COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Assessing the 2005 European Consensus on Development and accompanying the initiative "Proposal for a new European Consensus on Development" Accompanying the document COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Proposal for a new European Consensus on Development Our World, our Dignity, our Future
Date: 2016-11-22
Institutions: Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development, European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, cooperation policy, democracy, developing countries, development aid, environmental protection, human rights, job creation, poverty, sustainable development

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Strasbourg, 22.11.2016  SWD(2016) 387 final   COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Assessing the 2005 European Consensus on Development and accompanying the initiative "Proposal for a new European Consensus on Development" Accompanying the document COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Proposal for a new European Consensus on Development Our World, our Dignity, our Future  {COM(2016) 740 final} {SWD(2016) 388 final} {SWD(2016) 389 final}  
 
 
Staff Working Document 

Assessing the 2005 European Consensus on Development and accompanying the 
Initiative "Proposal for a new European Consensus on Development" 

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 3 

1. Purpose and Scope  ................................................................................................................ 4 

2. Background to the initiative ................................................................................................... 4 

3. Method ................................................................................................................................... 6 

4. State of Play ........................................................................................................................... 6 

4.1. Alignment to the objectives, the values and the principles of the ECD .......................... 6 

4.2. The Consensus in EU development cooperation ........................................................... 10 

4.2.1 

4.2.2 

Implementation of the Consensus and differentiation ........................................ 10 

Poverty reduction ............................................................................................... 12 

4.2.3  Growth and trade ................................................................................................ 14 

4.2.4  Human rights, Democratic Governance and Peace ............................................ 16 

4.2.5 

4.2.6 

Environment and climate change ....................................................................... 17 

Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) ........................................................ 18 

5. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 19 

5.1  Relevance  .................................................................................................................. 19 

5.2  Effectiveness and efficiency ...................................................................................... 20 

5.3  Coherence and added value ....................................................................................... 21 

Annex 1: Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 22 

2 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  

This  Staff  Working  Document  (SWD)  accompanies  the  Communication  to  the  European 
Parliament and the Council on a "Proposal for a new European Consensus on Development". 
In line with the Roadmap1, the purpose of the SWD is to provide an overview of the outcomes 
from  available  evaluation  exercises.  In  so  doing,  the  SWD  analyses  the  extent to  which  the 
EU and its Member States have aligned their policies and strategies to the objectives, values 
and  principles  of  the  European  Consensus  on  Development2  and  also  reviews  the  extent  to 
which the Consensus has guided development cooperation activities entrusted to the EU and 
their implementation. 

The findings show that the objectives of the European Consensus, such as poverty reduction, 
sustainable development and the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have 
generally been integrated by the EU and the Member States in their development policies. A 
broad  alignment  with  the  Consensus'  common  values  of  respect  for  human  rights, 
fundamental freedoms, peace, democracy, good governance, gender equality, the rule of law, 
solidarity  and  justice,  has  also  been  observed.  A  significant  degree  of  alignment  is  found 
between  the  Consensus'  principles,  such  as  ownership  and  partnership,  political  dialogue, 
participation of civil society, gender and fragility, and the EU and Member States policies - 
although  some  principles  were  not  always  followed-up  by  clearly  defined  strategies.  On 
working  better  together,  the  EU  and  Member  States  showed  high  levels  of  commitment  to 
enhancing  coordination  and  complementarity  and 
improving  aid  and  development 
effectiveness. This is illustrated by their leading role in international fora and concrete steps in 
enhancing  transparency,  inclusive  partnerships  and  coordination,  the  latter  notably  through 
significant progress in Joint Programming. 

The  evidence  points  to  the  relevance  and  effectiveness  of  the  Consensus  in  guiding  EU 
development  cooperation  and  contributing  to  its  objectives,  in  particular  poverty  reduction, 
specifically  through  support  to  food  security,  education  and  health,  and  growth,  namely 
through support to macroeconomic stability, trade and infrastructure. Similarly, the Consensus 
was translated in differentiating resource allocations towards countries most in need, the use 
of innovative aid modalities and increased commitment in Policy Coherence for Development. 

According  to  Development  Assistance  Committee  of  the  Organisation  for  Economic 
Cooperation and Development (OECD/DAC) peer reviews, the Consensus has been a “major 
strategic success”3 and a “key milestone”4. The evidence indeed shows that the Consensus has 
had  an  added-value  in  fostering  a  shared  and  common  vision  for  EU  and  Member  States 
development cooperation and, in the cases of new Member States, it had a direct influence in 
the  shaping  of  their  development  policies.  The  Consensus  also  played  an  important  role  in 
guiding  EU  development  cooperation,  which  has  progressively  adapted  to  its  priorities  and 
principles. The Consensus has also increased the EU added value by allowing the EU to play 

1 http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/roadmaps/docs/2016_devco_003_european_consensus_on_development_en.pdf  
2 Available at http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ%3AC%3A2006%3A046%3A0001%3A0019%3AEN%3APDF 
3  OECD/DAC  Peer  Review  of 
reviews/38965119.pdf, p. 13. 
4 OECD/DAC Peer Review of the European Union, 2012, available at http://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-reviews/50155684.pdf, 
p. 28 

the  European  Community,  2007,  available  at  http://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-

3 

 
 
 
                                                 
leading  roles,  for  example  in  promoting  Joint  Programming  and  articulating  the  EU  and 
Member  States  views  in  international  agreements.  Overall,  the  Consensus  has  played  a  key 
role in fostering and driving a new impetus to EU development policy. 

1. PURPOSE AND SCOPE  

The European Consensus on Development5 (hereinafter referred to as ECD or Consensus) is a 
2005 joint statement by the Council and the representatives of the governments of the Member 
States  meeting  within  the  Council,  the  European  Parliament  and  the  European  Commission. 
When setting out the EU vision of development, the Consensus sets out common objectives, 
principles,  values  and  commitments  for  the  EU  and  its  Member  States.  In  the  part  on  the 
European  Community  development  policy,  it  sets  out  how  this  vision  will  be translated  and 
implemented at EU level. 

This  Staff  Working  Document  (SWD)  first  analyses  the  extent  to  which  the  EU  and  its 
Member States have aligned their policies and strategies to the Consensus objectives, values 
and  principles.  It  then  reviews  the  extent  to  which  the  Consensus  has  guided  development 
cooperation activities entrusted to the EU and their implementation. The SWD does not aim at 
establishing  a  direct  causal  link  between  the  Consensus  and  the  observed  changes  in  policy 
making nor to quantify such changes. 

The  SWD  is  not  intended  to  be  a  fully-fledged  evaluation exercise,  but  rather  to  provide  an 
overview  of  the  outcomes  from  past  evaluation  endeavours.  This  exercise  is  considered  to 
provide  an  adequate  basis  to  assess  the  policy  over  the  period  of  the  analysis,  based  on 
evaluation practice in the period in question, in view of informing the Communication to the 
European Parliament and the Council on a "Proposal for a new Consensus on Development".  

The  Communication  makes  proposals  to  revise  the  ECD  in  line  with  and  in  response  to  the 
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including its 17 Sustainable Development Goals 
(SDGs)  and  the  Addis  Ababa  Action  Agenda  on  Financing  for  Development6,  which  is  an 
integral  part,  and  global  challenges  and  trends.  It  contributes  to  taking  further  the  Global 
Strategy for the European Union's Foreign and Security Policy7 and its implementation is to be 
coordinated  with  that  of  other  global  agreements,  such  as  the  2015  Paris  Agreement  on 
climate change8.   

2. BACKGROUND TO THE INITIATIVE  

In over fifty years of EU development cooperation, the ECD is the first joint statement by the 
Council and the representatives of the governments of the Member States meeting within the 
Council,  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Commission,  that  sets  out  common  principles, 

5 Available at http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ%3AC%3A2006%3A046%3A0001%3A0019%3AEN%3APDF 
6 Available at http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AAAA_Outcome.pdf 
7 Available at https://eeas.europa.eu/top_stories/pdf/eugs_review_web.pdf 
8 Available at http://unfccc.int/files/essential_background/convention/application/pdf/english_paris_agreement.pdf 

4 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
values and objectives of development policy for the EU and its Member States. The EU and 
its Member States engaged to formulate and implement their development policies in a spirit 
of complementarity. The Consensus constitutes a major innovation as “for the first time, this 
vision  is  both  a  European  Community  and  a  Member  State  responsibility”9.  In  addition,  its 
second  part  sets  out  how  to  translate  this  vision  into  sector  priorities  and  operational 
approaches,  which  should  be  applied  to  the  development  cooperation  resources  entrusted  to 
the EU.  

