EVS promotes 'Fair Politics'

On 25 April, the Evert Vermeer Stichting (EVS) celebrated its annual Africa day in The Hague with over 50 events staged by a wide variety of Dutch development organizations and their partners. Among the prominent guests was Paul Rusesabagina, who saved the lives of many people during the civil war in Rwanda.

In a workshop organized by NIMB (Netherlands Institute for MultiParty Democracy) Ministers Welshman Ncube and Elton Mangoma of the MDC talked about the recent developments and the renewal of the democratic process in Zimbabwe.

Max van den Berg, former member of the European Parliament and chairman of EVS launched the 'Fair Politics' concept. Fair policies intend not to frustrate the development of poor countries but provide opportunities to achieve development goals. Fair Politics is about fostering policy coherence, emphasizing the unfairness of incoherence. According to Van den Berg “In Europe we cannot live and prosper in splendid isolation. Yes, we should be proud of our success, but we also have the responsibility to make sure our success is not achieved at the cost of others”.

Part of the Fair Politics program is an analysis of the programs of Dutch political parties for the upcoming European Parliament elections to see if they include (un)fair policy propositions. This analysis looks at trade, agriculture, fisheries, pharmaceutical products, arms trade, migration, illegal forest products, bio-fuels, fossil fuels, human rights, and at policies to address the economic and financial crisis. Some Dutch political parties explicitly aim for fair policies in general, others include fair policy objectives for specific issues. Trade policies of the Liberal/Conservative party (VVD) do not excel in terms of fairness, nor do the agricultural policy objectives of the Christian Democrats (CDA). Liberal/Democrats (D66) are considered to be quite unfair in their migration policies and the Social/Democrats (PvdA) and Socialists (SP) have a fairness problem regarding their policies addressing the economic crisis. Details can be found at http://www.fairpolitics.nl/.

A debate featuring candidates for the European Parliament was broadcasted from the site of the EVS event. All Euro-parliamentarians agreed that Europe was potentially a strong global actor in terms of foreign policy and security issues, provided member states agreed on a common position. While Hans van Baalen (VVD/Liberal Democrats) and Wim van der Camp (CDA/Christian Democrats) seemed quite positive about past achievements in this respect (Georgia and Ukraine were mentioned as examples), Thijs Berman (PvdA/Social Democrats) and Sophie in ‘t Veld (D66/Liberal Democrats) felt too often that a common position was lacking, for instance on important issues such as the Middle East.

Policy coherence was touched upon indirectly by the candidate EP-members. “Do not touch the budget”, was a clear message on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from Van der Camp, while Berman emphasized the need for a CAP that includes social, food security and environmental considerations.

See also Euforic's newsfeeds on policy coherence and the Evert Vermeer Foundation

Communication on Coherence: the reaction of the EU Coherence Programme

Source: Concord Flash 51, April 2008

Over the last few years the EU has taken on a number of fundamental development commitments, such as the adoption of the European Consensus in 2005, the processes on development financing and aid effectiveness, and the review of progress with reaching the Millennium Development Goals. The European Commission is responsible for monitoring actions and progress made within the European Union.

On 9 April the Commission published its long-awaited Communication on “Speeding up progress towards the Millennium Development Goals” and a “staff working paper” on Policy Coherence for Development (PCD). The EU Coherence Programme, which is a joint initiative of CONCORD and the Evert Vermeer Foundation, welcomes this further initiative as a sign of the EU’s commitment to policy coherence for development. However, political will is still needed to promote coherent policies for the benefit of developing countries.

With an eye to the Accra and Doha meetings later on in 2008, this communication can be seen as a first step in an attempt to formulate a common European position. It provides an insight into the progress made so far, highlights elements of special interest, and formulates priorities. The communication is accompanied by a number of staff working papers, focusing in substantial detail on issues such as aid for trade and policy coherence for development

The Communication focuses on migration, climate change and research. All three subjects are currently being intensively debated and the EU Coherence Programme wonders if the communication will be supported by most member states.

Regarding migration, the EU Coherence Programme favours the introduction of a legal framework for channelling the current migration flows from Africa. The proposal does not offer a solution to the problem of illegal migration, however, and could foster a brain drain involving highly skilled personnel in already sensitive sectors such as health care or education. Before the end of May the EU Coherence Programme will publish a case-study on the coherence of the current blue card proposal.

