Today, for the first time, the European Commission presents a joint vision of how trade, investment and development policies can work hand in hand to help fighting poverty. I am proud of this Communication, which provides a complete, comprehensive and well articulated approach of how best to combine our respective competencies and instruments. Sorry for the jargon but this is “Policy for coherence” in action!
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The European Union, like many other donors, is currently exploring the best ways to fight against poverty around the world. Faced with differentiation between developing countries, some of which have become aid donors themselves while others suffer from increasing fragility, the EU must ensure the greatest impact and best value for money for its aid. As always, important policy changes spark off a fierce debate. In particular I would like to respond to a recent article from the Guardian’s Poverty Matters blog, which criticized “cuts” to MICs and urged donors to “get more sophisticated in their thinking”. I am sure that the readers will be pleased to learn that this is exactly what we are applying to EU development aid.
Number of views: 843
I’m just back from the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which took place in South Korea last week. It was a busy few days of negotiations, exchanges and discussions, but I’m glad to say that we finally agreed on an outcome which I think we can all be proud of.
The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, as it is known, sets out future development commitments to make aid more effective and help to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Crucially, it is the first aid effectiveness agreement to include the major emerging economies.
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I invite you to read the speech I delivered in Mali, during the signing of the financial agreement for development programmes in Mali.
“Je suis ravi de me trouver parmi vous aujourd’hui pour signer, avec le Ministre des Affaires étrangères et Ordonnateur National du Fonds européen de Développement, deux documents importants pour le partenariat entre l’Union européenne et le Mali.
Le premier de ces documents est la révision au Programme Indicatif National et au Document de Stratégie Pays pour le 10ème FED. Cet addendum augmente l’appui financier de l’UE au Mali de 50 Millions d’euros, portant l’enveloppe Pays pour la période 2008-2013 à 583 M. d’euros. Pour l’UE, cet effort financier additionnel s’inscrit dans la Stratégie pour le Développement et la Sécurité au Sahel.
Je voudrais l`en dire. Ces dernières années, la bande Saharo-sahélienne a été caractérisée par l’instabilité et l’insécurité. Concernant le cas spécifique du Mali, l’insécurité dans les trois régions du Nord (Tombouctou, Gao et Kidal) est un défi majeur pour la stabilité du pays mais aussi pour toute la région sahélo-saharienne. Cette situation demande une politique préventive, globale et orientée vers le développement. C’est l’objectif de la stratégie pour le Sahel. Qui est le cadre de coordination de l’engagement de l’UE dans la région.
Très concrètement, le montant additionnel de 50 M. d’euros au PIN/DSP devrait entre autres, appuyer le Programme Spécial pour la Paix, la Sécurité et le Développement du Nord Mali (PSPSDN) du gouvernement malien.
Cela se traduira par des activités appuyant le retour de l’administration publique dans le Nord du Mali, la construction et la réhabilitation d’infrastructures pour l’administration publique, la mise à disposition du public d’infrastructures sociales et de services de base, la mise en œuvre de projets visant la génération d’emplois et de revenu, ainsi que la mobilisation de la société civile autour des thèmes de la paix et de la sécurité dans la région.
Le secteur de la justice devrait aussi être concerné car c’est un élément essentiel de la lutte contre le terrorisme et le crime organisé. Le montant additionnel devrait aussi permettre de créer un volet “prévention des conflits” afin d’appuyer le travail d’organisations spécialisées.
En complémentarité avec ces initiatives, une allocation est proposée pour appuyer des actions de développement décentralisé et communautaire.
Les efforts du Mali pour lutter contre le terrorisme doivent être redoublés. Ce geste permettra un tel effort, j`en suis sûr.
Dans la mise en œuvre de ces programmes, l`une bonne appropriation et un dialogue avec les populations locales et la société civile continuera à être un point clef.
Cet aspect me permet de faire le lien avec la convention de financement que je vais également, de signer ce matin. Il s’agit du Programme d’Appui aux Organisations de la Société Civile malienne (PAOSC). Cette intervention vise à renforcer les Organisations de la Société Civile maliennes et leur participation au processus démocratique, à la réforme de l’Etat et à la décentralisation.
Le PAOSC sera doté d’un budget de 12,5 M EUR, financé pour plus de la moitié par le Fonds européen de développement, et d’autre part par des contributions du Danemark, de la Suède et de la Suisse. Sa mise en œuvre sera assurée par l’Union européenne. Il est le fruit d’un important travail de coordination et applique les principes de la Déclaration de Paris et de l’Agenda d’Accra. Des négociations avec d’autres bailleurs de fonds intéressés à se joindre au Programme sont actuellement en cours.