In  the part setting out  the EU vision of development, the ECD corroborates the overarching 
objective of poverty reduction in the context of sustainable development and integrates the 
Millennium Development Goals10 (MDGs) and the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for 
Development11  that  had  been  adopted  as  key  global  objectives  for  development  and 
international guidelines for financing for development. In the Consensus the multidimensional 
aspects  of  poverty  eradication  are  acknowledged.  The  ECD  definition  of  sustainable 
development, which is "a central goal by itself", includes good governance, human rights, 
political,  social,  economic  and  environmental  aspects,  recognising  that  development 
activities  in  several  areas  are  essential  for  poverty  eradication.  Common  values  to  be 
promoted  in  partnerships  with  third  countries  are  respect  for  human  rights,  fundamental 
freedoms, peace, democracy, good governance, gender equality, the rule of law, solidarity and 
justice.  The  Consensus  also  introduces  the  nexus  between  development  and  security,  in 
particular  with  reference  to  fragile  states.  To  ensure  the  pursuit  of  such  objectives  the 
Consensus  devotes  considerable  space  to  common  principles  of  cooperation,  such  as 
ownership,  partnership,  political  dialogue,  participation  of  civil  society  and  gender 
equality.  Finally  the  Consensus  commits  to  enhancing  EU  and  Member  States  aid  and  its 
effectiveness, proposing to increase financial resources, pursue more effective aid, adhere to 
principles  of  coordination  and  complementarity,  as  well  as  strengthen  Policy  Coherence 
for Development (PCD). 

The  part  of  the  Consensus  on  the  European  Community  development  policy  lays  down  the 
priority areas12 and operational approaches for the EU development cooperation recognising 
the  value  added  and  comparative  advantages  of  the  EU  level.  In  terms  of  operational 
approaches, the second part of the Consensus proposes a differentiated approach depending 
on contexts and needs, the use of transparent and objective criteria to allocate resources, 
the application of the principle of concentration and the use of appropriate implementation 
modalities,  as  well  as  ensuring  Policy  Coherence  for  Development.  In  2011,  the 
Communication "Increasing the impact of EU development policy: an Agenda for Change"13 
(hereinafter  referred  to  as  AfC)  and  the  following  Council  conclusions  in  May  201214 
addressed again these issues, updating in practice some of the orientations. The AfC refers to 
the Consensus common objectives, values and principles and aims to increase the impact of 
EU development policy by prioritising human rights, democracy and good governance and 
inclusive  and  sustainable  growth  for  human  development  and  strengthening  the 
application of the principles of differentiation, concentration and coordinated EU action. 

9 OCED/DAC Peer Review of the European Community 2007, p. 25. 
10 http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.pdf 
11 http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/monterrey/MonterreyConsensus.pdf 
12  Areas  for  Community  Action:  Trade  and  Regional  Integration;  the  Environment  and  the  Sustainable  Management  of 
Natural  Resources;  Infrastructure,  Communication  and  Transport;  Water  and  Energy;  Rural  Development,  territorial 
planning, agriculture and food security; Governance, Democracy, Human Rights and support for Economic and Institutional 
Reforms; Conflict Prevention and Fragile States; Human Development; Social Cohesion and Employment 
13 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX%3A52011DC0637&qid=1412922281378&from=EN 
14 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/130243.pdf 

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3. METHOD 

The  SWD  aims  to  inform  the  proposal  for  a  new  Consensus  on  Development.  It  draws 
essentially on the findings of two reports, which have been commissioned by the Commission, 
namely a Desk Analysis on the Consensus 15(hereinafter referred to as the Desk Analysis) and 
the Review of existing Strategic evaluations to assess the ECD16 (hereinafter referred to as the 
Review).  In  order  to  complement  the  information  provided  by  these  two  reports,  the  SWD 
draws data from databases of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for 
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD/DAC), Directorate-General for International 
Cooperation and Development of the European Commission and from independent studies.  

The  Desk  Analysis  studies  whether  the  ECD  was  instrumental  in  shaping  the  values, 
principles and objectives of the development policies of the EU and its Member States since 
2005. It does so through a textual analysis of the main policy documents (strategies, specific 
legal texts, programming documents and other official statements) issued by the governments 
and  related  agencies  of  the  28  Member  States  and  the  European  institutions  (essentially 
Communications  and  staff  working  papers,  adopted  by  the  Commission,  as  well  as  Council 
decisions).  Whenever  possible,  the  findings  of  the  textual  analysis  have  been  cross-checked 
with  institutional  assessments,  in  particular  with  the  peer  reviews  conducted  by  the 
OECD/DAC between 2005 and 2016. 

The  Review  of  Strategic  Evaluations  is  a  review  and  synthesis  of  existing  thematic  and 
geographic  evaluations  which  assesses  how  the  values  and  principles  of  the  ECD  and  its 
objectives  have  guided  the  EU  development  cooperation.  It  analyses  around  145  strategic 
thematic and geographic evaluations managed by DG DEVCO as well as DG NEAR between 
2000 and 2016.17 The list of evaluations analysed is in the bibliography in Annex I.  

The SWD provides an overview of the outcomes from available evaluation endeavours, based 
on desk reviews of existing documentation. The views on stakeholders have also been sought 
in the public consultation for the revision of the Consensus, which is the subject of a separate 
Commission Staff Working Document. 

4. STATE OF PLAY 

4.1. Alignment to the objectives, the values and the principles of the ECD 

This section analyses whether the EU and Member States strategies and policies have aligned 
to the values, principles and objectives, as set out in the part of the Consensus setting out the 
EU vision of development. It mostly draws from the Desk Analysis and overall it reveals that 
the  EU  and  Member  States  development  cooperation  have  generally  been  aligned  to  the 
common objectives, values and principles enshrined in the Consensus.  

There is considerable alignment as regards the common objectives, which include the MDGs 
derived from the Millennium Declaration (2000), as well as development objectives agreed at 
the Monterrey and Johannesburg Sustainable Development Summits (both 2002).  

15 https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/consensus_desk_review.pdf 
16 https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/consensus_review_full_report.pdf 
17 Strategic evaluations covering periods before the adoption of the Consensus were only used to assess and compare changes 
in EU policy in the aftermath of the Consensus' adoption. 

6 

 
 
                                                 
The  Member  States  and  the  EU  also  aligned  to  the  concept  of  the  multidimensionality  of 
poverty, which commanded changes to the traditional approach to development cooperation, 
moving to a broad strategic vision that prioritises their actions to achieve poverty reduction. 

All EU and Member States development policies adhere to the common values although each 
of  them  tends  to  articulate  them  differently.  Some  Member  States  adopt  rights-based 
approaches  or  give  more  attention  to  the  fight  against  all  forms  of  discrimination.  Others 
introduce  equal  opportunities,  solidarity,  peace  and  freedom  and  social  equality.  Academia 
and  think  tanks  recognise  that  pursuing  human  rights,  democratic  principles  and  the  rule  of 
law  is  a  strategic  priority  and  a  feature  of  the  EU  and  Member  States  development 
cooperation.  

There  is  generally  good  alignment  to  Consensus'  common  principles.  The  concept  of 
ownership  has  evolved  since  the  Consensus  and  has  shifted  from  a  focus  primarily  on 
governments  to  one  that  emphasises  democratic  ownership  by  different  stakeholders,  most 
notably civil society, the private sector and legislative and oversight bodies. Therefore in the 
EU and Member States it is often linked to respect of human rights, fight against corruption, 
accountability  and  good  governance.  The  commitment  to  partnership  is  less  uniformly 
aligned.  

Among common principles,  gender equality has  become one of the strongest commitments 
for  the  EU  and  Member  States.  It  is  reflected  in  basically  all  development  policy/strategy 
documents  and  in  addition  to  mainstreaming  it  has  been  the  objective  of  many  dedicated 
initiatives.  In  relation  to  the  participation  of  civil  society,  the  EU  institutions  and  Member 
States have been active in formulating policies and adopting strategies to enhance its role in 
development  cooperation  in  partner  countries,  including  the  engagement  in  “Structured 
Dialogue” with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and local authorities in partner countries 
and in Europe. Building on these shared commitments the EU and Member States have played 
an important role resulting in a growing global relevance of gender equality and civil society 
in the context of international negotiations (e.g. Busan18, Financing for Development Agenda, 
SDGs  etc.).  Political  dialogue,  another  of  Consensus'  principles,  has  received  increased 
attention  by  EU  institutions.  It  features  strongly  in  development  cooperation  in  particular 
within  the  Cotonou  Partnership  Agreement19,  which  has  specific  articles  devoted  to  it. 
Recently  the AfC has  laid the foundation  for greater investment in  and attention  to political 
dialogue. At the EU Member States level the role of political dialogue and how it features in 
development cooperation is less elaborated. 

