PCD – what is the way forward?

On March 5 – 6, 2012 CONCORD organized the third annual seminar on policy coherence for development (PCD). More than 30 participants of the seminar covered a wide spectrum of organizations and backgrounds in PCD – from the countries and platforms that have a considerable experience and work done in the field (e.g. Denmark, Finland, Sweden), to the newcomers to the concept.

During the seminar the information on the recent developments in the EU related to the PCD was shared (context of PCD in Agenda for Change, recent EU 2011 Report on PCD, CONCORD’s report “Spotlight on EU Policy Coherence for Development”) as well as the participants discussed on the institutional mechanisms that might provide for more policy coherence for development on EU level. Some of the issues covered sufficient use of Impact Assessments already carried out by the European Commission; including more PCD responsibility in the hands of the EU delegations in developing countries; increase of resources related to research and human capital, carrying our ex-post evaluations of EU policies and others.

The participants also had meetings on PCD issues in the permanent representations of the respective EU countries as well as participated in the presentation of the research case closely related to PCP “The EU raw materials policy and mining in Rwanda” carried out by Evert Vermeer Foundation.

The participants were determined to keep closely working with the issues of PCD holding to the momentum that is provided currently by the Agenda for Change and looking forward the Council meeting of the EU Development ministers in May.

More information on PCD work at CONCORD:
Blandine Bouniol, Policy Coordinator – Policy Coherence for Development, CONCORD Blandine.Bouniol@concordeurope.org
Laust Gregersen, CONCORD Denmark, Head of PCD Coordination group, CONCORD llg@concorddanmark.dk  


Information provided by Linda Jākobsone, Latvian Platform for Development organizations (LAPAS)