European workshop on the role of parliaments in aid and development policy

Most European governments are unlikely to meet their ODA targets in 2010. A few months before the MDG review, a workshop bringing together NGO representatives from all over Europe was held in Paris on the 27th and 28th of May 2010 in order to contribute to strengthening democratic pressure on governments to get them to fulfil their commitments. Particular attention was paid to ensuring NMS were well represented within the group, so that the different realities were covered and relevant experiences could be shared.

The role played by parliaments in pushing governments to keep aid commitments is central, so advocacy work towards the European Parliament and national parliaments was identified as an area to be reinforced and better-coordinated. Improving the sharing of information and best practices among CONCORD’s members, from new and older member states, strengthening their expertise and advocacy capacities and coordinating their actions was seen as an effective way to help to increase pressure on European governments to keep their aid and development cooperation promises.
This capacity-building workshop was divided into four parts: looking at the way national governments function around Europe, comparing the scrutiny powers they have when it comes to ODA budgets, looking at positive and less successful examples of how CSOs have worked with parliaments in the past and finally focusing on the European Parliament. Participants provided information about their experiences before the workshop, which led to well prepared participants and a large amount of relevant information being available in briefing papers that were provided in advance. There were also a number of resource people from national parliaments and the European Parliament, who brought additional insight into the discussions.

This workshop is a first step towards increased democratic scrutiny of development cooperation policies in Europe. It should give CONCORD members tools to reinforce their advocacy work and to strengthen governments’ accountability to parliaments. The workshop will also contribute to CONCORD’s strategy towards the institutions, which is currently being reviewed.

The workshop was organised within the framework of CONCORD AidWatch working group in partnership with Coordination SUD, 11.11.11, TRIALOG and SLOGA and is the first in a series of two workshops looking at NGO advocacy and lobbying work. The next workshop is due to take place in September in Vienna.

Information provided by Rebecca Steel-Jasińska, TRIALOG