The  EU  and  the  Member  States  are  also  acknowledged  for  playing  an  important  role  in 
addressing  state  fragility  globally,  which  was  one  of  the  principles  of  the  Consensus.  The 
EU’s 2015 Accountability Report on Financing for Development reports that “approximately 
half  of  the  EU's  development  funding  is  channelled  to  crisis/conflict  situations  and  fragile 
states.”20  As  to  the  Member  States,  addressing  state  fragility  has  gained  prominence  in  a 
number of development cooperation policy, strategy and programming. Some Member States 
contribute to addressing fragility within sector strategies or in pursuit of global priorities, such 
as climate change and good governance.  

18 http://effectivecooperation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/OUTCOME_DOCUMENT_-_FINAL_EN.pdf 
19 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/acp/03_01/pdf/mn3012634_en.pdf 
20  2015  EU  Accountability  Report  Financing  for  Development,  Section  4.4.2,  Commission  Staff  Working  Document, 
available at https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/eu-accountability-report-financing-development-2015_en 

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As regards the EU collective commitment to increasing financial resources, its share of aid 
as a proportion of Gross National Income  has increased since 2005 and remains higher than 
the non-EU OECD DAC/OECD average (0.47% compared to 0.21% of GNI in 2015). Despite 
the financial crisis the EU and its Member States have consistently provided more than half of 
total  Official  Development  Assistance  (ODA)  to  developing  countries.  However,  the  EU 
collective  ODA  to  Least  Developed  Countries  (LDCs)  has  not  significantly  increased  since 
the  adoption  of  the  Consensus  and  remains  around  0.11%  in  2014.  In  view  of  the  Third 
International  Conference  on  Financing  for  Development  in  Addis  Ababa  in  July  2015  the 
European  Union  committed,  in  Council  Conclusions  of  May  201521,  to  collectively  provide 
0.7% Gross National Income as Official Development Assistance within the time frame of the 
2030 Agenda and individually to reach 0.7% (for the Member States that joined before 2002) 
and to reach 0.33% (for those that joined after 2002). Collectively, Member States also agreed 
to  provide  0.15%  of  Gross  National  Income  as  Official  Development  Assistance  to  Least 
Developed Countries in the 'short term' rising to 0.2% in the timeframe of the 2030 Agenda. 
This  commitment  was  welcomed  in  the  Addis  Ababa  Action  Agenda  although  it  was  not 
matched by any other international donor. 

When it comes to delivering better aid, the EU and its Member States have been committed to 
the  aid  effectiveness  framework  referred  to  in  the  ECD,  in  line  with  the  international 
commitments  (Paris  2005,  Accra  2008,  Busan  2011).  The  international  fora’s  outcomes, 
particularly  the  Fourth  High-Level  Forum  on  Aid  Effectiveness  in  Busan,  which  agreed  the 
Global  Partnership  for  Effective  Development  Co-operation  (GPEDC),  were  also  heavily 
influenced  and  supported  by  EU  actors  and  therefore  the  ECD  principles  gained  a  broader 
relevance.  At  the  same  time  it  should  be  noted  that  the  GPEDC  marked  an  important  shift 
from  aid  effectiveness  to  development  effectiveness  moving  away  from  a  focus  on  ODA  to 
include  wider  resources  and  partners,  including  by  recognising  the  importance  of  domestic 
resource mobilisation.  

The  OECD/DAC  regularly  recognises  that  EU  and  its  Member  States  are  amongst  the  most 
advanced actors in implementing commitments to aid and development effectiveness. The EU 
and  its  Member  States  are  front  runners  in  improving  transparency  and  reducing 
fragmentation. 22 All EU Member States report their ODA to the OECD/DAC and a growing 
number, totalling nine EU Member States plus the European Commission, now publish data in 
the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).  

the  participation  of  government  counterparts 

Overall  performance  on  the  aid  and  development  effectiveness  agenda  could  benefit  from 
more  focused  attention  and  accelerated  implementation  in  other  fields,  such  as  country 
ownership  and  the  use  of  country  systems.  Alignment  to  countries'  National  Development 
Strategies  and 
in  programming  and 
implementation  has  been  high  in  various  countries.  However,  in  some  partner  countries, 
progress has been hampered by limited capacities to lead in this area. The EU continues to be 
a  lead  donor  in  using  partner  countries’  Public  Financial  Management  systems  (PFM)  and 
procurement  systems.  The  2012  DAC  -  Peer  Review  states  that  “the  EU  institutions  have 
made  strong  gains  in  their  use  of  country  systems,  including  both  public  financial 
management and procurement.”23 Similarly, the EU and EU Member States have collectively 
undertaken  initiatives  to  improve  country  results  frameworks  and  are  actively  supporting 
country  level  processes  and  platforms  on  results  frameworks.  However,  results  from  the 

21 http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9241-2015-INIT/en/pdf 
22 See 2015 EU Accountability Report Financing for Development, Section 4.4.2, Commission Staff Working Document. 
23 http://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-reviews/50155818.pdf 

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Monitoring Framework of the Global Partnership show that the use of country systems by the 
EU  Member  States  varies  from  one  to  another,  showing  high,  moderate  and  low  levels  of 
use.24  

Several OECD/DAC peer review reports cite a host of good practices and largely commend 
EU  and  EU  Member  States  for  improving  coordination  and  complementarity  in 
programming.  The  Consensus  has  also  played  a  key  role  of  convener  and  driver  of  new 
shared  initiatives  between  EU  and  Member  States,  fostering  new  momentum  for 
coordination  and  complementarity,  from  the  strategic  to  the  operation  level.  This  includes 
regional  (e.g.  the  EU  Strategy  for  Africa  which  “channels  the  Consensus  principles  into  a 
regional  strategy”25)  and  thematic  strategies  (e.g.  governance  in  EU  development  policy26, 
Gender Action Plan27), but also working better together (e.g. 2006 action plan on financing 
for development and aid effectiveness28, 2007 EU Code of Conduct on Complementarity and 
Division  of  Labour  in  Development  Policy29,  2011  Operational  framework  on  aid 
effectiveness30) and with partners  (e.g. Civil Society Roadmaps). The Consensus has created 
a favourable dynamic for the EU and EU Member States to actively support a greater use of 
country-level  coordination  arrangements,  including  division  of  labour,  programme-based 
approaches,  Joint  Programming  and  delegated  cooperation.  Preliminary  results  of  ongoing 
evaluations show that  delegated cooperation has contributed to  better division  of labour and 
reduced aid fragmentation within sectors but not across-sectors.31  

The  EU  has  recently  made  good  progress  in  strengthening  Joint  Programming  that  aims  at 
reducing  fragmentation  of  development  assistance  and  bringing  together  EU  resources  and 
capacity.32  As  of  April  2016,  the  state  of  play  of  Joint  Programming  is  such  that  30  have 
reached  the  stage  of  a  Joint  analysis  and  25  have  developed  a  Joint  strategy  since  2012, 
although some are still at draft level. In 2016, development partners in Laos have agreed on a 
Joint Multiannual Indicative Programme that for some of them (including the EU) will replace 
their bilateral cooperation strategies. Good progress has also been made concerning inclusive 
partnerships,  increased  role  of  the  private  sector  in  development,  private  investment,  trade, 
and innovative financing sources and instruments. 

The analysis of the EU and Member States development policies found evidence of a general 
trend in the alignment of the Consensus commitments to Policy Coherence for Development. 
PCD  continues  to  be  a  priority  especially  in  relation  to  strengthening  mechanisms  and 
procedures and focusing on avoiding contradictions between the development policy and other 
policies  whilst  building  synergies.  The  Commission’s  regular  reporting  on  PCD  also  shows 
that the EU and a number of EU Member States are making notable progress on meeting their 
PCD  commitments.  The  OECD/DAC  peer  reviews  cite  good  EU  and  EU  Member  States 
examples as global good practices; a number of think-tanks have noted the importance of PCD 
and  commended  European  development  partners,  and  particularly  the  EU,  for  driving  a 
“pioneering” approach, although mechanisms and tools are not yet used to their full potential 

and  Performance,  2015.  Available 

24  The  Busan  Commitment.  An  Analysis  of  EU  Progress 
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/study_of_eu_progress.pdf 
25 OECD/DAC, Peer Review of the European Community, 2007, p.25 
26 COM(2006) 421 “Governance in the European Consensus on Development – Towards a harmonised approach within the 
EU”, followed by Council Conclusions in October 2006. 
27 EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development 2010-2015 (SWD, SEC(2010) 265 
final), 8.3.2010 
28 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52006DC0085 
29 http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=EN&f=ST%209558%202007%20INIT 
30 http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=EN&f=ST%2015912%202009%20INIT 
31 See Evaluation of the EU aid delivering mechanism of delegated cooperation 2007-2014, 2016 (forthcoming)  
32 A Strategic Evaluation on Joint Programming is currently ongoing. 

at 

9 

 
 
                                                 
and consistent, high level engagement is needed to ensure additional progress. However, the 
extent  to  which  the  Member  States  use  EU  work  programmes  and  reporting  processes  to 
inform  domestic  policy  discussions  and  incorporate  PCD  issues  effectively  into  decision 
making  could  be  further  reinforced.  More  Member  States  should  develop  mechanisms  for 
screening their policies and assessing their impact. Direct and consistent reporting to national 
parliaments on PCD efforts should be more systematically put in place. Attention to PCD in 
the  Council  has  increased  over  the  years,  with  more  regular  interaction  among  different 
Council working groups, even if so far, as the DAC peer review pointed out, achieving PCD 
relies to a large extent on the willingness of the EU Presidency to engage in this area. 

