Dev Days Rudishhauser
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Development assistance is definitely a win-win
situation for Europe. Countries which have
a better developed economy, where people are
coming out of poverty and become economic
actors, these countries become more interesting
for us as economic partner, as trading partner
and so it's also in the European interest.
Leaving aside the economic side there is also
the question of migration, there's the question
of terrorism, the question of drugs. All these
can be threats to Europe, so it's again in
the European interest that other countries
do better because then they can also fight
these threats. The whole world is gearing
up to discussions in New York about the post-2015
development framework, which is to bring together
a follow up to the Millennium Development
Goals, which is the main development agenda,
and the Rio+20 discussions which is about
deciding targets and goals for a sustainable
development path for the whole planet. And
the two things should come together because
it's clear there's not going to be development
without a sustainability element. Otherwise
we're just going to deplete the planet's resources
even quicker. And so this year's subject is
clearly what would we like to see in this
framework. So we have to answer the question
what is going to be the development angle
for poor countries, the poverty reduction
angle? How do we marry that with a sustainability
agenda? How can we protect the planet's resources,
but still give the poor people access to a
better life? Quite a number of EU member states,
like also some third countries, find it difficult
to maintain or even increase the level of
official development assistance they provide.
Indeed, there are severe cuts in some countries
in Europe who face difficulties in general,
as you said. The good news, however, is that
in the negotiations about the new multi-annual
framework for the EU, 2014 to 2020, external
spending and development assistance have not
been cut as all other policy areas have been.
So that's a clear signal that the member states
still believe that EU development assistance
is important, is in the EU's interest, and
therefore they have agreed not to cut it as
they have for other policy areas. This is
indeed a strong call for us and for our member
states to make sure that for every euro of
development assistance we spend, we get the
best possible results and impact in our partner
countries. So we have to become more efficient,
more joined up, more clearly results oriented.
So basically what we want to do is with the
same amount of money achieve more. This is
the challenge for the coming 6 or 7 years
and we are working very actively on this.
For example, by doing the programming of aid
together with member states. We call this
joint programming and it will result in a
clearer division of labour at the country
level in a clearer distribution of tasks to
different donors. And obviously each donor
can then focus on less subjects, less areas,
but achieve a greater impact by concentrating
the funds on less areas knowing that other
donors will address the issues in other areas.