EU must stand up for gender rights in development policy | Euractiv

The biggest battle for the future of international development is the ideological one: deciding whether to make women and men, and their sexual and reproductive health and rights, equal, writes Neil Datta on Euractiv.

“Public awareness of the potential to drive development by advancing gender equality is gaining momentum […]The biggest battle for the future of international development is the ideological one: deciding whether to make women and men, and their sexual and reproductive health and rights, equal”, writes Neil Datta, secretary of the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development.

In the report on “Women’s rights and the right to food” of Olivier De Schutter, UN’s special rapporteur clear causal links between improving gender equality and improving food security are found.

Since 2000 the international community has agreed that gender equality is one of the biggest challenges that must be achieved in order to reduce global poverty. So important, in fact, that it deserves its own Millennium Development Goal. But the danger of it being dealt with in exclusion is that the complexity, and its interwoven connections with other areas of development, will be neglected, as the battle for gender equality is categorised alongside the battle for the poor to become rich or the sick to become healthy.

Unlike most other development challenges, gender equality requires ideological social change to take place. Social change that has often taken decades, generations or even centuries to come about in places where it has already started to occur. The argument to provide money, medicine, education, clean water, housing, bed nets, infrastructure or working toilets is a simple one that requires little ideological debate to agree with. And these are ideas for which quantifiable indicators can be found to placate cash-strapped donors in search of value for money. Source: Euractiv

Filed under: European Union, Governance, equality, gender

DOCON 2013 Directory of Consulting Firms active in International Development Cooperation | www.docon.info

I recently updated DOCON, the Directory of Consulting Firms active in International Development Cooperation at http://www.docon.info. Here you can find service providers, consortium partners or employers. The list is sorted by country of Headquarters. Companies are listed world-wide, but I make an effort to cover the European Union Member States and the ACP African, Caribbean, Pacific Group of Countries, as many consortia are formed in these regions.

Please help growing this directory. I especially look for more African consulting companies as local partners, as are currently listed here: http://www.weitzenegger.de/docon/htm/acp.htm. Everyone can suggest an entry at http://www.weitzenegger.de/content/?page_id=7901. It’s free and hand-edited, so no spam appears.

Filed under: ACP, Africa, European Union, Networks

Weitzenegger’s Coverage of European Development Days #EDD12, 16-17 Oct 2012

Stay tuned for our inclusive coverage of the 2012 European Development Days live from Brussels. Watch
http://posts.weitzenegger.de
for our evolving coverage live from Brussels. As unofficial media partner, we will be bringing you breaking news, analysis and exclusive, on-site interviews with some of the unknown participants. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to receive real-time updates.

Filed under: Development, European Union, News

Devex Career Fair in Brussels #EDD12 @devex

I’m at the first-ever Devex Career Fair in association with the European Development Days in Brussels.
http://www.devex.com/en/news/blogs/sign-up-now-for-the-devex-career-fair-in-brussels

I’m espoacially interested in the pening remarks by Roseland Room on “Distinguishing Yourself in a Competitive Field”, because I’m wirting an article about this. The market for jobs in global development is getting more competitive. From expert consulting positions to staff jobs, leading development organizations describe what separates successful candidates.

Filed under: Employment, European Union

Open aid – transparent Swedish development cooperation

Open aid – transparent Swedish development cooperation.

Open aid – transparent Swedish development cooperation

“Open aid” is the name of the next step in the reform of Sweden´s development cooperation. The step is being taken to better adapt development cooperation to today´s reality and the opportunities created by globalisation and technological development. The goal is to achieve as effective poverty reduction as possible. To achieve this goal, development cooperation must be opened up to transparency and ideas from others.

Filed under: Development, European Union, OECD, Aid Efficiency, Aid Transparency, OpenAid

3rd European Forum on Sustainable Development, Palencia, Spain 29th March-1st April 2011

CTA – Brussels Office Weblog – 3rd European Forum on Sustainable Development.

