Policy Coherence for Development

The EU seeks to build synergies between policies other than development cooperation that have a strong impact on developing countries, for the benefit of overseas development (“policy coherence for development”). Making development policy in isolation will not bring sufficient results.

This approach is being taken by both the European Commission and EU national governments.

In 2005, the EU agreed to apply the Policy Coherence for Development approach in 12 policy areas that could accelerate progress towards the UN’s millenium development goals:

Implementation

Progress reports

The Commission will report every 2 years on progress made on policy coherence for development by the EU in the 12 areas. The aim is to encourage continual progress, based on feedback from developing countries, civil society and the European Parliament.

Latest Report on Policy Coherence for Development - Establishing the policy framework for a whole of the Union approach (2009):

The second Report on Policy Coherence for Development assesses the progress made in advancing coherence in 12 policy areas which impact on development, namely trade, environment, climate change, security, agriculture, fisheries, social dimension of globalisation, employment and decent work, migration, research and innovation, information society, transport and energy. It builds on evidence that the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) depends not only on development aid, but also on the policies defined and implemented by the EU and other international actors in areas such as trade, environment, security or migration.

The commitment towards Policy Coherence is embedded in the European Consensus on Development adopted in December 2005. A first progress report on Policy Coherence was published in 2007 .

In the second Report on Policy Coherence, several policy areas are highlighted where progress towards more coherence has been achieved in the past two years:

Research: EU and developing countries work jointly together in areas of interest for developing countries, such as health or food security. Researchers from developing countries are encouraged by the Commission to participate in research programmes and mobility schemes. In the first two years of the implementation of the 7 th Research Framework contract (2007-2013), applications for research funding from African scientists amounted to Euro 60 million.

Environment: The European Commission aims to protect forests globally. Under its Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade "FLEGT" Initiative, the EU imports only certified timber from its partner countries to fight illegal logging. So far Ghana and Congo have signed such an agreement.

Energy: Under the Renewable Energy Directive (2008), the binding target for renewable energy is 20% by 2020. Developing countries are expected to benefit by exporting bio fuels to the EU. Bio fuels importers are obliged to comply with clear environmental criteria.

Building on the results achieved, the Commission proposes to focus future policy coherence development on five priority areas for achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals: climate change, global food security, migration, intellectual property rights and security.

In the report, two case studies have been launched to provide concrete evidence on the effects of EU policies on developing countries and in particular on their capacity to reach MDG 1/ reducing hunger and MDG 6/ the fight against HIV/AIDS.

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