CONCORD Spotlight Report 2015: #ForfairEurope

This year’s Spotlight Report „Investing for Development?“ takes a close look at the impacts of the EU’s investment regime on food security, the right to food and land governance in developing countries. The peport reveals that the dominance of the corporate private sector-led approach in both the European Union’s (EU) investment regime and development cooperation framework adversely impacts the food security and the livelihoods of small-scale food producers, women in particular, in developing countries.

Download the report here.






Source: CONCORD

Global Synthesis Report 2015: The State of Development Cooperation, CSO Enabling Environment and CSO Development Effectiveness

Published by the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE), this report is a global synthesis drawing on contributions from 23 selected country CSOs (incl. 4 European ones: Albania, Czech Republic, Germany and Spain) on the current state of development cooperation, CSO enabling environment, and CSO development effectiveness at a country level. The outcomes will feed into the work of the CPDE platform, as well as on the work of its member CSOs around the world, galvanising future policy engagement initiatives at global and country level.

Download the report here.


Source: CSO Partnership

Development Co-operation Report 2015. Making Partnerships Effective Coalitions for Action

The OECD Development Co-operation Report 2015 explores the potential of networks and partnerships to create incentives for responsible action, as well as innovative, fit-for-purpose ways of co-ordinating the activities of diverse stakeholders. The report – Making Partnerships Effective Coalitions for Action – looks at a number of existing partnerships working in diverse sectors, countries and regions to draw lessons and provide practical guidance, proposing ten success factors for post-2015 partnerships. A number of leading policy makers and politicians share their insights and views.

Download the report here.











Source: OECD

Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2015

The Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) Report 2015 shows that poverty and vulnerability to crises are intrinsically linked and that international humanitarian assistance continues to go predominantly to long-term recipients. This emphasises the need to build resilience, address the underlying causes of crisis and meet the long-term needs of people affected by crisis. For this to happen, a shared responsibility between humanitarian, development, climate change and other actors is critical as is the mobilisation of other resources beyond humanitarian assistance.

More information here.

Source: Global Humanitarian Assistance

2015 EU Aid Transparency Review

The end of 2015 is also the deadline donors set themselves to fully implement the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Standard, which allows for the publication of timely, comprehensive and comparable information on development finance. With just over six months to go until the deadline, the 2015 EU Aid Transparency Review shows that despite a critical mass of donors now publishing information to the IATI Standard, the EU as a whole is off track from meeting its aid transparency commitments and that the lack of transparency by major European donors is hindering development outcomes in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Download the report here.

Source: Publish What You Fund

CONCORD News

Introducing new CONCORD members and including recent activities as well as the new CONCORD Annual Report, that provides an overview of CONCORD activities and successes over 2014, financial information and membership updates.

Read the CONCORD newsletter online.

Information provided by TRIALOG.

Development Education Online Library launched by DEEEP

A new online library  has been recently launched on CONCORD/DEEEP website. This online source of information and knowledge sharing gathers hundreds of books focused on Development Education, Civil Society, Development and much more. For each resource, you can download the pdf version or you are welcome to consult it in the Brussels office. Enjoy the browsing!


Information provided by DEEEP

Public-Private Partnerships: Benefiting or hindering international development?

On the 18th March, the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) hosted a side event in New York to promote the report “Why Public-Private-Partnerships don’t work”. The report assessed the impact of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) actually undertaken in rich and poor countries. These global case studies show that there is no evidence that PPPs are cheaper or more convenient for governments in the long-term.

Click here for more on this and further suggested readings.


Source: Global Policy Watch

OECD Publication: Geographical Distribution of Financial Flows to Developing Countries 2015

This publication provides comprehensive data on the volume, origin and types of aid and other resource flows to around 150 developing countries. The data show each country's intake of official development assistance and well as other official and private funds from members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), multilateral agencies and other key donors. Key development indicators are given for reference.

The publication can be read online or downloaded as PDF here.

