WRITTEN QUESTION E-1928/00

by Fernando Fernández Martín (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(16 June 2000)

Subject: Fight against poverty in the developing world

What are the broad aims of the Community programmes to combat poverty in the developing countries?

Will the Commission give specific examples of the results obtained by these programmes?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(26 July 2000)

1. The Commission approach to poverty reduction was first set out in the communication of 1993, and this was reviewed in a working paper presented to Council in May 1998. The Commission mainly approached poverty reduction through support to basic social services, including through the use of counterpart funds arising from structural adjustment support. A recent estimate is that spending on these areas for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries is about 20 %, in line with the commitment of Copenhagen in 1995. However, it is nessary to look further at this strategy, and focus on those issues that have most effect on poverty reduction.

This has been the main subject of the communication of the Commission on the Community development co-operation policy which states that the main objective of development co-operation is poverty reduction.

The Community is steadily increasing its aid to least developed countries and will continue to do so on a more systematic basis.

At the macro-economic level, structural adjustment programmes of the new generation include social indicators (health and education) for the allocation of part of the funds, in order to stimulate the countries concerned to achieve better results in these sectors.

In the framework of EU-ACP co-operation, the national indicative programmes put emphasis on poverty reduction as an important objective of development co-operation. In many African countries this is reflected in the choice of focal sectors such as food security, rural development, or social sectors. Amounts allocated to basic social services (health and education) have dramatically increased.

At the international level, the Community has promoted the importance of dealing with the political and international dimensions of poverty. These issues are now recognised in the agendas of the SPA and development assistance committee (DAC) working groups on poverty, and the Commission is actively engaged in this work.

The recently signed Cotonou agreement between the ACP countries and the Union provides a good example of a contractual framework for co-operation centred on the objective of poverty reduction. Community development co-operation will be based on integrated strategies that incorporate economic, social, cultural, environmental and institutional elements that must be locally owned. Co-operation will thus provide a coherent enabling framework of support for the ACP's own development strategies.

2. For specific results on poverty reduction, the Honourable Member is invited to refer to the evaluation of The European Community External Co-operation Programmes- policies, management and distribution published by the Commission and the Overseas Development Institute (1999). This evaluation shows that investment in access to basic social services (especially health and education) has dramatically increased in ACP countries over the last three years. Results on poverty reduction have certainly be significant in the field of protection of social budgets within the framework of structural adjustment programmes, of microprojects and decentralised co-operation.