La société civile malienne joue un rôle croissant dans la lutte contre la pauvreté et la prévention des conflits et est de plus en plus associée à la mise en œuvre de la décentralisation et de la stratégie pour la croissance et la réduction de la pauvreté. Néanmoins, les organisations de la société civile maliennes restent encore confrontées à des problèmes de capacité et de reconnaissance.
C’est dans ce contexte que s’inscrit le PAOSC, qui constituera un nouvel instrument pour articuler l’appui des bailleurs de fonds au Forum des organisations de la société civile.”
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The famine put 13 million people into a humanitarian crisis with no quick fix in sight. Often we see shocking images of hunger in Somalia and misery of people in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. The EU is already the biggest donor for the Horn region (ca. 700 million Euro of humanitarian assistance and 600 million Euro of long-term aid) but we also have to think how to spend it in the best possible way. During the last meeting of Foreign Affairs and Development Councils, the HR/VP Cathy Ashton, Commissioner Georgieva, myself and EU ministers, we discussed to find ways to further improve the situation and help avoiding such crisis happening again.
I’m happy to tell you that the Council adopted a comprehensive Strategic Framework to guide EU’s engagement in the region. This will leverage on the already existing actions from the EU in the region and defines a common approach including the political, economic, development and humanitarian dimensions.
EU money brought results
Taxpayers’ funds have already brought results and saved lives. Thanks to EuropeAid’s assistance, more than 750 thousand Somali households benefit from the increase access to the improved drinking water and water for agricultural purposes; more than 50 thousand Somali households benefit from the support to livestock production, processing and trade; and more than 50 thousand Somalis benefit from the support to agricultural production.
However, the scale of the challenge is enormous. It’s not only drought and hunger that led to famine. Pirates make it difficult to ship food. Political instability and lack of security for the last two decades push many people into poverty and terrorism and made any development difficult. We are well aware that these problems interact with each other therefore our strategy tackles all the issues that affect the region at the same time.
New strategic framework for the Horn
Our objectives are ambitious, that’s true, but I am glad to see that we are ready to have an ambitious response to the suffering of millions. First of all, we want to provide a long-term perspective of all our actions. Secondly, we will focus on increasing food security by building on agricultural national plans and supporting national investments and policy measures in the Horn states. This will involve, among others, establishing an integrated strategy between humanitarian assistance and development cooperation to better link relief to rehabilitation and long-term development. Finally, we will work on increasing security on the ground and preventing potential conflicts.
All of this should be supported with actions that would stimulate inclusive economic growth. Only by giving people hope for better future, we can convince them not to engage in risky and illegal piracy and terrorism. People must have an alternative!
I see the implementation of this strategy as a two step approach. Our first priority today is to save lives therefore the first step would involve a focus on recovery assistance in the most drought-affected areas – Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia. During the second step we will widen our actions to the entire Greater Horn region.
We will also work with countries in the region. I recently met with President Museveni from Uganda, whose country largely contributes to the African Peace corps (AMISOM) deployed in Somalia.
We like to say here in Brussels that if we all work together we can achieve more. There is no doubt that in such a complex region like the Horn, this is more valid than ever before.
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There are days when I’m particularly proud to be a member of the Commission, and today is one of those. We adopted the revision of the Transparency and Accounting Directives to insert some disposals regarding disclosure of all payments done by EU extractive and forestry industry in Africa. This is a substantial change as it will oblige all multinationals active in oil, gas, mining and forestry in Africa to be more transparent – which can prevent some types of tax evasion – and encourage better governance by countries of their natural resources. African soil is rich and it is up to African citizens to enjoy the main benefits of it. At the end of the day, those countries should mobilise enough fiscal resources to be independent of EU aid one day.
Number of views: 2265
Yesterday I presented an “Agenda for Change”, my proposals about changes in EU development policy. I am happy to see open and franc discussions about it the media, on Twitter and in other sources. I want to thank everybody for comments, but I would also like to clarify some misunderstandings.
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Without providing access to energy for all, we will never win the fight against poverty – I repeated this mantra many times. Behind these words, there are actions; and I want to share with you a successful story from Africa today.
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September usually takes me to New York for the annual UN General Assembly week. The whole world gathers in the city to discuss the hottest global topics and define joint solutions and actions. This week has a particular flavour to me for two reasons: first, because ’sustainable energy for all’ was put at the top of the global political agenda by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon.
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J’ai ouvert mon site web en février 2010 par une phrase de Nelson Mandela, qui rappelait que la lutte contre la pauvreté ne passait pas par la charité mais par l’accès à la liberté. J’en ai fait l’une des mes priorités de mon mandat. Cette vérité a résonné davantage encore lorsque j’ai visité la maison de Nelson Mandela à Soweto, le quartier dans lequel sont finies les émeutes qui devaient conduire au régime honteux de l’apartheid.
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