The 3rd European Forum on Sustainable Development will be held in Palencia, Spain from 29th March-1st April 2011. This forum is an initiative by the European Commission and EU Presidency with the support of France, Germany, Ireland, the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development and CTA. Around 500 experts in rural development form all around the world will be attending. Areas in agricultural cooperation which will be discussed include cover governance, food security and social protection, land issues, Ecologically efficient agricultural systems for smallholder farmers, the role of the private sector and the civil society in rural development, rural financing…
In the framework of the Forum, CTA is preparing a side-event under the theme “ICTs Mobilizing Farmers” which will highlight the importance and potential of ICTs in rural communities and agricultural development, presenting testimonials of farmers, ICTs specialists and researchers. The aim is to exemplify the positive contribution of technology in the development of small agricultural clusters; increasing productivity, bringing up-to-date market information and even allowing easier access to finances.

If you wish to assist to the Forum and event, please contact lopes@cta.int

Filed under: Development, Environment, European Union, Rural Economies

Development ministers discuss future development policy, Sahel strategy

CTA – Brussels Office Weblog – Development ministers discuss future development policy, Sahel strategy.

At the informal meeting member states discussed the European Commission’s green paper outlining the future trends of European development policy. The main idea is to coordinate the European Union’s support policies with the goals of sustainable growth by putting economic growth in the service of acceptance and reducing poverty. […] Development ministers also discussed an EU strategy for the Sahel region. Sahel is one of the poorest regions in the world where abject poverty is compounded by a fast population growth, food shortage is an everyday issue and governments are transient. Society is riddled with internal conflicts, Islam radicalism poses a high risk, and security threats related to bootlegging and terrorism are extremely high. The European Union is now finalizing a comprehensive strategy to address the region’s security and development challenges. In this quest, creating stable governance, resolving internal conflicts, encouraging closer cooperation between the regions and fighting against radicalism are of equal importance. The strategy also aims to enhance the region’s security capabilities, protect the rule of law and to support economic development.

Filed under: Africa, Development, European Union, News

EDC 2020 – Final Event

Final EDC 2020 event to present results of three years of research on the impact of new actors in international development, energy security democracy and political development and climate change on European Development Cooperation.

via EDC 2020 – Final Event.

Filed under: Development, European Union

EDC 2020 – Briefing for Parliamentarians 2011

EDC 2020 – Briefing for Parliamentarians 2011.

The European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) would like to invite you to participate to the final event series of the European Development Cooperation to 2020 project (EDC 2020). The two consecutive events, on 9 and 10 February 2011 at Residence Palace in Brussels Belgium, will examine the current opportunities and challenges for European development cooperation.
The event series will open with a keynote speech by EU Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs.

Filed under: Development, European Union

New Challenges, New Beginnings – Next Steps in European Development Cooperation

It is a coincidence that two things have happened simultaneously – and the coincidence will be a happy one if the two can be brought together.

On the one hand, Europe has emerged from eight years of introspection with new structures, a new leadership team and a new platform (the Lisbon Treaty) for more effective collective action.

On the other hand, the global financial crisis has provided a sobering wake-up call about the extent of mutual inter-dependence and the scale of the challenges the world must face. The global challenges will shape international development cooperation in coming years and have already led to new thinking and new approaches.

The financial crisis affected all countries and revealed new vulnerabilities. The most affected suffered a combination of falling export volumes and values, lower financial flows, lower remittances, and sometimes lower aid. Although global recovery has begun, it is uneven in scale and speed. Countries entered and will leave the recession very differently equipped to manage the next wave of challenges. There is likely to be greater differentiation among developing countries as a result. Climate change will be by far the biggest of the next wave, but developing countries must also deal with rapid urbanisation, demographic change, and a whole range of global risks, from disease pandemics to the risk of new food crises. Fragile states pose an especially demanding challenge, to their own populations but also to the global community. A new age of challenges requires a new approach.

via Europe’s World – The only Europe-wide Ideas Community – Partner Posts.

Filed under: Africa, Development, Economy, European Union, MDGs

EADI EDC2020 Publication: Rising Powers and New Global Challenges

EADI: EDC2020 Publication “Rising Powers and New Global Challenges” – Bonn Sustainability Portal.

The challenges facing European development cooperation have changed substantially in recent years. Analysts and politicians have commented on the increasing influence of China in Africa and the challenges this poses for EU influence to the EU strategic and policy objectives.

