Are ministerial administrative set-ups conducive to the achievement of the MDGs?
In July 2009 the Development Committee of the European Parliament published A comparative study of executive structures of development cooperation and their adequacy for the realisation of the MDGs, a study put together by EEPA. The study analyses the administrative set- ups for development cooperation of the EU Member States and of the European Commission. The study found that it is of prime importance that unity of purpose and a strong political will to focus on development cooperation on poverty eradication and achieving the MDGs are key to ensuring the delivery of development aid in an effective, consistent and coherent way. Those countries, that include political representation for development cooperation at the highest level, - i.e. a Minister for Development Cooperation-, supported by a Directorate General fully dedicated to developing, monitoring and evaluating cooperation policies, are recognised as effective and coherent aid donors.
The decentralisation of aid implementation to offices in the field, as part of the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation, enhances the effectiveness of aid delivery, but requires dedicated and skilled staffmembers. Decentralisation also ensures that the Principles of the Paris Declaration: ownership, alignment, harmonisation and managing for results are best served at the level of the recipient countries, by ensuring that development cooperation is adapted to the needs of those recipient countries. In many countries parliaments, exerting their legislative, budgetary and scrutinising powers, particularly through a specialised Committee on Development Cooperation, contribute to maintaining a strong focus on poverty eradication and the achievement of the MDGs.
As the study was commissioned in view of the future discsussions on the role of development cooperation within the reformed EU institutions, including the creation of an EU diplomatic service, the European External Action Service (EEAS), it developed a set of recommendations. These include amongst others: to ensure the existence of a separate Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, headed by a separate Commissioner for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid; staff working on development cooperation and/or humnanitarian aid in EU delegations/future embassies should report to the Commissioner on Development Cooperation and Humanitarian aid; to have a separate budget in place for development cooperation and humanitarian aid to provide clarity of purpose; and to maintain a separate Committee on Development Cooperation in the European Parliament responsible for the democratic scrutiny of development and humanitarian assistance at all levels and in all geographical areas. The latter should also imply the budgetisation of the EDF, as part of a unified EU development budget.
Click here for the report.
