Discovering Europe
The Planning Bureau, architect of the economic miracle at the service of development
To set up its development policy, Cyprus has mobilised both its development department in its Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Planning Bureau of the government whose task was to reconstruct the country’s economy in the wake of the Turkish invasion of the island.
Emmanuela Lambrianides, Planning Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
© Hegel Goutier
Emmanuela Lambrianides, Senior Coordination Officer, Planning Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs*
Initial phase: Sub-contracting project implementation
In 2007, the percentage of the GDP of Cyprus allocated to development policy reached 0.12 per cent. The target is for 0.17 per cent by 2010 in line with commitments made in the EU Council.
Our strategy is to delegate implementation of our cooperation to other EU Member States. This is not only because we don’t have enough local experts but also for efficiency – why spend a lot of money on building up a big administration to deliver assistance when we can use what’s already there.Our main partners are Lesotho and Mali among the ACP countries and four countries in our vicinity in North Africa and the Middle East**. Smaller amounts of aid go to ten other recipients.
Second phase: CyprusAid start-up
Our sectors of concentration are health and education. We have comparative advantages in these areas and want to use our skills. We have set up custom-made courses on agriculture – short-term courses of around six weeks covering research.
After the first phase we can manage things ourselves, but we also work through NGOs. We are presently working with them to pre-empt what we can do on our own after 2010 at the closure of the medium-term strategy (2007–2010). We also have to set up the decision-making mechanism to establish ‘CyprusAid’, fostering closer links with the beneficiary countries and developing links with our NGOs.
We are also working on shipping and banking where we have received requests for short-term training. Another area is economic planning. We have some experience in this as the economy of Cyprus was itself completely dismantled. Cyprus had to take many planning initiatives and the role of the Bureau was instrumental. It created a five-year plan and instructed the private sector. We brought about a complete recovery of the economy after just 15 years – a fact the Planning Bureau is proud of.
Georges Virides, Director of Developmental Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, Ministry of Foreign Affairs*
ACP beneficiaries
There are three projects we have been involved with. One is in Lesotho where a boarding house was constructed for girls in the district of Mokhotlong. The girls residing in the nearby area had had to travel a distance of eight kilometres each day on foot to go to school, facing the danger of being attacked by people with firearms. This project was undertaken in partnership with Irish Aid and the implementing agency was the Ministry of Education of Lesotho on the basis of an agreement between Ireland and Lesotho. The total cost of the project was €350,000.
In Mali we have completed a project on sustainable waste management in the town of Sikasso in partnership with the government of Belgium and Mali. The implementing agency was ‘Belgian Technical Cooperation’. The town of Sikasso faced major public health problems with increasing production of all sorts of waste, mainly industrial. The total contribution was €151,000 and equipment was delivered at the end of 2006.
Now we are in the process of another project with the government of Mali. This time we will construct four small bridges which will provide access to villages in case people are cut off when there is rain.
* Based on interviews by Hegel Goutier
** Egypt, Yemen, the Lebanon and the autonomous Palestinian Territories are all beneficiaries.
