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Annual Report 2010 / 2011

… male and female, He created them


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EED’s gender strategy follows a two-pronged approach: integration of gender analysis and measures into all its programs and procedures and targeted funding of projects committed to improving the lives of women. The annual report before you takes a look at this latter aspect of our gender strategy.
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New Release

Encounter beyond routine


Documentation on an International Consultation, 17th-23rd January 2010
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The right to future

Nine examples of community based empowerment processes.
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Network

EED is a member of theLogo ACT Alliance


Making Development more Effective


(Bonn, 28.08.2008) Delegates from about 150 countries are expected to participate in the „Third High Level Forum" (HLF3) on aid effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, from 30.8.-3.9.2008 and to its Civil Society Forum. The HLF3 will elaborate on and release the "Accra Agenda for Action (AAA)". This will be another step in a global aid reform process started in 1999 and well know under the term "Paris Declaration". HLF4 is foreseen for Beijing in 2004. As part of Civil Society's response to this process, EED, the Church Development Service, an Association of the Protestant Churches in Germany in cooperation with the Institute Südwind produced the working paper "Making Development More Effective".

It recommends this working paper to all those interested to know, what exactly is discussed to reform aid and what German Civil Society actors with a church background think of it. The paper opens up the nine platform-subjects of the conference for easy reference and presents its own views and position.

Some of these positions are:

  • Developing country Governments must fully open their aid policies to the participation of democratic actors of the country like the Parliament and Civil Society
  • Donors are urged to finally give up on macro economic conditionalities, so that Governments can take full responsibility in the planning and execution of development initiatives
  • Donors should capacitate country systems and not hinder their utilization based on World Bank criteria (CPIA, PFA)
  • Given solid country systems official development cooperation should be financed via the national budget
  • More budget support must not cause new control mechanism. At capital city level donor coordination must not deteriorate to syndicalism
  • Technical Cooperation must be demand driven and tied aid must end
  • The space for Civil Society must increase. Governments must not instrumentalize Civil Society Organisations for implementation of their programmes but instead support Civil Society's greater development effectiveness. CSOs should continue to strengthen its effectiveness independently
  • In fragile states donors must apply a conflict sensitive approach and improve living standards and human rights of the people. Illegal deforestation or trade with conflict resources must be fought more resolutely and the small arms trade stopped. Foreign, economic and security policy of the donors must be coherent with their development policy. The latter enjoys priority. This is relevant for the entire North/South cooperation, but has special relevance in the context of fragile states
  • The new aid architecture is unclear and partly contradictory. The UN- Development Cooperation Forum must try and commit traditional and new donors to follow common principles and impact control

The International Strategy Group (ISG), an independent global Civil Society network accompanied the global dialogue that led to the aid effectiveness conference in Accra. The ISG qualified that dialogue as listless and lacking ambition to reaching the MDGs. For e.g. the 23 OECD donors do not agree on criteria to accept the quality of country systems in future. The US and other donors continue to insist on macro economic conditionalities. Many donors are not prepared to end the tying of aid or accept expertise and consultancy from developing countries in technical cooperation.

In Accra India's and China's attitude will be keenly observed. They and other middle income countries have so far accepted the Paris Declaration framework as receivers of aid. How will they position themselves towards accepting this framework, to be complemented by the AAA in Accra, also as donors? To ensure the sustainability of development cooperation, the ending of aid tying both for equipment as well as for technical consultancy and to ensure policy coherence, Civil Society must urge all donors to adhere to the principles of the Paris Declaration and the AAA.

The Accra conference is more about the systemic questions of development cooperation such as ownership, donor harmonisation or mutual accountability. All these subjects have been taken up by the author of the paper, Dr. Pedro Morazán in such a way that it provides orientation beyond the Accra conference. He has added a chapter juxtaposing the perspectives of Civil Society and official actors vs. aid effectiveness. Building on the thinking of the Indian Nobel Price Laureate Amartya Sen he then proceeds to develop an approach to join development and aid effectiveness coherently.

Civil Society is also expecting important developments on sectoral issues such as the the food and energy crisis, climate change and forest protection. Surprise developments seem possible, as relevant actors will be present. The German delegation will be led by federal development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.

The All African Conference of Churches, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, ACT- Development, CIDSE, ARODEV and Caritas Internationalis have joint to forming an Ecumenical Team. This team, led among others by Bishop Mvume Dandala, General Secretary of the AACC, will intervene at the official conference, suggest language to be adopted in the AAA, meet Ministers and the leadership of the OECD/DAC, conduct ecumenical services for all delegates and participate in the CSO parallel conference ahead of the official one.

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