Tallinn, 19-20 September 2012

Funded by:

September 19

o Overview of EU policy making system

o What is CONCORD? How to work with it? What is AidWatch?

o Developments in the Baltic States

o What is the MFF?

o Georgian dinner

September 20

o Advocacy training

o Meeting with Estonian MFA

o Action plan for Baltic States

Excercise: What do we know now?

Short and simple explanation

o The world is developing: increased standards of living, 27 countries recently moved from category (LICs to LMICs or from LMICs to UMICs) (DAC list)

o New actors: private sector, private foundations, emerging donors, local authorities

o Population growth: world population to reach 9.3bn by 2050; Africa fastest-growing continent

o 3 global crises: food prices, oil/energy prices volatility, economic and financial crisis

o Economic downturn & budget constraints

o 'Arab Spring': importance of good governance and democracy, employment and growth, security-development nexus brought into sharper focus

o Changing geography of poverty (EMEs, poor in MICs, rising inequalities…)

o Regional vulnerabilities & crises: Horn of Africa (drought/famine)

o Strong growth but weak effect on poverty reduction – African Economic Outlook Report: 2001-09: 5-6% real GDP /slowdown; 2009 3.1% – rebound; projection 5.8% in 2012

Agenda for Change (October 2012) sets two pillars for EU development policy:

1. Good governance, democracy and human rights

2. Inclusive and sustainable growth

CONCORD

Millions of citizens and donors

Around 2000 NGOs

27 NATIONAL

PLATFORMS

18 NETWORKS

+ 2 Associate members

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Members of CONCORD

47 members in 2012 (27 NP, 18 NW, 2 AS)

2 new members as of 5 June: LU (NP) and WWF (AS) ActionAid International NW

Aprodev NW

Austrian NP

Belgian NP

UK NP

Caritas Europa NW

CIDSE NW

Czech NP

Danish NP

Dutch NP

Islamic Relief NW CARE International NW

Eurostep NW

Finnish NP

French NP

German NP

Greek NP

IPPF NW

Irish NP

Italian NP

Luxembourg NP

Maltese NP

Portuguese NP

Slovakian NP

Solidar NW

EU-CORD NW

Spanish NP

Swedish NP

Terre des Hommes NW

Slovenian NP

Representing around 2000 European Development and Relief

NGOs

World Vision NW

Adra NW

CBMI NW

Plan International NW

Oxfam International NW

Latvian NP Polish NP

Romanian NP

Hungarian NP

Cyprus NP

ALDA – Associate member Estonian NP

Handicap International NW

Save the Children NW

Bulgarian NP

Representation of its members

Advocacy at European Level

Information – Dissemination –

Coordination

Capacity Building

Alliances Building (north / south

cooperation)

1 per Year

All members (at least one per member)

70/80 participants

9 members + President

Elected for 3 years

Joanna Maycock from Action Aid International

Director : Olivier Consolo

15 people

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

BOARD

PRESIDENT

STAFF Secretariat

Confederation Affairs Communication

Administration/Finance Policy

CONCORD vision is of a world in which poverty and inequality

have been ended; in which decisions are based on social justice, gender equality and upon our responsibility to future generations; where every person has the right to live in dignity, on an equal basis, free from poverty and sustainably.

CONCORD Mission:

CONCORD members work together to ensure that: • The EU and member states are fully committed to comprehensive

policies and practice that promote sustainable economic, social and human development, aim to address the causes of poverty, and are based on human rights, gender equality, justice and democracy;

• The rights and responsibilities of citizens and organised civil society, to influence those representing them in governments and EU institutions, are promoted and respected.

Priorities and approaches Aims

• To influence the EU’s policies and practices so that the Union and its member

states enhance social justice, equality and human rights throughout the world.

• To promote the rights and responsibilities of citizens, development NGOs and,

where relevant to CONCORD’s influencing agenda, civil society as a whole to

act in solidarity with those living in poverty and to influence their representatives

in governments and EU institutions.

Approaches

• Human rights and gender equality will underpin all advocacy work.

• CONCORD will strengthen our political engagement with the institutions.

• CONCORD will develop strategic alliances with southern, European & global

coalitions.

• CONCORD will support the organisational development of its members.

• CONCORD will ensure our collective decision making combines efficiency with

confederation ownership, and supports active participation of all members in its

activities.

• CONCORD will base our work on members’ energies, supported by a

secretariat; balance our income sources to ensure our independence and

sustainability, and manage finances prudently.

