Aid on NGOs watch3.756

Spring is the time of monitoring EU performance on aid. The Commission published its own statistics, conclusions and recommendations in April. But I also welcome the publication of the AidWatch/Concord report on EU development aid, which we also discussed during the meeting we had, with civil society, in Budapest. As you know, I’m a strong supporter of the role of NGOs to raise awareness on critical issues, such as this very basic truth: we have to do more and do it better.

It turns out that the European Commission and NGOs share many concerns and this report proves that we are on the same side, on the side of fighting poverty and helping the poorest nations in the world.

Thinking alike…

What we have acknowledged in April, and NGOs rightly remind about this in their report, the EU has fallen short of its collective 0.56% goal for 2010 (the EU reached 0.43%). To be fair though, let me just point out that the EU increased its aid of €4.5 bln despite the difficult economic situation. The EU remains the largest donor in the world, with the record high €53.8 bln. Just for comparison, the second largest donor is the US with ca. €20.5 bln.

But this is no reason for complacency and I stressed in April that aid budgets must be increased if we are to meet our ambitious goals for 2015 and remain credible. I still believe that despite the temporary set backs we will reach the target on time. It’s really in everybody’s interest to invest in developing countries and help them to get on the right track of inclusive growth and development.

…focusing on poverty…

We can only achieve a real progress in alleviating poverty, when we address the root causes of people’s poverty. This requires very often working in difficult conditions and in so called ‘fragile states’[1]. I attended the UN Conference in Istanbul on the Least Developed Countries, where I reminded that the European Commission will continue to work for the benefit of more than 815 million people living in these countries.  I actually just came back from one of them – Sudan – where I was able to see the remaining challenges ahead of us on how to help this country (soon two countries) to develop in a peaceful and sustainable way.

Our commitment is also noticeable if you look at the numbers. EU aid to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) increased by 78 % from €8.3 billion in 2000 to €15 billion in 2010. The share of Gross National Income (GNI) spent on aid to LDCs rose from 0.09% in 2000 to 0.13% in 2010. The EU is still by far the largest donor to the LDCs (56 % of aid worldwide in 2010). The share of Commission-managed EU aid to the LDCs rose from 21.6 % in 2000 to 29.9 % in 2009.

…and argue constructively

The most obvious difference stemming from the report is definition of what can be counted as aid. This is not a place for detailed methodological discussion, but it is important to remember that we work on the basis of the internationally agreed definition of Official Development Aid. The rules should not be changed in the middle of the process. The Commission considers that any spending that contributes to poverty alleviation has to be taken into account. The implicit proposal to change the ODA definition (by taking out certain categories) would delegitimise the 0.7% target the same way as adding new categories

All in all, we may not agree to all the proposals in the reports, but we welcome the good opportunity for dialogue and partnership with the representative of civil society. The reports include several good proposals and we may consider some of these in our future policy.

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[1] There are currently 48 ‘fragile states’ or so called Least Developed States with 815 million people living in these countries. More than half of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day. If you want to have more information, please visit the United Nations website.

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