On the subject of biofuels, the EU Coherence Programme very much welcomes the emphasis on sustainability criteria. However, a regular review of the development impact of the current production of biofuels is needed, as the EU Coherence Programme stated in its case-study on biofuels. Finally, when it comes to research, the European Commission’s focus is mostly on the European benefits of a coherent research strategy. Also, the Commission states that ”These initiatives will be accompanied by development cooperation measures to strengthen research capacities in Development Countries”, without giving any concrete details.

The Staff Working Paper also concentrates on the priority areas of migration, climate change and research. But what about the nine remaining priority areas, such as agriculture, or fisheries? Given their importance for developing countries, further concretisation is definitely needed and the EU Coherence Programme would definitely welcome further working papers on these subjects.

The EU Coherence Programme sees the current communication as the first step in a process of further promoting coherent EU policies for the benefit of developing countries. The EU Coherence Programme hopes that its November 2007 publication, Policy Coherence for Development, a practical guide, has increased awareness amongst the Member States and Members of the European Parliament and has created strong support for measures to promote policy coherence. It is now up to the Member States to judge and show their political commitment to Policy Coherence for Development.

For more information contact Jasmine Burnley or Else Boonstra

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See also Euforic's newsfeeds on CONCORD, Evert Vermeer Foundation, and coherence

Afrikadag 2008: One Laptop per Child

During the Afrikadag 2008 in The Hague, IICD organized a workshop on “The 100$ Laptop: how can you make innovative solutions work in developing countries?” Professor Gerd Junne of the University of Amsterdam chaired the debate between Inneke Aquarius (Butterly Works), Prabhu Kandachar (Delft University), Stijn van der Krogt (IICD) and Petra Wentzel (Atos Origin). Discussion mainly focused on two questions: What are the preconditions to introduce a 'One Laptop per Child Programme' (OLPC)? What could be problems for the introduction of such a programme?

Concerning the preconditions, Inneke Aquarius argued that the 100$ laptops should just be distributed to see what happens, because changing the educational system is too complex and slow. Stijn van der Krogt and most other discussants disagreed and put more emphasis on the integration of the OLPC initiative in a comprehensive educational programme. Government, business, teachers and parents of participating schools have to accept, embrace and shape the idea. The national educational system has to be adapted, and teachers have to be trained by other locals (and not Europeans) how to incorporate laptops in their lessons and to develop their own content and software.

“We need to trust in their capabilities, and they will do it!”, Stijn van der Krogt argued. Only a bottom-up instead of a top-down approach will prepare the way for a 'OLPC success.

As for the challenges, Prabhu Kandachar identified affordability, acceptability and accessibility. A solution could be to gradually introduce the 100$ laptops in participating countries so that local lessons could be learned. Other challenges such as the plastic waste or maintenance of the laptops could also be opportunities as they will stimulate local entrepreneurship and create new business models and employment.

Other issues raised from the discussants and the audience: Will the laptops be used for an educational purpose, or just for personal communication? Won't the laptops be taken away from the children to be sold to much higher prices, and is that even more likely when the laptops are given away free? What is the hidden agenda of competing products, such as the Intel Classmate PC?

See also euforic newsfeeds from IICD and on education and ICTs.

Story by Birthe Paul

Afrikadag 2008: Why we need development cooperation

On 19 April, the Afrikadag 2008 took place in The Hague. With debates, workshops, lectures and a cultural programme on Africa and development cooperation, the Evert Vermeer Stichting (EVS) and partner organisations aim each year to raise awareness and change European policies.

Bert Koenders, the Dutch minister of Development Cooperation, was a keynote speaker. He argued strongly for a modern development cooperation, which observes human rights and also embraces military peacekeeping operations. According to Koenders, it is nonsense to abolish development aid, as some Dutch parliamentarians are demanding. Those politicians are only "anxiously closing their eyes" to the global challenges. "Development cooperation makes sense and is effective, but it can still be better", Koenders said. "What we really have to do is to take risks", he added, "and we should not be afraid of accusations of ancient neocolonialism". What we need is objectivity, soberness and humility to build up a strong political cooperation with the Southern partners.

During the lunch break, Paul Collier presented his book "The Bottom Billion." A Professor at Oxford University, it was Collier's first book that "anybody can read". He decided to write a popular science book because he wanted to inform citizens. He argued that "only an informed citizenship can help to escape from gesture politics".

While we may think that the aim of development has always been the reduction of global poverty, Collier revealed that it was a World Bank report in the 1990s that led to this focus. Precisely because it neatly fitted their interests: the political left could understand global poverty reduction in the sense of redistribution, and the political right could interpret it as the need for economic growth.