In fact, both China and India have expanded their development cooperation programmes in Africa and are using aid as a means to gain economic and political influence and access to strategic resources, above all energy resources. In doing so, they appear to challenge the aid principles agreed by the OECD Donor Assistance Committee (DAC). Because of China’s high-profile in Africa, much of the discussion about new donors has centred on China’s role as a new actor in development cooperation, and the differences between its approach to development cooperation and the DAC principles. But the challenge for EU development cooperation goes far beyond aid principles and the DAC consensus. The underlying challenge arises from a combination of the emergence of new economic and political powers and a radically changing global conjuncture.

The DAC consensus was formed in particular economic and political circumstances. In the 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union freed development cooperation from great power politics, while reductions in spending by Russia and donors in the Middle East donors left the DAC group in control of 95% of international aid (Manning 2006: 371-2). The removal of aid competition allowed donors to pursue economic and political conditionality, human rights and democracy issues more insistently. At the same time, with a relatively benign global environment characterised by low and stable commodity prices and growth across much of the world, the DAC donors were confident about prioritising aid towards poverty reduction and the needs of the poorest countries downplaying the role of aid in pursuing the strategic and political interests of the donors.

By John Humphrey, Institute of Development Studies, UK

Filed under: Development, European Union

Conference: Inspiring Clusters in the Beginning of the New Decade, 30-31 March 2011

Conference: Inspiring Clusters in the Beginning of the New Decade, 30-31 March 2011.

The Competitiveness Institute European Regional Conference on Inspiring Clusters in the Beginning of the New Decade, which will take place on 30-31 March 2011 in Tallinn, Estonia.

TCI European regional conference in 2011 will focus on how to improve the Cluster policies both on European, national and regional level and how to achieve excellence in cluster management. The conference will also provide a deeper insight into cluster development in Eastern and Central Europe being the first TCI conference in this region.

Filed under: Clusters, Economy, European Union, Value Chains

EC launches public consultation to improve budget support to developing countries

Over the past decade, the European Commission has increasingly used general and sector budget support to ACP countries as preferred aid modalities. This choice was motivated by the commitment of donors to make aid more effective. But despite the potential of the new generation of budget support and the so-called ”sector wide approach”, budget support has come under pressure within donors and partner countries for a variety of reasons. Therefore, the European Commission has launched a public consultation (
http://ec.europa.eu/development/how/consultation/?action=viewcons&id=5221
) to solicit the views of stakeholders. It seeks to find out and socialise what has and hasn’t worked with a view to improving the EC’s approach to budget support. The basis of the consultation is an EC green paper (
http://ec.europa.eu/development/how/consultation/?action=viewcons&id=5221
) which focuses on: i) political governance and the role of political dialogue; ii) the role of policy dialogue and conditionality and links to performance and results; iii) domestic and mutual accountability; iv) programming of budget support and its coherence with other instruments; v) strengthening risk assessment and dealing with fraud and corruption; vi) budget support in situations of fragility; and vii) growth, fiscal policy and mobilisation of domestic revenues. ECDPM is working primarily on the dimension of domestic accountability in relation to budget support and sector wide approaches. Source: ECDPM.
http://tinyurl.com/39va6ka

Filed under: Development, European Union

Time to deliver: Challenges of the new EU Commissioner for Development

In a challenge ahead, Europe has two main contributions to make: development policy thinking and development aid delivery. Development policy is a key part of the ”Europe 2020” vision presented by president Barroso. In particular, as we look ahead to a ”global Europe”, it is in times of development challenges that the EU can become a champion of global governance – challenges which include world economic recovery, climate change, migration, food security and making progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The Commission is already exploiting its expertise in development and strengthening the link between development policy, researchers, national authorities and civil society. To meet the Millennium Development Goals, the EU must implement its plans for greater coherence between policies in different sectors (”policy coherence for development”) and make aid more effective by coordinating the Commission (EuropAid) and 27 EU countries in one cogent effort to tackle poverty worldwide.