Source: OECD

OECD online consultation on Youth Well-being

From 30 March – 8 May, Wikiprogress will be conducting an online consultation on Youth Well-being to gather ideas about how governments and other social actors can better improve well-being outcomes for young people. The findings of the consultation will be presented at the OECD Forum in Paris in June, and a report of the consultation will be made widely available for policy makers, foundations, CSOs and others in the Wikiprogress network.

If you would like to be part of the discussion, you can pre-register here.

Source: OECD Civil Society Newsletter

The Romanian International Development Review

The Romanian International Development Review is an online review powered by ARCADIA, the Romanian Association for International Development and Cooperation, that aims to enhance knowledge sharing, open thought-provoking debates on topics relevant to the field of international development and nurture interdisciplinary dialogue.

The review provides insightful contributions and coming trends from and for professionals working in the non-governmental and governmental sector, researchers, scholars and students interested in the field. While each issue of the Review is devoted to specific topics related to the vast field of international development and cooperation, on the eve of the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) deadline, the current edition tried to offer a collection of up-to-date articles, interviews and professional opinions related to “the world’s biggest promise to reduce poverty” and furthermore, address the challenges of the new SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

The online review is available here.

The nest issue, The approach of CEE countries on international development. From aid recipients to aid donors, will be addressing the topic of the new EU donors and their strategies within the global community of donors. For all those interested in contributing with articles and opinions to the next issue more information can be found here.

Further inquires about the initiative and possible contributions should be addressed to Alexandra Sabou (Alexandra.sabou@arcadianetwork.org), the executive editor of the ARCADIA review.


Information provided by ARCADIA and FOND.

The Aid Industry – What Journalists Really Think

The International Broadcasting Trust report published at the end of 2014 is still very relevant for aid agencies and organisations working in the aid sector in general. There has been growing media criticism of the aid industry in recent years. Some of this has been ideologically driven and some opportunistic but it also appears that journalists are more insistent on holding aid agencies to account than they have been in the past. This is a good thing but often the aid sector has appeared unduly defensive in the face of criticism.

This report seeks to understand what a broad range of journalists – both specialists and generalists – think about aid and the agencies that deliver it. The criticisms are wide ranging but several themes emerge. There’s a consensus that the aid sector as a whole needs to be more open and transparent. Since media reporting of the aid industry undoubtedly has a big influence on public opinion, it’s important that we take the views of journalists seriously. A better understanding of what journalists really think will also enable those working in the aid sector to deal more effectively with media criticism.

The report can be read here.

Source: The International Broadcasting Trust

Why are there still so many hungry people in the world?

This question is the title of an article in The Guardian, looking at the progress made in achieving food security and eradicating malnutrition, as part of the global efforts towards the Millennium Development Goals, as well as the challenges ahead. The greatest challenge for the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is to eradicate poverty and hunger while maintaining sustainable food security for all in a crowded and dramatically unequal world. Although the world has succeeded in reducing poverty in accordance with the millennium development goal (MDG) targets, food security and adequate nutrition have not been achieved. The world produces enough food, the author says, while poverty and hunger prevail because of economics, not scarcity. If the international community is serious about eliminating hunger, a shift is needed from a development model based on charity and aid to one based on human rights, reinforced by accountability mechanisms.

Read the full article here.

Source: The Guardian

The Degrowth Alternative and Debating the Alternative

Giorgos Kallis, a prominent scholar on ‘degrowth’, recently wrote an essay that was the subject of debate among members of the Great Transition Initiative network. Rajesh Makwana, in a blog post on the website of Share The World’s Resources (STWR), responded to the following theme of discussion: is degrowth, as currently formulated, sufficiently rigorous and inclusive to offer the theoretical legitimacy and political unity for a system shift? He goes on to suggest that “as a popular framing that can mobilize a global citizens movement or enable system change on the scale needed, degrowth is limited. Apart from concerns around what might (paradoxically) still need to grow in a degrowth society, which might even include GDP, a key concern is its negative and unappealing framing.”

