The Courier

Stefano Manservisi, Director General for Development, European Commission and Giovanni Bersani Honorary President of the EU-ACP Parliamentary Assembly during the Meeting in the Liceo “L. Galvani” (Bologna), 9th May 2008, Europe in the schools Day.

© Giorgia Della Rosa, courtesy of Africa e Mediterraneo

It is sometimes the most simple questions that leave us perplexed: “Why is it”, I was asked by a teenager while giving a presentation to Italian students, “that poverty still exists despite all the efforts in development policies?”

If it had been an expert, the answer would have been simpler. I would have talked about poverty indicators, mentioning that in the first five years of this century 24 per cent more children go to school, trying to show that development policy has made a difference. But the crucial point was: the student was right – absolute poverty still exists on a large scale, and we have to do better to reduce it.

This is why we have to succeed in Accra. It is not about repeating the pledges we have made in the 2005 Paris Declaration, saying over and over again that we want to coordinate development aid. When ministers from donor and developing countries come together on 2 – 4 September to discuss aid effectiveness, they have to pass on from rhetoric to action. This will be the crucial test for Accra.

The donor countries still have the biggest share of the burden of the proof. But our partner countries, too, have to do their own share: they have to develop a vision of what they want to change in their countries, take the leadership of the programmes and implement them. But to make sure that the money we spend is well spent – the EU Commission and Member States alone spent €46 bn in 2007 which is more than half of world-wide official development assistance – is our big responsibility.

Yes, the EU has made considerable progress in the past three years, with numerous good examples, especially in the field of co-ordination of aid. But much remains to be done. We have to move on from this test phase to action on a much wider scale. Rather than sign a nicely written declaration, prepared in advance by ambassadors, we need an open discussion resulting in a concrete action plan, to be followed by each and every donor and partner country. Concretely, the EU Commission proposes that actions should be focussed on four key areas:

Predictability of aid: Donors should systematically adopt multi-annual programmes mirrored by multi-annual financial commitments. The annuality of the budget is no excuse.The European Commission has been doing this for the past decade!

Use of developing country systems: To reduce the bureaucracy for developing countries, donor countries should align more with them, adapting their contributions to their budget cycles, regulatory framework and tendering procedures.

A result-based approach: Rather than imposing ex-ante policy conditions leaving developing countries no real choice, no room for internal policy discussions, we should give them the ownership back. Aid programmes should be geared towards concrete and measurable outcomes and results, with the partner country in the driving seat.

Division of labour: To limit the number of donors working in a developing country, leaving the field to the one with the best know-how, donors should coordinate their work.

It will not be easy to push this through. Some donors would be happy to stick to a nice wording rather than going for concrete actions, and some partner countries would be happy to loudly voice old fashioned rhetoric rather than taking their part of responsibility and reform systems affected by poor governance. But there is no other way than to try it, and do it together, at EU level, at international level – if we want to have a positive answer to our youngsters' questions.