4.2. The Consensus in EU development cooperation 

This section analyses the extent to which the Consensus has guided development cooperation 
activities  entrusted to  the EU and their  implementation.  This section largely draws from the 
Review of evaluations. For the sake of clarity, the priority areas and operational approaches in 
part  of  the  Consensus  on  the  European  Community  development  policy  are  clustered  in  six 
areas,  which  are:  Implementation  of  the  Consensus  and  Differentiation;  Poverty  Reduction; 
Growth  and  Trade;  Human  Rights  and  Peace;  Environment  and  Climate  Change;  Policy 
Coherence for Development. 

4.2.1 

Implementation of the Consensus and differentiation  

The  EU  development  cooperation  has  translated  the  Consensus  through  a  wide  variety  of 
financing instruments and aid modalities. The geographic and thematic financing instruments 
available  for  external  action  focused  on  the  following  main  policy  priorities:  enlargement, 
neighbourhood  and  development  cooperation.  The  total  amount  agreed  for  the  period  2007-
2013 was about EUR 65 billion, while the total amount agreed for the period 2014-2020 is 
about  EUR  82  billion.33  Within  these  instruments,  those  more  focused  on  development 
the  European 
the  European  Neighbourhood  Instrument  (previously 
cooperation  are 
Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument), the European Development Fund (EDF) and the 
Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI). 

The Consensus acknowledges the importance of using a wide range of modalities to respond 
to different needs in different countries and promotes the use of innovative approaches such 
as sector programmes and budget support.  In line with the Consensus, in the implementation 
of  EU  development  cooperation  several  aid  modalities  have  been  employed,  including 
projects  and  programmes,  budget  support,  contributions  to  Global  Funds  and  International 
Organisations, delegated cooperation with Member States agencies. The Agenda for Change 
has  added  the  blending  of  grants  and  loans  in  order  to  leverage  further  resources  for 
development.   

In  the  period  2007-2013,  405  budget  support  operations  were  committed  in  79  countries 
and  12  overseas  countries  and  territories  (OCTs)  for  a  total  of  €15.3  billion.  Sub-Saharan 
Africa was the main recipient of budget support and education the largest sector. Evaluations 
of budget support confirmed that EU budget support recipients have been performing above 

33 Both figures include the amounts indicated in the Regulations of the following instruments: Instruments for Pre Accession, 
European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, Development Cooperation Instrument, European Development Fund, 
Instrument  Contributing  to  Stability  and  Peace,  European  Instrument  for  Democracy  and  Human  Rights,  Instrument  for 
Nuclear Safety Cooperation. 

10 

 
 
 
                                                 
the trends in other developing countries in terms of macroeconomic, fiscal and developmental 
outcomes. It has also confirmed that budget support  has generally succeeded in boosting the 
resources  available  for  discretionary  expenditure,  contributed  to  improve  public  finance 
management and budgetary transparency as well as to expand access to public services. The 
evaluations also suggest a moderate improvement in the fight against corruption, while trends 
have worsened in other developing countries.34 

Blending funding has increased sharply since 2007 and during the period 2007-2014 reached 
more than EUR 2 billion, representing 4% of DG DEVCO’s funding in the period. A recent 
evaluation  on  blending  shows35  that  it  allowed  the  EU  to  do  ‘more  with  less’  in  its 
development  cooperation,  enabling  the  EU  to  engage  more  broadly  and  with  strategic 
advantage.  In  many  cases,  blending  added  significant  value  to  the  EU's  grant  based 
development  cooperation  as  well  as  to  International  Financial  Institutions'  loan  operations. 
Blending  also  helped  to  widen  the  access  to  loan  finance  for  SMEs  and  to  increase  donor 
coordination. Although blending has been an effective tool for cooperating with countries in 
transition to medium income status, in particular in the EU Neighbourhood, it has not yet fully 
exploited its potential and capability to address the development challenges of lower income 
countries.  The  evaluation  recommends  to  do  more  to  ensure  that  development  cooperation 
goals,  and  in  particular  poverty  alleviation,  are  better  emphasised  in  project  identification, 
design and implementation. 

The  Review  has  shown  that  the  EU  funding  for  development  cooperation  has  covered  all 
priority areas for EU action listed in the Consensus. More specifically, an analysis of the 
EU  ODA  commitments  between  2004-2014  shows  that  most  of  the  resources  have  been 
allocated  to  social  infrastructures,  including  government  and  civil  society,  education,  health 
and water and sanitation, economic infrastructures, including transport, communications and 
energy,  and  production,  including  agriculture,  forestry  and  industry.  In  addition,  it  shall  be 
underlined that a large portion of funds went to the General Budget Support, which has had a 
strong  focus  on  social  sectors  such  as  education,  water  and  health,  and  governance,  and 
therefore  the  share  of  the  latter  sectors  is  likely  to  have  been  much  higher.  In  recent  years, 
more attention has also been paid to the productive sectors, in line with the AfC call for more 
focus  towards  inclusive  and  sustainable  growth,  including  sustainable  agriculture  and 
sustainable energy, along with democratic governance. 

To  further  increase  the  impact  and  leverage  of  EU  assistance,  the  Consensus  calls  for 
concentrating  EU  action  in  a  limited  number  of  areas  (principle  of  concentration).  This  has 
been taken further in the follow up to the Agenda for Change and it has been achieved to a 
large  degree  in  particular  in  the  programming  2014-2020,  where  the  average  number  of 
sectors per country falls below three in both the EDF and DCI. 

In  order  to  adapt  to  the  evolution  and  the  increasing  diversity  of  developing  countries,  the 
Consensus  commits  to  the  principle  of  differentiation,  recognises  that  priorities  should  be 
given to LDCs and Low-Income Countries in the allocation of resources based on objective 
and transparent criteria. This principle was adhered to mainly in the EDF that differentiated 
countries on the basis of needs and performance, as required by the Cotonou Agreement. The 
programming exercises of the EDF 9 and 10 showed a clear trend towards focusing more aid 
on LDCs. With the adoption of the Agenda for Change and the programming exercise for the 

34 See Synthesis of Budget Support Evaluations: Analysis of the Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations 
of  seven  Country  Evaluations  of  Budget  Support,  EC,  2016.  https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/strategic-
evaluation-synthesis-ec-budget-support-1335-main-report-201411_en.pdf 
35 See Blending Strategic evaluation, 2016 (forthcoming).  

11 

 
 
                                                 
period  2014-2020,  the  principle  of  differentiation  was  also  applied  to  the  Development 
Cooperation Instrument, firstly through the graduation of 16 upper and large middle-income 
countries  out  of  bilateral  cooperation  and  the  reduction  of  the  allocations  to  seven  upper-
middle  income  countries  in  view  of  phasing-out.  The  differentiation  principle  was  further 
ensured  by  the  application  of  a  common  methodology  for  the  allocation  of  country  level 
resources to both the Development Cooperation Instrument and European Development Fund. 
In  line  with  criteria  set  out  by  the  Agenda  for  Change,  the  methodology  allows  to  allocate 
funds on the basis of country needs, capacities, commitments, performance and potential EU 
impact. It resulted in a substantial increase of allocations to Least Developed Countries and 
Low Income Countries, from 62.2% to 75.2%, and an associated reduction of allocations to 
Upper Middle Income Countries (from 12.6% to 3.3%) and Lower Middle Income Countries 
(from 25% to 21.5%).  

4.2.2  Poverty reduction 

Global poverty was reduced from 37.1% in 1990 to 12.7% in 2012 and it is projected to go 
down to 9.6% in 2015. In absolute terms, it means that the number of people living in poverty 
was reduced from almost 2 billion (1,959 millions) to 897 million in 2012 and it is projected 
to  go  down  to  702  million  in  2015.  Improvements  in  poverty  reduction  are  mainly  a 
consequence of economic growth (which addresses 'income poverty') and increased access for 
the  poor  to  basic  social  services  ('non-income  poverty').  Many  development  partners  have 
established poverty reduction strategies since the mid-nineties.  

