The Treaty of Maastricht identifies poverty alleviation as a key objective of EU development cooperation, and the recent Green Paper on the future of ACP-EU cooperation reiterates this commitment. They have found an ally in the NGO community which has been struggling for many years to direct aid resources to the poorest of the poor. The focus on poverty alleviation opens a broad policy agenda. Middle-income ACP countries tend to resist differentiated approaches based on poverty levels, however. A loss of these preferences could lead to a shuddering drop in per capita incomes.
Opinions differ as to whether structural adjustment has aggravated or alleviated poverty.
This conclusion has been challenged by Northern policy-makers and researchers. Third, putting poverty alleviation up front may lead to major changes in relation to the roles of the various actors in development. Fourth, there is a need for serious research on the possible impact of trade liberalisation on ACP economies, jobs and living standards. Strong pressures are also being exerted on the EU to rethink its approaches to debt relief. Some critics go further and argue that what is needed is a willingness to fundamentally challenge the neo-liberal ideology and related globalisation processes which they regard as creating poverty in both the South and the North.