European Commission: various Directorate-Generals (DevCo, Climate,

Agriculture, Budget, Trade etc.), Commissioner and their Cabinets (most

importantly Development Commissioner Piebalgs), Comitology Committees

(i.e. DCI Committee)

EU Council: Permanent Representations, CoDev working group, Foreign

Affairs Council, Informal Development Cooperation Ministers Meeting,

national government representatives (done by CONCORD’s national

platforms)

Parliament: Committees (DEVE, SURE, Human Rights etc.) and their

Secretariats, individual MEPs

European External Action Service: High Representative and her Cabinet, EU

delegations in third countries

PS! National platforms on national level

Operational bodies

The working groups are at the core of the organisation of CONCORD. They convene experts from CONCORD members. Their main charge is to analyse and follow up European policies. The General Assembly takes formal decisions such as approval of the annual budget and the annual report on accounts, acceptance of new members, etc.

The Board bears the overall responsibility for the functioning of the whole structure. It make sure that priority issues are dealt with by the secretariat and that advocacy positions have the endorsement of the members. The Secretariat focuses on the priority issues. It follows the work of the Working groups and ensure communication in a comprehensive manner to the broad membership.

The projects: Projects are in charge of raising awareness of development issues in

the enlarged EU and in accession countries. Trialog increases the capacity of

European NGOs. DEEEP raises awareness on Development Education. Open

Forum promotes CSO effectiveness. (BEYOND 2015)

Importance of CSOs in policy making

Olivier Consolo, Director of CONCORD

Aid we can – invest more in global development

Part I: Overview of developments in 2011

Part II: EU and Member States pages

Launched June 2012

o The MDGs – only three years to go and critical global objectives on poverty reduction still to be met

o Current decrease in aid risks slowing down the positive achievements of the previous years

o EU´s role as aid champion threatened. EU MS need to get back on track

o Continued strong support of EU citizens for aid in 2011

o Overall ODA was €490 million lower than in 2010 - from almost €53.5 billion to €53 billion.

o ODA as % of GNI for the EU 27 reached 0.42% (EU15 = 0.45% EU12 = 0.1%)

o EU12 = 1.8% of the total or €958.4 million

o 11 countries cut their ODA budgets in 2011 (only 9 in 2010)

o 5 reduced their ODA by more than 10%: Greece (-39%), Spain (-33%), Cyprus (-28%), Austria (-14%) and Belgium (-13%)

o 7 Member States provided less than 50% of their commitment (Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Romania and Slovak Republic)

o Estonia 0.12%, Latvia 0.07%, Lithuania 0.13%

o Sweden reaffirmed its commitment to deliver 1% of GNI as ODA and delivered 1.02% in 2011

o Luxembourg delivered 0.99% inODA and Denmark 0.86% in ODA. Denmark is using its presidency of the EU to push other EU Member States to reach 0.7%

o Germany increased its aid by € 648 million, although it remains 0.11% below its 2010 target

o Apart from Cyprus, all EU 12 Member States increased their aid, although the remain some way from meeting their targets.

o Other positive developments in EU Member States on aid quality

o In 2011, 6 EU Member States delivered at least 0.55% (0.2%) of their GNI as ODA, a level that would demonstrate they were steadily increasing their aid to meet the targets in 2015

o 4 met the EU target of 0.7% in 2011

o 2 countries were on-track to meet the target in 2015 (below 0.7%, but above 0.55% (0.2%))

o 3 countries made progress towards the target (they are at 2010 levels)

o 18 countries are off-track and are not even reaching the interim target they had taken for 2010

Total EU aid: € 53 billion

Genuine aid: € 45.65 billion

Inflated aid: € 7.35 billion

- Debt relief € 2.43 billion

- Refugee costs € 1.82 billion

- Imputed student costs € 1.61 billion

- Tied aid € 0.98 billion

- Interest on loans € 0.51 billion

86%

3%

5% 3%

2% 1%

Genuine aid

Imputed student costs

Debt relief

Refugee costs

(Partially) tied aid

Interest repayments

Luxembourg, Ireland and the United Kingdom are champions in genuine aid.

The Member States that inflate their aid the most are: o Greece = 36% (0.11% -> 0.07%)

o Cyprus = 36% (0.16% -> 0.1%)

o Italy = 31% (0.19% -> 0.13%)

o Malta = 28% (0.26% -> 0.19%)

o France = 27% (0.46% -> 0.33%)

o Austria = 22% (0.27% -> 0.21%)

o Estonia 0.12% -> 0.11%

o Latvia 0.07% -> 0.07%

o Lithuania 0.13% -> 0.12%

o ODA decreasing and 0,7% target

o Climate finance and additionality

o Transparency

o Changes in the systems of ODA

o CSO involvement

o EU Accountability Report

o Second AidWatch Report o Three thematic pages:

• Transparency

• Gender

• HRBA

o Annual AidWatch Seminar

o FAC in October

o EC Communications