Read more on his recommendations for reframing the discussion here and Giorgos Kallis’s excellent article here.

Source: Share The World’s Resources

Protecting Civil Society’s Role in Development Co-operation

In an article published by the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness in cooperation with the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation, Virginie Coulloudon from Transparency International looks at the role of CSOs in Development Co-operation. She talks about the role of transparency and accountability in relation to development co-operation and she highlights the fact that “CSOs also help monitor the laws that they worked to have passed, with people coming together to make sure rights are not abused and laws are obeyed. Civil society plays a part in monitoring the activities of private sector entities, for example bringing up instances of illegal pollution and human rights abuses, creating accountability when needed.”

Please click here to read the full article.

Source: CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness

The Dawn of the Post-MDG Era? Challenges for Africa - EU Relations in 2015

The year 2015 will be a threshold year for international cooperation and global development, with both Europe and Africa in positions to play pivotal roles. Long-running global policy processes will culminate in four decisive meetings during the year, two of them in Africa, one in Europe and one in New York at the United Nations (UN).

In this context, the ECDPM’s annual Challenges Paper explores questions such as: are leaders ready for the Post-2015 world? Can the African Union speak with one voice and ensure the SDGs are a stepping-stone for its ambitious Agenda 2063? Are development partners ready for cooperation that leaves no one behind? Are both developed and developing countries ready to take action that ensures necessary and equitable growth without irreversible damage to our climate for future generations? The aim of this Paper is not to predict outcomes, but to situate debates that concern Africa-EU relations so as to facilitate as wide a stakeholder engagement as possible.

The Paper can be downloaded here.


Source: ECDPM - European Centre for Development Policy Management

Report on Donors Strategies and Practices paints a Bleak Picture on how Civil Society is supported in Balkan Countries

The first in-depth report “Donor Strategies and Practices for Supporting Civil Society in the Western Balkans” developed by BCSDN and Queen Mary University of London research and academic team uncovers basic elements and principles on which support to civil society by foreign donors rests and which need to be challenged to strengthen the potential and role civil society has in current Balkan societies.

The report also presents a set of conclusions and offers a series of recommendations in light of the broader political context in the region, including the need to challenge dominance of instrumentalised approach to civil society support, inclusion of civil society actors in planning and designing aid modalities, and tackling transparency and accountability of state funding for civil society as an important and long term source of support.

The full report is available for download at this link.


Source: Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN)

Financing the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals: a rough roadmap

Looking ahead to major UN-hosted international meetings on development finance in 2015 and beyond, this report for officials, advisors, and commentators aims to shape the agenda. It builds on a large body of recent literature on how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should best be framed, delivered and, in particular, funded, focusing on developing countries. The paper was published by the Overseas Development Institute and is available for download here.















Source: Overseas Development Institute

CONCORD Guide to European Funding Instruments 2014-2020

This report aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the instruments and programmes (both thematic and geographic) used by the European Union (EU) in its development cooperation. It highlights the roles played by civil society in policy dialogue on these instruments and programmes, and in their implementation.

CONCORD has been actively engaged with both the EU's institutions and its member states, monitoring and influencing the negotiations on the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 with a particular focus on the development-related instruments and programmes. The report also includes CONCORD's comments on the 2014-2020 programming process.

Click here to download the report.



Source: CONCORD

New AidWatch Report: EU will miss historic aid pledge in 2015

Launched in Paris on 20 November 2014 at the OECD, the ninth CONCORD AidWatch report 'Aid Beyond 2015' finds that:

• Despite growing humanitarian and development challenges, such as the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, EU aid is off track to meet the 0.7% aid target in 2015 with a funding gap of €41billion.
• Only 4 EU countries are meeting aid targets: the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg.
• Aid budgets are increasingly being used to cover migration costs.

Read more and download the report from the CONCORD website.

Source: CONCORD