Based  on  the  Treaty  on  European  Union,  the  Consensus  calls  for  the  EU  to  support  the 
implementation of such strategies and promotes a broad approach to the eradication of poverty 
recognising  its  multidimensionality.  The  positive  contribution  of  the  Consensus  to  global 
poverty reduction is acknowledged by the 2012 OECD/DAC peer review36, in which it is said 
that  the  EU  has  developed  a  solid  framework  for  supporting  the  achievement  of  the  MDGs 
and  made  good  efforts  to  implement  it.  More  specifically,  the  EU  action,  in  line  with  the 
Consensus  and  the  MDGs,  has  concentrated  its  efforts  some  of  the  key  sectors  to  reduce 
poverty  such  as  food  security,  human  development  (education,  health),  social  cohesion  and 
employment. 

Food security 

The  Consensus  establishes  that  the  EU  continues  to  work  to  improve  food  security  at 
international, regional and national level. According to European Commission's data the EU 
specifically supported more than 60 partner countries prone to food insecurity in their efforts 
to improve food and nutrition security and promote sustainable agriculture and food systems. 
In total, 58.7 million people were assisted through food security-related social transfers in the 
period  2004-2014.  At  the  national  level,  the  Review  shows  that  the  EU  has  addressed  food 
security  mainly  through  policy  and  institutional  support  enabling  recipient  countries  to 
develop  strategies  to  face  recurrent  structural  insecurity.  Specific  programmes  aimed  at 
providing  direct  support  to  food-insecure  communities  have  also  been  put  in  place. 
Interventions  re-establishing  productive  assets  after  crises  were  reported  as  having  an 
important  impact  on  household  capacity  to  recover  from  shocks.  However,  the  Review 
highlights that the strategic dimension and sustainability of these interventions have remained 

36 Available at http://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-
reviews/europeanunion2012dacpeerreviewmainfindingsandrecommendations.htm 

12 

 
 
                                                 
weak, often due to a lack of mainstreaming of food security into national policies. It is also 
noted that less effort was done to promote regional food security.  

Human development – Education, health and gender  

The Consensus  calls for a human development policy framework for  education, health and 
gender equality to improve people's lives in line with the MDGs. The Review shows that the 
Consensus  has  guided  the  EU  development  cooperation  in  supporting  partner  countries  to 
establish  and  finance  education  and  health  policies,  thus  contributing  to  better  and  more 
coherent strategies, social infrastructure and services, with a focus on the poor. In line with the 
Consensus,  the  Review  shows  that  the  EU  development  cooperation  has  also  contributed  to 
greater  capacity  in  monitoring  and  data  analysis,  national  planning  and  sector  coordination. 
Budget  support  has  been  a  major  supporting  modality,  while  sector  programmes  and 
contributions  to  Global  funds  have  increased  during  the  last  decade.  The  strengthened 
government policies and systems have led to improved equitable access to the basic services, 
including a remarkable increase in the enrolment rates in primary and secondary school and 
improved rates of access to basic health and education, with positive impacts on the literacy 
and  basic  health  indicators.  However,  while  access  to  health  and  education  services  has 
increased,  the  quality  of  government  services  has  been  somewhat  overlooked  and  has 
declined.  In  addition  insufficient  human  resources  remain  a  major  problem  in  the  health 
sector.  

The Consensus also recognises gender equality as a goal in its own, as well as an essential 
principle to be included in all development policies and mainstreamed in all activities. In the 
period 2007-14 the EU increased financial resources for gender equality and in 2010 and then 
in  2015  adopted  two  five-years  Gender  Action  Plans  (2010-2015  and  2016-2020)  to 
coordinate  implementation37.  They  have  supported  women’s  political  participation,  their 
improved  economic  and  social  status,  including  in  peace-  and  state-building  processes,  and 
integrated gender into sector programmes, in particular in health and education. According to 
Commission data, since 2004, the EU has supported 658 civil society organisations working 
for  gender  equality  and  has  allowed  300,000  new  female  students  to  enrol  in  secondary 
education.  In  spite  of  these  important  achievements,  the  Review  concludes  that  there  is  a 
mismatch  between  the  EU  strong  political  commitment  and  its  organisational  capacity  to 
deliver on it. 

Social cohesion and employment 

The Consensus considered social cohesion and employment as important factors for poverty 
eradication and inclusive and sustainable development. According to Commission data the EU 
has  financed  projects  for  employment  and  vocational  education  and  training  totalling  over 
EUR 2 billion in the period 2007-2013. Employment was supported either indirectly through 
support to macro-stabilisation and growth, or directly mainly through support to education and 
Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). In the same period, the EU granted 7.7 
million  people  with  technical  vocational  education  and  training  and  8.8  million  people 
benefited from EU employment-related assistance. However, the Review also shows that the 
objective of increasing the employability of the youth has not been fully met and there was a 
weak integration of these interventions with support to Private Sector Development. 

37 EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development 2010-2015 (SWD, SEC(2010) 265 
final), 8.3.2010; and Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment: Transforming the Lives of Girls and Women through EU 
External Relations 2016-2020 (SWD (2015) 182 final), 21.09.2015 available  
https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/staff-working-document-gender-2016-2020-20150922_en.pdf.  

13 

 
 
                                                 
 
4.2.3  Growth and trade 

During  the  implementation  of  the  Consensus,  a  significant  number  of  developing  countries 
have  experienced  a  relatively  steady  positive  performance  in  terms  of  economic  growth. 
African countries showed greater resilience to the global crisis and better performances after 
2009  as  compared  to  the  world  economy  as  a  whole.  The  Review  suggests  that  the  EU  has 
indirectly  contributed  to  the  economic  growth  of  developing  countries  via  a  wide  range  of 
channels,  in  line  with  the  policy  orientation  of  the  Consensus,  in  particular  support  to 
macroeconomic  stability,  strengthening  Public  Finance  Management  (PFM),  trade  and 
broadening transport networks. 

Macroeconomic stability, PFM and productive sectors 

The  Consensus  calls  for  a  closer  attention  to  the  reforms,  in  terms  of  growth,  improved 
business climate, macroeconomic stability and the effects on poverty reduction. According to 
the Review, a positive contribution has been provided to foster macroeconomic stabilisation, 
mainly  through  Budget  Support,  by  assisting  in  limiting  fiscal  deficit  and  stabilising  public 
expenditure  levels.    The  Review  suggests  that  macro  stability  has  indirectly  supported  the 
investment  climate,  through  greater  predictability  for  foreign  investments,  coupled  with  an 
increased share of domestically financed development spending and reduced pressure on the 
domestic banking sector. These appear to have contributed, inter alia, to reduced interests on 
borrowing and reduced inflation. 

The EU is one of the largest single donors supporting Private Sector Development in several 
partner countries, using a wide range of instruments  from  General  Budget Support  to  sector 
policy support programmes and investment facilities (often in collaboration with development 
banks,  including  the  European  Investment  Bank).  According  to  the  Review,  Private  Sector 
Development has indirectly benefited from EU support to good governance, macro-economic 
stabilisation,  trade  and  transport.  These  interventions  have  improved  the  local  business 
environment  and  created  export  opportunities.  However,  more  direct  support  -  aimed  at  the 
creation  of  an  enabling  environment,  improving  quality  standards,  and  facilitating  access  to 
finance  -  has  been  relevant,  but  despite  some  positive  examples,  has  been  weakly 
mainstreamed in the national strategies. 

Agriculture and rural development are recognised as crucial by the Consensus for poverty 
eradication and growth. According to the Review, the EU support has targeted some areas and 
types of interventions: support to agricultural commodities; strengthening food security; and 
support  to  agricultural  enterprises  and  rural  employment,  mainly  in  the  neighbourhood 
context.  The  support  to  agriculture  has  been  focused  on  food  security  and  traditional 
commodities,  while  the  sector  approach  including  sustainable  food  value  chains  and  rural 
development has not been sufficiently developed. 

Trade  

The  Consensus  calls  for  the  EU  to  assist  the  developing  countries  on  trade  and  regional 
integration through fostering equitable and sustainable, smooth and gradual integration into 
the world economy and linking trade and poverty reduction. According to a major study, the 
EU  remains  the  most  open  market  to  developing  countries.  38  The  EU  has  put  in  place  a 
number of international agreements and schemes, with a view to enhancing the link between 

38  Assessment  of  economic  benefits  generated  by  the  EU  Trade  Regimes  towards  developing  countries,  2015,  available  at 
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/july/tradoc_153595.pdf 

14 

 
 
                                                 
trade  and  development.  The  Economic  Partnership  Agreements  (EPAs)  are  among  the  most 
advanced  agreements,  creating  new  opportunities  for  the  promotion  of  value  chains  and 
increased  diversification  of  trade,  attraction  of  Foreign  Direct  Investment  and  creation  of 
regional markets. The EU Generalised System of Preferences and GSP+ schemes are among 
the most comprehensive, open and valuable schemes in the world. The GSP includes the GSP 
General Arrangement, the GSP+ (a special incentive scheme for sustainable development and 
good  governance  designed  for  vulnerable  countries)  and  the  Everything  But  Arms  (EBA) 
scheme  –  under  which  all  exports,  except  arms  and  ammunition,  from  the  Least  Developed 
Countries  (LDCs)  are  given  a  completely  duty  free  access  to  the  EU  market.  In  addition, 
especially  generous  non-reciprocal  schemes  have,  historically,  been  available  to  certain 
African,  Caribbean  and  Pacific  (ACP)  countries.  The  EU  has  also  Free  Trade  Agreements 
(FTAs)  with  a  number  of  individual  developing  countries,  under  which  exports  are  granted 
duty free access in return for preferential access of EU exports to their own market.  

