Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The EU & Millenium Goals - Half Way to 2015

In 2000, 147 heads of state (189 countries) signed the Millennium Declaration and committed to the achievement of eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015. (see section on Objectives & MDGs for details).

To mark the mid-point towards that deadline, Alliance2015 presented the latest 2015-Watch report The EU's contribution to the Millennium Development Goals - Halfway to 2015:Mid-term Review at the end of June 2007.

This fourth report in the 2015-Watch series measures the extent to which the EC's aid programme is oriented towards the achievement of the MDGs. It looks back on four years of analysis of EU development policy and measures progress and regression. It looks forward to the next generation of EU Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and asks whether they provide an adequate framework within which the EU can deliver on its MDG promises. It casts a critical eye on ambitions to deliver 50% of aid through General Budget Support (GBS) and queries how GBS could support the EU's efforts towards achievement of the MDGs.

The findings of the report are stark. Financial allocations to health and education lag far behind the promises made. Trends over the last 4 years have moved in the wrong direction and the situation is worsening in Africa where the funding gaps are greatest. The impact of EU aid has proven difficult to measure and the ambition of the EU to allocate 50% of its aid via GBS does little to allay fears that transparency and accountability will be compromised. The question of whether we are moving into the realm of 'creative accounting' remains unanswered.

Of greater concern is the fact that across the next generation of CSPs, orientation towards the MDGs is weak. In fact in the case of Africa, the evidence points to a de-prioritisation of the social sectors and an emergence of EU priorities which go far beyond the MDGs. Halfway to 2015, there are many questions to be answered and this report is intended to sharpen those questions and contribute to a substantive debate on these issues.

2015-Watch is an instrument for measuring donor orientation towards the MDGs. It has been designed as a replicable and diagnostic instrument to measure donor performance by analyzing the policy process. Brussels-based EEPA (Europe External Policy Advisors) produce the 2015-Watch Reports for Alliance2015. ( www.eepa.be).

Previous reports:

In 2004, Alliance2015 produced and published its first 2015-Watch Report: The EU's contribution to the MDGs, Special Focus: HIV/AIDS as an instrument for measuring donor performance. The first report focued on the EU as the largest single contributor of Official Development Assistance (ODA). The report enjoyed a broad response from the interested public and the EU institutions.

In May 2005, Alliance2015 launched its second 2015-Watch Report The MDGs: a comparative performance of six EU Member States and the EC aid programme, which focused on the six Alliance member countries. With a slightly revised methodology, the report also ranked the countries with regards to their MDG performance. This report marked the Alliance2015 contribution to 2005's welcome and necessary UN-review on the global progress regarding the MDGs.

In October 2006, the third report looked at education: The EU's contribution to the MDGs, Special Focus: Education. This report once again addressed the European Commission and found that the EU is failing to deliver on its education promises to the poorest of the poor.

To download the scorecard or the reports, click on the links below:

2015-Watch Report: Scorecard 2007

2015-Watch Report 2007 Mid-term

2015-Watch Report 2006

2015-Watch Report 2005

2015-Watch Report 2004


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