 bis). The renewal of the ACP-EU Agreement has been the subject of intensive discussions since 1996. Wide-ranging public debate has made it possible to assess the expectations and changes needed to breathe new life into the partnership.
As with the EU's development policy in general, the agreement's key objective is the reduction of poverty. This is embedded in an innovative economic and trade cooperation framework, which supports regional integration and cooperation efforts between ACP countries. In this context, the EC intends to negotiate regional economic partnership agreements, which will be at the heart of regional free trade areas. This process should help ACP countries integrate gradually into the world economy, giving prominence to strengthened regional cooperation and thus responding to the challenges of globalisation.
It also paves the way for increased foreign direct investments, which the EC intends to stimulate through a new EUR 2.2 billion business investment facility.
This new agreement will disburse funds in the order of EUR 13.5 billion (in addition to EUR 10 billion not allocated during previous agreements) for the period 2000-07. Allocation of these funds will be based on the evaluation of each country's individual requirements as well as their policy performance. This country- by-country approach, based on the principles of selectivity and effectiveness, is another leading feature of the new relationship.
Important elements such as peace-building, conflictprevention policies and migration have also been introduced into the new agreement.
Reform of the Commission's external service
On 1 January 2001, the reorganisation and reform of the European Commission's external services came into effect. This included the establishment of a new EuropeAid Cooperation Office for the management of 80 % of the EC's external assistance - EUR 9 billion in total. External assistance projects are now managed under a single administrative structure, from start to finish. The primary aim: speeding up delivery and improving the quality of programmes and projects.
Reorganisation has also included the decentralisation and devolution of powers from the European Commission's headquarters into the field, including provision of necessary human and material resources. The goal is to ensure development policy is made and implemented on the ground.
Heavily indebted poorest countries (HIPCs)
Thus far, the EC has pledged more than EUR 1.275 billion to the HIPC initiative: EUR 734 million as a donor to the HIPC Trust Fund; EUR 485 million as a creditor; and an additional EUR 60 million, again as a creditor, to alleviate remaining special loans granted to least-developed ACP HIPCs. The EC remains committed to cover, on a fair burden-sharing basis, the potential costs of the 'topping up', namely the additional debt relief that may be needed at completion point for countries having experienced external shocks, leading to a debt burden above the threshold of sustainability.
Health issues
The European Commission and the WHO widened their collaboration in December 2000 by an exchange of letters and a memorandum of understanding identifying various priority areas in a wide range of health issues. These included communicable disease control, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), a global strategy on diet, physical activity and health, environment and health and the strategic partnership between the EU and the WHO in the field of development.
Coordinated efforts and international public/private partnerships against infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are key issues for development and poverty reduction in the developing world.
In this context, the EU has developed a comprehensive programme for action on accelerated actions targeting these three diseases, and has given high priority to improved results in this area on national, regional and global levels, in the areas of development, research and trade.
Increased cooperation in the field of communicable diseases is an even greater priority since the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). There is now effective synergy between the EU early warning and response system and the WHO global outbreak alert and response network.
The FCTC was adopted unanimously in May 2003 and is recognised as the first international treaty negotiated under the auspices of the WHO. The Commission negotiated on behalf of the EU. Commissioner Byrne's leadership and commitment to tobacco control was recognised by a special award given by the World Health Assembly.
On access to medication, the EU and the WHO have confirmed their intention to work together on improving access to medicines for poverty-related diseases. A final multilateral agreement in the WTO on the Doha Declaration on trade-related aspects of international property rights (TRIPs) and public health is needed as soon as possible and the Commission is working hard to achieve it. In this context, it is worth recalling the major contributions of the EU to the financing of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Finally, the strategic partnership between the Commission and the WHO in the field of development and health is aimed at maximising the opportunities for the reduction of poverty and the attainment of the millennium development goals. Both organisations share the same conviction that public health policy is at the heart of a genuine development policy.
The EU's involvement in key UN development conferences
In the last few years, a number of important international meetings have taken place related to the EU and UN common concern to eradicate poverty.
The third UN Conference on Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) was held at the Brussels headquarters of the European Parliament in May 2001. The EU played a leading role in making this conference a success and contributed strongly to the adoption of the programme of action on LDCs for 2001-10.
Then, at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey in 2002, the EU undertook the eight 'Barcelona commitments' as its concrete contribution to the conference. These 'commitments' paved the way for considerable undertakings from other major donors, expressed both at the Monterrey conference and in the 'Monterrey consensus', which contains a number of positive messages on partnership, increases in ODA and the untying of aid and technical assistance. The post-FfD conference period has been marked by the EU's strong commitment to work with the UN, the Bretton Woods institutions and the WTO.
On the occasion of the 'World Food Summit: Five years later' in June 2002 in Rome, the EU reasserted its firm commitment and determination to achieve a solemn Millennium Declaration objective: to free mankind from the scourge of famine. In this context, the EU underlined the need for a comprehensive strategy hinging on trade, public aid, research and cooperation with the countries concerned. Each year, the EU handles food security programmes worth roughly EUR 2.7 billion. To maximise their impact, the EU has concentrated food security operations in the 34 most vulnerable countries over the last few years.
At the WSSD in Johannesburg, the EU reaffirmed its willingness and determination to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The WSSD succeeded in adding new momentum to the cause of sustainable development and demonstrated, like FfD, that the EU can speak with one voice and play a leading role. The EU is determined to make sure that the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) are equally well covered. And the most important aspect of all: implementation. In March 2003, the EU reviewed its strategy for sustainable development with a focus on putting into practice the commitment undertaken in the WSSD, both internally and externally. The EU's new initiatives on water, energy and illegal logging, as described above, demonstrate clearly its willingness to deliver.
New challenges for Community development policy
The EC's development policy has entered a new era. The new global partnership established as a result of the Millennium Declaration and the major international conferences pose new goals and challenges for development. It is now time to focus on the implementation of the joint global commitments and pay even more attention to the effectiveness of our actions. As a major global partner in development cooperation, the EU is ready to push for improvements in the international community's ability to achieve its development policy goals. The EU is therefore committed to the ongoing efforts to enhance aid effectiveness, and attaches great importance to the efforts of the donor community to work towards the harmonisation of donor practices. Closer cooperation between the EU and the UN family will be part of this effort.
(7) This includes both the ODA of individual EU Member States and that of the European Community.
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