The  study  also  shows  that  the  EU  trade  policy  has  significantly  increased  exports  and 
economic  diversification  of  developing  countries,  especially  Least  Developed  Countries.  It 
shows  that  the  monetary  value  of  EU  preferential  schemes  to  developing  amounts  to  more 
than EUR 6 billion annually. The bottom line is that the EU directly attributes EUR 1.6 billion 
of the currently observed total of EUR 34 billion of exports by LDCs to the EU preferences. 
The  study  also  indicates  that,  in  part,  these  exports  had  a  measurable  positive  effect  on 
poverty reduction when combined with other appropriated domestic policies. 

The  EU  has  also  supported  regulatory  and  organisational  frameworks  to  foster  regional 
integration, while  supporting  institutional capacity  development.  This  has  been  translated  in 
some  cases  into  investment  growth  and  trade  integration  with  the  EU  (various  FTAs), 
especially in the southern neighbourhood area.  

Trade Related Assistance as part of the larger Aid for Trade support is a key tool to support 
the economic integration role of regional organisations. The EU has helped to improve public 
institutions  capacity  and  to  foster  reform  in  trade  policy.  By  using  a  mix  of  tools  such  as 
agreements  on  technical  barriers  to  trade,  improving  compliance  with  standards  and  export 
promotion, the EU has engaged successfully and relevantly in diverse contexts. 

Transport, Energy and ICT 

The  Consensus  also  aims  at  promoting  a  sustainable  transport  sectoral  approach  and  to 
respond to a growing demand of infrastructure, in particular in Africa. The EU support to the 
transport  sector  has  concentrated  on  provision  of  infrastructure,  equipment  and  technical 
assistance.  The  Review  has  shown  that  the  EU  has  brought  real  added  values  such  as 
involvement  in  policy  and  strategy  development,  in-country  presence,  sector  expertise  and 
size  of  the  financial  support.  In  the  context  of  the  AfC,  the  EU  also  developed  a 
comprehensive  set  of  actions  to  help  end  energy  poverty  and  support  the  goals  of  the 
Sustainable Energy for All Initiative. It is worth noting that the EU support to infrastructure - 
particularly  large  infrastructure  projects  mostly  in  the  energy,  transport  and  water  and 
sanitation  sectors  -  has  positively  benefited  from  blending  operations,  which  have 
significantly increased in recent years as explained above. 

The  EU  assistance  for  digitalisation  has  mainly  targeted  regulatory  harmonisation  and 
infrastructure  deployment.  The  main  goal  was  to  create  the  enabling  environment  for 
investments  and  affordable  connectivity.    This  has  been  done  for  Africa  under  the  ‘Support 
for  Harmonisation  of  ICT  Policies  in  Sub-Saharan  Africa’  (HIPSSA),  its  planned  successor 

15 

 
 
HIP  Africa  as  well  as  EMERG  in  the  Southern  Mediterranean.  In  addition,  the  EU  has 
financed  submarine  cables,  Internet  Exchange  Points,  and  eHealth  solutions.  Another 
initiative includes a series of projects connecting European research & education institutions 
with peer institutions in partner countries. GÉANT was initially a Pan-European initiative to 
interconnect  national  research  &  education  networks  (NREN).  It  now  manages  networking 
projects  serving  Europe  (GÉANT  Project),  the  Eastern  Partnership  countries  (EaPConnect), 
the  Mediterranean  (EUMEDCONNECT3),  Central  Asia  (CAREN2),  Latin  America 
(RedClara), the Caribbean (C@ribnet) and Africa (AfricaConnect2). Initially these networks 
were pure infrastructure networks, but with time they have evolved into research collaboration 
platforms and have the potential to expand ICT cooperation even further 

4.2.4  Human rights, Democratic Governance and Peace 

The Consensus affirms that progress in the protection of human rights, good governance and 
democratisation  is  fundamental  for  poverty  reduction  and  sustainable  development  and  the 
EU  has  strongly  increased  its  efforts  related  to  broad  Governance,  Human  Rights  and 
Democracy,  especially  in  the  last  decade.  Democratic  Governance  has  become  one  of  the 
first sectors in terms of direct expenditure. General and Sector Budget Support programmes 
(including new specific tools as the State Building Contract, in fragile states) have positively 
contributed  to  Public  Finance  Management  (PFM)  reform,  improved  accountability  and 
transparency of budget processes, and the fight against corruption. Beyond those entry points, 
sector  support  and  projects,  including  capacity  building,  have  helped  support  reforms  in  a 
number of other areas of Democratic Governance.  

Support  to  electoral  and  democratic  processes  has  expanded  in  recent  years,  as  best 
exemplified  by  the  European  Commission's  increased  involvement  in  electoral  assistance. 
Between 2012 and 2014 only, it provided assistance to 60 countries for a total of over EUR 
220  million.  In  parallel,  the  EU  deployed  Election  Observation  Missions  and  Election 
Assessment Teams in 65 countries around the globe over the last 15 years. The EU aims to 
ensure that both its political dialogue and cooperation programmes work together to provide 
support throughout the entire electoral cycle. According to the Review the EU has contributed 
to  the  improvement  of  human  rights  in  many  countries  by  positioning  itself  in  a  given 
context to push (with Member States and other actors) for realistic progress in human rights, 
using its leverage capacity, its different instruments and dedicated officials. In the context of 
the  Cotonou  Agreement,  where  the  respect  of  human  rights  is  monitored  through  political 
dialogue (Art. 8) and subject to specific procedures in case of lack of convergence between 
the parties (Art. 96 and 97), human rights have also gained prominence in regional dialogues, 
for example under the Joint Africa-EU Strategy. However, the overall results of EU actions in 
support to human rights were often not mainstreamed in national policies. 

The  vital  role  of  Civil  Society  Organisations  as  promoters  of  human  rights,  democracy  and 
development  processes  is  acknowledged  by  the  Consensus.  The  Review  notes  that  the  EU 
support to involvement of Civil Society Organisations has become decidedly more effective 
over  the  last  decade,  both  in  terms  of  dialogue  for  policy  preparation  and  monitoring  and 
service delivery. There is also evidence of positive contributions made by CSOs in delivering 
social  services  to  poor  communities  (e.g.  housing,  education,  health,  food  security,  water, 
human rights, etc.), and through different ‘gap-filling’ operations where CSOs stepped in to 
substitute  for  failing/unwilling  governments.  Nonetheless  the  systematisation  and  the 
institutionalisation of civil society participation by partner governments are still weak. 

16 

 
 
In judiciary and security reform, the Consensus, as taken further by the Agenda for Change, 
resulted in the EU increased engagement through increased funding and utilisation of a wide 
range of financial and non-financial instruments in a broad geographical scope. EU assistance 
helped  in  many  cases  to  enhance  institutional  capacities  within  state  security  and  justice 
bodies to deliver public services.  

The  Consensus  calls  for  a  comprehensive  prevention  approach  to  state  fragility,  conflict, 
natural disasters. The Review shows that  the EU has  strengthened its policy framework and 
become one of the strongest actors in Conflict Prevention and Peace Building. Accordingly, 
it contributed to containment of mitigation, stabilisation of conflicts as well as to post conflict 
rehabilitation  and  reconstruction.  Coherent  with  the  orientations  in  the  Consensus,  the 
Comprehensive Approach to external conflict and crises39 and adopted in 2014, with the aim 
to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the EU as a global player by bringing together 
all EU instruments and policies for the whole conflict cycle from prevention to resolution to 
stabilisation and post conflict.  The Comprehensive Approach gained increasing traction with 
the  implementation  of  an  action  plan  for  2015  and  the  adoption  of  another  action  plan  for 
2016/7. The EU was also a strong supporter of civil society organisations working on conflict 
and peace and security issues, mainly through international NGOs and specialised networks. 
The EU was a major promotor of the adoption of the "New Deal for Fragile States" at the aid 
effectiveness  conference  in  Busan  (2011),  in  recognition  of  the  fact that  "business as  usual" 
would not lead to development result in these states. The New Deal includes inter alia a focus 
on five peace and state-building goals, and influenced the definition of the SDGs (and notably 
SDG 16) adopted with the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development in 2015. The EU actions 
in support of capacity building of regional organisations to intervene in conflict management 
and  peace  keeping  has  also  been  enhanced,  as  testified  by  the  funding  of  the  African  Peace 
Facility with almost EUR 2 billion, especially to support Peace Support Operations.  