The EU is the biggest aid donor in the world, channelling some 60% of total official development assistance to Asia, Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Caribbean and Latin America ( €49bn in 2008, or €100 per European citizen). By improving aid predictability and achieving a better division of labour (the 2 main principles of efficient aid delivery), the EU could minimise the burden on recipient countries and free up resources worth €3-6bn a year (2009 aid-effectiveness study). Helping developing countries recover from the economic slowdown and beyond will be the top priority for the incoming development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. In times of economic crisis, sustaining financing for development is difficult but crucial for poor countries suffering even more than their developed counterparts. Source: European Commission,
http://ec.europa.eu/development/icenter/featured_20100209_en.cfm

Filed under: Development, European Union

Oxfam: Rich countries must not raid aid to pay climate debt

A new Oxfam report has warned that at least 4.5 million children could die unless world leaders deliver additional funds to help poor countries fight the growing impact of climate change, rather than diverting it from existing aid promises. The report, ‘Beyond Aid,’ also warns that at least 75 million fewer children are likely to attend school and 8.6 million fewer people could have access to HIV/AIDS treatment if aid is diverted to help poor countries tackle climate change. Without at least $50 billion a year in addition to the 0.7 per cent of national income rich countries have already pledged as aid, recent progress toward the Millennium Development Goals could stall and then go into reverse. Source: Oxfam,
http://tinyurl.com/yc5atwj

Filed under: Crisis, Development, Economy, European Union, News

Strengthening EU development cooperation under the Lisbon Treaty

The expected introduction of the European Union’s (EU) Lisbon Treaty in 2010 will fundamentally alter how EU external action is conducted. This presents both risks and opportunities for EU development cooperation. The general expectation of EU Member States’ Senior Officials is that progress in EU integration and a stronger EU profile in the world would strengthen EU development cooperation and improve policy coherence for development This would also help to ensure better cooperation with partner countries in the South. But there were varying assessments on how these aspirations might best be achieved. See the ECDPM background document. Source: ECDPM.
http://dev.afflux.com/ecdpm/manager2/link.php?ID=1125

Filed under: Development, European Union, Germany, OECD

New reports assess EU policy coherence for development

The European Commission published a progress report of the Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) approach launched in 2005 as part of the European Consensus on Development. The PCD review published in late September says that its framework ”allows for a systematic exploration of the effects that EU policies other than aid might have on development and on the achievement of the MDGs. The European Commission claims that these are ”powerful mechanisms to promote PCD”. Source: CTA.
http://www.eurodad.org/whatsnew/articles.aspx?id=3883

Filed under: ACP, Development, European Union, Publications

Official launch of the ACP Migration Facility

http://www.acp.int/en/sg/migration09/acpmigration09_workshop.html

The ACP Migration Facility aiming to support the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to better understand and manage the flow of migration within their borders, was officially launched on the 27th and 28th October in Brussels. This took place during a workshop organised by the ACP Secretariat in collaboration with the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office (AIDCO). Source: ACP Secretariat.

Filed under: ACP, Africa, Caribbean, Development, European Union, Migration, Remittances

Please welcome new staff at AGEG’s Head Office

AGEG Consultants eG has two new Managing Directors, who share general management tasks. Both are experienced Consultants and are named Harald, but are not relatives. Harald Himsel will lead the business development, while Harald Speidel looks more on the administration and financial management. Martina Jacobson joined the team as Project Manager for Training, E-Learning, and Sustainable Tourism. All activities of AGEG Consultants are coordinated from AGEG’s Head Office in Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany. A team of 16 people is responsible for the acquisition and management of short and long term projects as well as for the provision of services to AGEG’s members and associates.
http://www.ageg.de/headoffice/headoffice_team/

Filed under: Development, Directories, Economy, European Union, Germany, News

AGEG Consultants eG sign Multiple Framework Contracts with the European Commission

The European Commission has selected three consortia in which AGEG participates as partner for the Multiple Framework Contract to recruit technical assistance for short-term expertise. The Framework Contract Beneficiaries is an instrument for fast and transparent recruiting of experts for activities in the sole interest of the beneficiary countries/authorities of the European Commission’s external aid programmes. We expect to receive requests for international and national expertise by the European Commission from now on.

AGEG is now a ‘preferred supplier’ for Technical Assistance services to the EC for the following specific areas of expertise:
– Transport and Infrastructure sector (Lot 2)
– Environment (Lot 6)
– Humanitarian Aid and crisis management (Lot 12)

AGEG is enlarging the database of individual experts especially for these sectors. We are looking for interested and qualified experts. Candidates should have experience in EC development co-operation and in conducting short-term missions (evaluations, studies, technical assistance, etc.). If you are interested and agree that we can include your CV in our database, please send your updated CV to Angela Kirchherr at a.kirchherr @ ageg.de. See
http://www.ageg.de/project_jobs/