For Collier, the real challenge of development is to ensure that the one billion people living without any hope in the poorest countries on earth can join the four billion people living in emerging economies like China and India, who do have hope for a better future.

In his book, Collier explains that Africa combines several characteristics which make development harder. On in particular is the 'trap' of being resource-rich. Studies show that five years after the beginning of exploitation of resources, national income goes up, while 25 years later, it has dramatically gone down again. Research has also revealed that democracy seems to make this downward cycle of resource-rich countries even worse. The ideal form of democracy for resource-rich countries seems to be a democracy with very strong checks and balances, and not only democratic elections.

Although Collier stressed that he is not negative towards development aid, he reasoned that there is much more we can do. Europe could assist in developing commodity guidelines for resource-rich countries on how to manage resource extraction and the resulting financial flows. “And I know at least five African countries at the top of my head who would be willing to sign those guidelines”, Collier concluded.

See also Euforic newsfeeds for the Evert Vermeer Foundation, on Africa, on Dutch cooperation policy, and in Dutch.

Story by Birthe Paul

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.

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Policy coherence for development: rhetoric or reality?

Brussels, November 26. SID European Programme, in partnership with EADI and the Evert Vermeer Foundation (EU Coherence Programme), organised today a briefing session on policy coherence for development. Base for the discussion was the European Union's first Report on Policy Coherence for Development that the EC issued late September to "highlight the interactions and complementarities between development policy and twelve other internal and external EU policies that have an impact on developing countries."

The reactions on the report have been very critical, most of all from civil society organisations. The briefing session presented critical analysis and information on the issue from different perspectives.

The session was chaired by Paul Engel (Director, ECDPM). The programme included a keynote speech by Louis Michel (Commissioner for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid) presentations by Louka Katseli (former Director, OECD Development Centre), Anders Wijkman (MEP), Françoise Moreau (DG Development), and Peter Heintze (Director, EVS/EU Coherence Programme).

Read more at http://www.sid-europe.org/

Also check out the Euforic dossier on coherence

Incoherence exposed

Brussels, 3 October. Three case studies highlighting incoherence between the development policies of the EU and its member states were presented yesterday by the EU Coherence Project of the Evert Vermeer Foundation together with Concord, the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development.

The three areas were illegal logging, biofuels and EPAs. The case studies can be found in full at eucoherence.org.

Logging
According to the report on logging, the lack of action in restricting indirect illegal imports (particularly through China and Russia) causes deforestation and works against EU supported sustainable development in the producing countries. Besides, less than 15 EU member states have adopted legislation ensuring that only sustainable forest products are imported.

Alternative energy
While introducing measures to reduce CO2 emissions by expanding the use of so called biofuels, the EU needs to ensure that the demand for biofuels from its energy policy does not lead to deforestation, degrade food security or raise prices for food commodities. In the case study, five recommendations suggest how the EU can address these problems.

Economic Partnership Agreements
While the EPAs between the EU and the African, Carribean and Pacific countries are planned as an instrument of development, the group was alerted by African partners that EPA negotiations only involve ministries of commerce on the ACP side. It can be questioned therefore if the EPAs will be compliant with the agreement on Policy Coherence for Development, the legal instrument intended to ensure coherence in all areas of EU policy. The case study suggests that the focus for EPAs should remain on the development dimension, it should be possible to omit certain sectors from the agreement, timescales should be flexible and EDF funding should not be used for the implementation of EPAs.

Advocacy
The question remains how to put these cases into practice: how do we anticipate discussions and inform policy makers with the key information for decision making?

Coherence is not so much a technical process but a series of political processes in which one of the challenges is to marshal the 'on the ground' evidence; but in situations where mechanisms to measure the impact of EU countries' policies on developing countries are largely absent.

by Chris Addison

See also Euforic dossier on coherence

Evert Vermeer Foundation joins Euforic

The Evert Vermeer Foundation is an independent not-for-profit organisation that promotes the interests of developing countries by influencing political decision-making at the local, national and European levels.

EVS organises campaigns, debates and conferences on issues such as sustainable poverty alleviation, conflict prevention, good governance, human rights, environmental protection and fair trade policies.

EVS is particularly active on issues of development coherence, leading the NL Coherentie and EU Coherence projects that map out concrete incoherent policies and monitor the behaviour of policy makers to resolve these.

See also the Euforic coherence dossier