|
|
European Centre for Development Policy Management Weekly Newsletter
25 September 2014
|
|
|
Dear <<First name>>,
The Weekly Compass arrives a day earlier than normal as I will be on leave tomorrow.
European Parliament Committee hearings with the Commissioner-designates will be held next week (they will be livestreamed). The hearing for Development Commissioner-designate, Neven Mimica, will be in the Development Committee on 29 September from 18:00-21:00. Cecelia Malmstrom, Trade Commissioner-designate, will face the International Trade Committee on 29 September from 13:30-16:30. Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative/EC Vice President-designate, hearing with Foreign Affairs Committee will be held on 6 October from 18:30-21:30.
Tomorrow is the due date for written answers to the European Parliament questions to be provided by European Commissioner-designates. The answers are due to be published on 29 September and will be posted on The Filter.
The European Commission announced that European Commissioners will do the communicating in the 2014-19 term. The number of Commission spokespeople will be reduced to ten and they will represent policy topics rather than individual commissioners. There will be one person in each commissioner’s cabinet in charge of communications, but this person will not be dealing directly with the media as a spokesperson.
All the best,
Melissa
|
EU leaders arrived at this week’s UN Climate Summit with a weakened negotiating position. Despite ambitious funding targets and a range of foreign policy tools to push the climate change agenda, EU leaders are struggling to find common ground on binding targets for renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions cuts and energy efficiency for 2030. This ECDPM Briefing Note by Alisa Herrero Cangas and Hanne Knaepen assesses how well the EU is equipped to conduct climate diplomacy in the run up to the 2015 Paris meeting of the Conference of the Parties which will negotiate a comprehensive, universal and legally binding agreement on climate change. They also reflect on the possible impacts of the Juncker Commission on EU climate leadership and what needs to be done do to ensure that the EU delivers on both sustainable development and global climate goals at this pivotal point in history.
Until recently, 95% of the bandwidth for talking and thinking about the post-2015 development agenda was focused on goals and targets. Now that the Open Working Group on the post-2015 agenda has reported, policymakers and opinion-formers are starting to think more seriously about the ‘how’ as opposed to the ‘what’ - and what the overall political outcome on means of implementation (MOI) might look like by the end of next year. This note by Alex Evans, a Senior Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, sets out a ‘straw man’ of possible elements of a feasible international political deal on MOI. The working draft document lays out a longer menu of other potential policy options, all of which are intended to be stretching, but also potentially winnable in the current political context.
This issue of ECDPM’s GREAT insights magazine aims to address the constant question asked by developing countries: how to finance development? In a rapidly evolving world, the challenge of finding answers to this question is taking new dimensions. The future of financing development, including in frameworks such as the post-2015 agenda and the African Agenda 2063, must build on a greater recognition of developing countries' own strategies to drive and finance their own structural transformation. We asked the African Development Bank’s Chief Economist and Vice President Prof. Mthuli Ncube, European Investment Bank's President Werner Hoyer, NEPAD's Director of Corporate Services, as well as representatives from OECD, ODI, World Bank, AFRODAD and others to give their opinions and ideas on how to tackle the development finance question.
With the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)-EU Partnership Agreement ending in the year 2020, an intensive study was presented to the ACP this week on the outlook for for a cohesive cooperation policy for the 79 member countries. The study suggests the ACP focus cooperation on private sector development and sustainable resource management. The study also explores the possibilities of the ACP Group forming cooperation partnerships with other countries in addition to the one with the EU.
A g7+ High Level meeting was held this week. The Chair of the g7+ outlined the case for peace and capable institution goals noting that “unless and until, we collectively achieve peaceful societies and strong institutions in fragile and conflict affected states, achieving sustainable development will remain elusive in g7+ countries.” The Prime Minister of Timor-Leste H.E. Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão spoke of the experience of his own country. He said “The truth we have learned through bitter experience in Timor-Leste, is that you must have peace – before you can even begin to rebuild a state.” He pointed out that “there was not a Millennium Development Goal that addressed this fundamental truth” and warned “we must ensure we do not ignore the obvious, as we work together to formulate the post-2015 development agenda.” An outcome document and other resources will be posted soon.
To what extent can we expect that the major concerns of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) will be addressed by global institutions? ECDPM and the Eastern Caribbean States Embassy will host a symposium on 7 October to discuss this issue. The meeting, with panelists from SIDS countries and the European External Action Service, will also consider how SIDS can play a decisive role in global fora where issues of vital interest to them are discussed and the role the EU can play in climate change discussions and in the Post 2015 development agenda where SIDS are concerned. The meeting will also be livestreamed.
- Is the EU doing enough to prevent migrant deaths at sea? The news that up to 850 lives were lost in the Mediterranean this past weekend as a result of five shipwrecks of boats carrying migrants has sparked a new round of calls for the European Union (EU) to take more responsibility for preventing deaths at sea.
- The ‘poverty trap’ can be understood as a set of self-reinforcing mechanisms whereby countries start poor and remain poor: poverty begets poverty, so that current poverty is itself a direct cause of poverty in the future. But do poverty traps exist? The Journal of Economic Perspectives assess the evidence in their study.
- Taking the SDGs from ‘main basis’ to effective vision – what’s the roadmap? There are four major hurdles to overcome if the 2015 United Nations General Assembly outcome is going to drive positive global change, says the Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
- Climate finance: poor countries left behind. Despite global pledges to help the countries most vulnerable to climate change, ODI finds that some of the world's poorest states are having to fund climate adaption from their national budgets – diverting scarce resources that could otherwise be spent on tackling poverty.
- Tax and development: A scoping study of funding opportunities. The report from the Transparency & Accountability Initiative includes a brief introduction to taxation issues, profiles key operational actors and funders, assesses progress and concerns, and then presents the strategic opportunities for donors interested in funding tax work.
- The Future of Global Development. A survey of global development leaders gauging opinions on progress so far and how the industry will change over the next decade
- A seat at the table? Ensuring smallholder farmers are heard in Public-Private Partnerships by the Fairtrade foundation asks governments, donors and companies to go further to ensure that smallholder farmers are given the opportunity, space and information to play an active role in the design and development of agricultural PPPs.
- Agricultural development is often seen as a technical issue, but Future Agricultures work has highlighted the politics and policy processes that enable change, or prevent it. Edited by Colin Poulton, a special edition of journal Development Policy Review includes an overview of the effects of democratisation, along with studies from Malawi, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia.
- Resource financed infrastructure: A discussion on a new form of infrastructure financing from The World Bank.
- This working paper from The World Bank examines how four countries (Chile, Peru, South Africa, Turkey), with active public-private partnership projects manage the costs and risks of financial obligations generated by these investments throughout the lifetime of the contracts.
- Le Centre africain pour le développement minier (CADM) a développe un guide pour l’adaptation du Projet Afrique Extraction minière au niveau national.
- Deep provisions in regional trade agreements: How multilateral-friendly? Examining regional provisions that deepen (WTO-plus) and expand (WTO-beyond) multilateral commitments across a broad range of policy areas.
- Development finance documents from the OECD: Total official support for development – An emerging concept in support of the post-2015 sustainable development goals; Achieving a better distribution of ODA -An Action Plan to meet the UN commitment of 0.15-0.20% of GNI as ODA to LDCs and; Treatment of market-like instruments in the statistical framework measuring and monitoring development finance post-2015.
- Agenda 2063: The Africa we want. African Union asked African people for their aspirations for 2063 - a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development.
For more, see The Filter
|
|
|
| |