However, it was recognised that the EU's efforts in addressing root causes of conflict needed 
to be reinforced, including helping face the challenges linked to refugee and migration flows. 
The  need  to  improve  the  EU's  capacity  to  prevent  conflicts  led  to  the  creation  of  a  conflict 
Early-Warning System aimed to identify where conflicts could erupt or aggravate with a view 
to focus attention of all actors across the EU institutions on agreeing where EU action could 
have  most  impact  and  what  suitable  preventive  action  should  be  taken.  Experience  with  the 
system  is  still  short  and  every  iteration  (in  six  monthly  intervals)  seeks  to  introduce 
improvements. Finally, the EU's attempt to move from short-term crisis response to medium 
and long-term conflict prevention and resolution  was often challenged in practice, particularly 
on  account  of  the  lack  of  capacity  and/or  political  will  of  conflict  parties  and  national 
authorities  along  with  insufficient  exit  strategies  and  lack  of  transition  interface  between 
humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation to long-term development programmes. 

4.2.5  Environment and climate change  

The  Consensus  calls  for  an  EU  support  to  the  efforts  undertaken  by  partner  countries  to 
incorporate environmental considerations into development and help increase their capacity to 
implement  multilateral  environmental  agreements.  The  Review  shows  that  the  EU  has 
contributed  to  ensuring  an  increased  prominence  of  environment  and  climate  change  in 
national  development  processes  and  to  increasing  the  commitment  of  partner  countries  to 
global  environmental  and  climate  change  governance  through  a  multiplicity  of  instruments, 
flexible  and  adapted  to  the  specific  conditions.  Positive  influence  can  be  recorded  in  the 

39 http://www.eeas.europa.eu/statements/docs/2013/131211_03_en.pdf 

17 

 
 
                                                 
strengthening  of  the  institutional  capacity  and  the  legislative  framework  for  environmental 
protection,  improved  management  of  natural  resources,  renewable  energy  and  investment 
promotion. However, implementation is often weak, indicating that the level of prioritisation 
in partner countries is still modest and the adoption of improved legal frameworks is difficult. 
As a result, long-term impact over environmental sustainability remains limited. Some of the 
identified challenges relate to insufficient awareness of the linkages between environment and 
poverty reduction, lack of a comprehensive strategy and policy dialogue or weak coordination.  

Climate change has been central to the EU's actions since the UNFCCC in 1992, which was 
followed  by  the  Kyoto  Protocol  in  1997.  It  is  worth  noting  that  the  EU  has  committed  to 
dedicating at least 20% of its entire budget from 2014-2020 to climate-related actions. The EU 
plays a leading role in international programmes and has developed specific tools to enhance 
policies and actions in partner countries (Global Climate Change Alliance). Specifically, the 
EU  support  has  contributed  to  the  creation  of  an  environment  conducive  to  reaching  global 
agreements,  the  establishment  of  climate  financing  mechanisms,  and  building  stronger 
knowledge, tools and approaches to address climate change issues. The added-value of the EU 
support has been its scale, consistency and coherence with other support efforts.  

4.2.6  Policy Coherence for Development (PCD)  

The strong commitment to PCD, as outlined in the Consensus on Development, is enshrined 
in  Art.  208  of  the  Treaty.40  The  EU  has  made  Policy  Coherence  for  Development  a  central 
element of its policies to support developing countries and has taken a lead role in promoting 
PCD. 

As  PCD  is  a  priority  for  the  European  Commission,  mechanisms  and  procedures  to  avoid 
contradictions  and  build  synergies  between  different  EU  policies  have  steadily  continued  to 
improve since 2005. The biennial PCD reports are an important tool to track progress both at 
EU  and  Member  States  level  and  to  help  raise  awareness  and  increase  ownership  of  PCD 
within  the  EU.  These  reports  cover  both  cross-cutting  (procedural  and  institutional)  and 
thematic  issues  and  present  examples  of  progress  and  challenges  on  PCD  across  different 
policy areas.  

The  EU  has  made  noteworthy  advances  on  PCD  with  regard  to  a  range  of  policies  that  can 
have a strong impact on developing countries: thanks to the EU trade regime, in particular the 
Generalised  Scheme  of  Preferences,  exports  of  developing  countries  to  the  EU  have 
significantly increased and contributed to their economic diversification; following the 2013 
reform,  the  Common  Agricultural  Policy  is  now  delivering  support  to  EU  farmers  and  rural 
communities in a manner that does not distort markets or trade; a wide-ranging reform of the 
Common  Fisheries  Policy  came  into  force  in  2014,  which  helped  enhance  partnerships 
between the EU and developing coastal states.  

On  the  administrative  side,  the  Commission  has  developed  institutional  mechanisms, 
frameworks  and  tools  for  promoting  PCD,  such  as  strengthened  impact  assessment 
guidelines41,  including  a  toolbox  containing  operational  guidance  on  how  to  assess  potential 
impacts  of  new  policies  on  developing  countries,  and  enhanced  involvement  of  EU 

40 "The Union shall take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies that it implements which are 
likely to affect developing countries." 
41 
http://ec.europa.eu/smart-
30# 
regulation/guidelines/docs/br_toolbox_en.pdf.  The  toolbox  complements  the  Better  Regulation  Guideline  presented  in  the 
SWD(2015) 111, 19.05.2015 and available at http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/guidelines/docs/swd_br_guidelines_en.pdf. 

regulation 

available 

toolbox, 

Better 

Tool 

the 

of 

at 

18 

 
 
                                                 
Delegations in the monitoring of PCD issues at partner country level through regular reporting 
mechanisms and targeted training. 

Key messages on PCD given by external stakeholders (OECD, ECDPM, NGOs) and relevant 
to all EU institutions are:  

  PCD mechanisms and tools are not yet used to their full potential and high level and 

consistent engagement are needed to ensure compliance with EU commitments; 

  The profile of PCD needs to be raised and its agenda disseminated more widely since 
PCD is in general not yet well owned by staff outside development departments;  
It  is  important  to  increase  the  necessary  traction  and  evidence  base  of  PCD  through 
investment in research; 

 

  Monitoring  systems  need  to  be  developed  to  assess  progress  on  PCD  and  help 

reconcile inconsistencies and strengthen synergies among competing policies; 

  Awareness of conflicts of interest and trade-offs is low. There is a need to deal more 

transparently with conflicts of interest (via policy arbitration). 

 5. CONCLUSIONS   

5.1 

Relevance  

Findings,  peer  reviews  and  the  literature  show  that  the  Consensus  was  a  key  milestone  and 
strategic  achievement:  it  consolidated  the  acquis  of  fifty  years  of  development  cooperation, 
enshrined for the first time a common vision for EU and Member States providing a common 
framework and point of reference, and played an important role in shaping EU development 
policy, which has aligned well to the Consensus. 

According  to  the  findings,  the  objectives,  values  and  principles  of  the  ECD  have  had  a 
relatively  long  life,  still  being  relevant  and  compelling  a  decade  later,  anticipating  some 
significant  changes  brought  in  by  the  2030  Agenda.  First,  the  Consensus'  objectives,  which 
include  the  Millennium  Development  Goals  and  reflect  the  Summits  on  Sustainable 
Development  (Johannesburg)  and  on  the  Conferences  on  Financing  for  Development 
(Monterrey),  have  maintained  their  significance  and  they  have  been  reflected  in  the  EU 
position  in  the  process  leading  to  the  adoption  of  the  2030  Agenda  on  Sustainable 
Development.  Second,  the  Consensus'  objective  on  delivering  better  aid  has  maintained  its 
prominence  as  it  is  shown,  among  others,  by  the  progress  made  in  Joint  Programming  and 
other ways of working better together. The Consensus also provided a basis for ambitious EU 
and Member States positions in Accra and Busan and it played an important role in shaping 
the  recently  agreed  Addis  Ababa  Action  Agenda.  Third,  the  Consensus  includes  values  and 
principles that European development cooperation as a whole strongly emphasises today, and 
which are now reflected in Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union (EU external action), 
such  as  respect  for  human  rights,  peace,  gender  equality  and  democratic  governance.  The 
Consensus  was  also  important  in  formally  recognising  the  complementarity  between 
development cooperation and other policy areas which have become more prominent recently, 
such as migration, security and the protection of  the environment, including climate change. 
Finally, the Review shows that the EU development cooperation has been generally relevant 
when implementing the Consensus. 

