NGO ActionAid Hellas on development policy in Greece

Sorry, no good news today

Konstantina Papadimitriou is the head of Policy and Campaigns at ActionAid Hellas (www.actionaid.gr) which is notably active in lobbying the European Parliament. A number of the group’s suggestions have been supported by Greek members of the Parliament, and the group is responsible for finalizing news relating to Greece in reference documents* for CONCORD, the European NGO confederation for development.  ActionAid Hellas is tireless in pleading for a stronger Greek commitment to less developed countries, and for greater transparency in the country’s development policy. 

ActionAid is a mass organization closely modelled on Amnesty International (AI). Its Greek branch enjoys the support of 44,000 donors and boasts a significant number of activists, a large proportion of whom are young, between 18 and 30. It works in close collaboration with the other sections of the organization, in particular those based in Africa, within the Bama community in Kenya, for example. Prominent among ActionAid Hellas’ recent large-scale activities has been the campaign HungerFREE, and it conducted the worldwide initiative devised by NGOs and football federations, 1GOAL  Education For All (http://www.join1goal.org/) collecting 88,000 signatures in Greece, including those of 22,000 students. 

Konstantina Papadimitriou begins by expressing her regret about the low percentage of Greek GDP, 0.17% (2009 figure), devoted to development aid, a decreasing proportion compared to the 0.19% of the previous year and very far from the 0.7% to which the European Union has committed itself. Besides, she adds that "even then the funds were essentially intended for our neighbours, including Albania, Moldova and Serbia. A change has been announced in terms of these priorities, but nothing has so far materialized. There is not a single LDC among the top ten recipients of our development aid. The funds earmarked for Africa have fallen, and the announcement of a strategy to favour other ACP regions, like the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean, is only a vague one. No real figures have been presented or verified." 

As regards transparency, "the public procedures calling for proposals have been vague. The sums allocated have not been published, and neither have the names of the candidates or the winners, who have been chosen without any criteria for selection being known. For this financial year, no one knows how much has been set aside for development aid, and so in this time of financial crisis people do not know what has been done with their money. “Sorry, no good news".

The one positive note struck by the ActionAid representative is that the current team at HellenicAid consults better than before with NGOs, and seems more concerned about the body’s effectiveness. Its good intentions are, however, not backed up by specific commitments. 

* Penalty against Poverty http://www.concordeurope.org/

Promoting dialogue between parliament and citizens in Africa

Africa4All, a project run by the international Athens-based NGO Gov4U, aims to build links between citizens and members of parliament, explains its executive director, Vasilis Koulolias. The initiative involves a platform for communication set up in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Lesotho and Namibia, which links citizens in each of these countries to two members of parliament, allowing them, for example, to discuss government bills with them.

Hegel Goutier