Filed under: Employment, European Union, News, Jobs

EU Development policy to focus on climate and democracy, says Mrs Carlsson

As president in office of the EU Council, the Minister for International Development Cooperation of Sweden, Gunilla Carlsson, presented to MEPs from the Committee on Development the presidency’s priorities for the second semester of 2009: development as part of the climate change agenda, democracy building as well as policy coherence and effectiveness. Helping to ensure that developing countries can effectively fight poverty in all its forms and meet the challenges that follow in the wake of the global economic crisis and climate change are the main priorities the Swedish presidency in the field of development. Replying to some questions of MEPs about the sometimes incoherent EU approach, the Swedish minister encouraged the European Parliament to make full use of its scrutinising powers (budgetary and co-decision procedures) in order to ensure that the EU makes the development cooperation more effective and ensures that different EU policy areas and actors work together more coherently.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu

Filed under: Crisis, Development, Environment, European Union, OECD

EU confirmed its position as the world’s leading donor in 2008

The newly published 2009 annual report on the European Community’s development and external assistance policies and their implementation in 2008 shows that the European Union continues to be the world’s leading development aid donor, accounting for 60% of world aid in 2008. The Commission alone committed EUR 12 billion, more than a fifth of the EU total. At the same time the quality and effectiveness of aid are improving, as are transparency and the monitoring of results. The Commission has continued its efforts to make its aid more effective by working more closely with other international donors and by simplifying its procedures. Considerable efforts have also been made to channel aid through national systems in order to strengthen ownership at local level and reduce transaction costs for the partner countries. In 2008 the Commission also stepped up its efforts to mainstream such issues as gender, the environment, and the rights of children and indigenous people in the development process. Source: RAPID
http://tinyurl.com/yd4aodv

Filed under: Development, European Union, OECD, Poverty

EU Commission report on European competitiveness

The European Commission issued its Annual Report on Competition Policy for 2008. The report provides a summary of the most important developments with regards to EU competition policy and focuses on major enforcement actions. Furthermore, the ways in which tools of competition policy have been applied to combat the financial crisis are outlined and the benefits to consumers of competition policy are underlined. For the first time, the 2008 Annual Report includes a special chapter on a topic considered to be of particular importance in the field of competition policy. The topic chosen is ”Cartels and consumers”. In 2008, the Commission fined 34 undertakings in seven cartel decisions. In cases such as the Banana cartel, consumers directly suffered from higher prices until the Commission broke up the price fixing cartel.
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/publications/annual_report/index.html

Filed under: Clusters, Crisis, Economy, Employment, European Union, Technology

EU: Access to finance major problem for SMEs

The European Commission published the results of the new ”Flash Eurobarometer: SMEs’ access to finance”. The survey, conducted with 9071 firms in 27 EU Member States, Croatia, Iceland and Norway, was set up to assess EU companies’ use of various sources of finance, to get a picture of the magnitude of companies’ difficulties in getting access to finance, and to obtain an overview of companies’ expectations for financing their future projects and developments. Overall, the survey revealed that businesses face difficulties in accessing finance, as almost half of them have problems to access bank loans. Despite the fact that availability of bank loans has deteriorated over the last six months for 46% of SMEs, over 70% of small businesses were able to receive all or part of the bank load they wanted, and only 15% were fully rejected.
http://tinyurl.com/yantrpd

Filed under: Banking, Economy, Entrepreneurship, European Union, Microfinance

AL-INVEST IV: A bridge between EU and Latin American SMEs

The fourth phase of AL-INVEST, financed by the European Commission, aims at supporting the internationalisation of Latin American SMEs in collaboration with their European partners in order to contribute to reinforce social cohesion in the region. Unlike the previous phases, the fourth phase of the AL-INVEST (2009-2012) is implemented through three groups of business organisations belonging to three distinct geographical areas of Latin America: 1. Central America-Cuba-México; 2. Andean Region; 3. Mercosur Chile and Venezuela. These three groups are supported through horizontal services delivered by a European consortium lead by EUROCHAMBRES. This consortium will carry out market studies, business meetings, technical assistance, individual exchange programmes and trainings. In addition, all European business organisations with experience and/or interest in working with Latin America will be gathered under a Network of Interested Institutions. AL-INVEST IV website:
http://www.al-invest4.eu

Filed under: Banking, Clusters, Economy, Entrepreneurship, European Union, Networks, Trade, Latin America