19 

 
 
Despite  the  overall  relevance  of  the  Consensus  in  the  context  of  the  MDGs  and  the  current 
relevance  of  some  of  its  objectives,  values  and  principles,  it  requires  nonetheless  a  revision 
against  the  global  challenges  and  trends  emerged  in  the  last  decade  and  the  Agenda  2030, 
which is the international community's response to such challenges and trends. The levels and 
geography  of  poverty  and  inequality  have  shifted  and  developing  countries  have  become 
increasingly  diversified  thus  requiring  the  EU  and  its  Member  States  to  develop  more 
differentiated approaches. Similarly, the increasingly interlinked nature of development issues 
requires  the  EU  and  its  Member  States  to  elaborate  more  comprehensive  policies,  which 
integrate  the  three  dimensions  of  sustainable  development,  i.e.  social,  economic  and 
environmental.  Finally,  to  reflect  the  framework  for  implementation  set  out  in  the  Addis 
Ababa Action Agenda and 2030 Agenda, the EU and its Member States need to define their 
approaches to mobilising and making effective use of all means of implementation.  

5.2 

Effectiveness and efficiency 

The evidence shows that the Consensus has been effective in formalising a shared vision for 
the development cooperation policy of the EU and Member States. This framing has been an 
effective  agenda-setting  tool,  even  if  not  uniformly  adopted.  Similarly,  it  provided  the  basis 
for  a  consistent  narrative  on  common  values  that  is  repeated  in  strategy  documents  and 
partnership agreements with recipient countries, international organisations and implementing 
partners. The Consensus has also been effective in the sense that it was translated and taken 
further  in  a  series  of  common  frameworks,  whether  geographic,  thematic,  financial  or 
operational,  as  in  the  cases  of  gender  equality,  participation  of  civil  society  and  joint 
programming shown in section 4.1. 

The  results  point  to  the  Consensus'  effectiveness  in  identifying  priorities  for  the  EU 
development cooperation and clarifying how the objectives, principles and values of the EU 
development  policy  were  to  be  made  operational  in  it.  In  line  with  the  Consensus,  the  EU 
development cooperation has concentrated on some of the key sectors to reduce poverty such 
as food security, education and health sectors and it has been generally effective, contributing  
significantly to improve food security and nutrition in several developing countries as well as 
equitable access to  basic social services in the education and health sectors as evidenced in 
section 4.2.2. The EU development cooperation has also effectively supported macroeconomic 
stability,  trade  and  infrastructure  in  the  developing  countries,  significantly  contributing, 
although  indirectly,  to  economic  growth  as  evidenced  in  section  4.2.3.  Despite  its 
commitments,  EU  action  on  human  rights,  gender,  and  private  sector  development  has  been 
less effective, often due to lack of mainstreaming in the recipients' national strategies.  

The findings also confirm that the Consensus has been efficient in promoting the use of a wide 
range  of  aid  modalities,  especially  innovative  ones  such  as  budget  support  and  blending  as 
evidenced  in  section  4.2.1.  It  is  also  worth  noticing  the  recently  released  report  by  the 
European Commission on selected results achieved by projects and programmes implemented 
in partner countries and financed by the EU, which is part of a broader effort to strengthen the 
focus  on  performance  and  results  in  EU  international  cooperation  and  development,  in  line 
with the spirit of the Consensus.42  

42  See  First  Report  on  Selected  Results,  July  2013  –  June  2014;    https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/eu-results-
report_2013-2014_en.pdf 

20 

 
 
                                                 
5.3 

Coherence and added value 

The  findings  also  show  that  the  Consensus,  by  raising  the  commitment  to  PCD,  has 
contributed  to  significantly  increase  the  coherence  between  development  policies  and  other 
EU policies, as it is evidenced in the trade, agriculture and fishery sectors in the section 4.2.6. 
The Consensus has greatly helped to enhance a shared and common basis for EU and Member 
States development cooperation. The EU and Member States policies have generally aligned 
to  Consensus'  objectives,  values  and  principles.  In  the  case  of  new  EU  Member  States,  the 
Consensus  has  also  had  a  clear  influence  in  shaping  their  development  policies.  The 
Consensus  also  provided  a  framework  for  more  consistent  policy  on  European  development 
cooperation.43 

The Consensus has also increased EU added value by allowing the EU to play leading roles, 
for example in promoting Joint Programming and articulating EU and Member States views in 
international negotiations on such issues as aid effectiveness, gender and role of civil society 
in  development  as  shown  in  section  4.1.  The  EU  added  value  has  demonstrated  its  full 
potential when coordination and complementarities with EU-Member States and other donors 
have been high and has improved even further in the last decade. This has been evidenced in 
the  EU  support  to  sensitive  complex  reform  processes,  such  as  in  the  European 
Neighbourhood, in delicate conflict prevention and peace building contexts, where the EU has 
become  an  important  player  as  shown  in  section  4.2.4,  in  support  to  comprehensive  and/or 
sector  development  strategies  through  the  extensive  use  of  budget  support  and  in  the 
contribution  to  global  initiatives,  in  particular  in  the  health  and  environment  where  it  has 
demonstrated a high political and financial weight.  

The  added-value  of  the  Consensus  has  fundamentally  been  to  provide  a  commonly  agreed 
vision  for  EU  and  Member  States,  as  well  as  a  framework  for  implementation  at  EU  level, 
which were subsequently translated in a number of guiding documents, policies and actions, 
both at EU and Member States level.  

43 OECD/DAC, Peer Review of the European Community, 2007, p.29. 

21 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
ANNEX 1: BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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I. 

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(2009) Plan director de la cooperación española, 2009 – 2012 y 2013 – 2016 
(2013) Plan director de la cooperación española, 2013 – 2016 
(2014)  Plan  estratégico  de  la  agencia  española  de  cooperación  internacional  para  el 
desarrollo AECID 2014 – 2017 
(2007) Finland’s Development Policy Programme, 2007 
(2012) Finland’s Development Policy Programme, 2012 
(2016)  Government  Report  on  Development  Policy:  One  World, Common  Future  - 
Toward sustainable development 
(2011)  Ministère  des  Affaires  Étrangères  et  Européennes,  Coopération  au 
Développement : une vision française, Document cadre, 2011 
(2011) Ministère des Affaires Étrangères et Européennes, Development Cooperation : a 
French Vision – Framework Document, 2011 
(2014) France :  LOI n° 2014-773 du 7 juillet  2014 d'orientation  et de programmation 
relative à la politique de développement et de solidarité internationale  
(2015) Agence française de Développement. A European Agenda for AFD Group, 2015 
(2009) Croatia, National Strategy for Development Cooperation (2009-2014), Official 
Gazette, 2009 
(2014)  International  Development  Cooperation  Strategy  and  Strategic  Concept  for 
International Humanitarian Aid of Hungary 2014-2020 
(2015) Hungary, Development Cooperation Law, 2015 
(2006) Government of Ireland, White Paper on Irish Aid, 2006 
(2013)  Government  of  Ireland,  Irish  Aid,  One  World,  One  Future  -  Framework  for 
Action, n.d. [2013] 
(2008)  Ministero  degli  Affari  Esteri  e  della  Cooperazione  Internazionale,  Relazione 
annuale sull’attuazione della Politica per la cooperazione allo sviluppo nel 2008. 
(2009 – 2013) Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, Piani 
programmatici nazionali per l’efficacia degli aiuti, 2009, 2011 e 2013. 
(2010) Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale (MAECI), La 
cooperazione italiana allo sviluppo nel triennio 2010 – 2012, Linee – guida e indirizzi 
di programmazione, Roma, 2010 
(2014)  Repubblica  Italiana,  Legge  n.  125  dell’11  agosto  2014,  Disciplina  Generale 
sulla cooperazione internazionale per lo sviluppo, Gazzetta Ufficiale, n. 199, 28 agosto 
2014 
(2015)  Ministero  degli  Affari  Esteri  e  della  Cooperazione  Internazionale,  La  nuova 
cooperazione italiana – Documento di Programmazione triennale (2015-2017) 

25 

 
 
LT 
LT 

LU 

(2007 – 2014) Lithuanian Annual Development Cooperation Reports, 2007 – 2014 
(2013)  The  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  Republic  of  Lithuania  -  Development 
Cooperation Department, Lithuanian Development Cooperation since 2003, 2013 
(1996)  Grand-Duché  du  Luxembourg,  Loi  du  6  janvier  1996  sur  la  coopération  au 
développement 
(2012) Cooperation Luxembourgeoise - Stratégie Générale, 2012 
(2006) Latvian Development Cooperation Policy Strategy, 2006-2010 
(2011) Latvian Development Cooperation Policy Strategy, 2011-2015 

LU 
LV 
LV 
MT  (2014)  Ministry  for  Foreign  Affairs,  Malta,  Official  Development  Assistance  Policy 

NL 

NL 

PL 
PL 
PL 
PT 

PT 

PT 

RO 

RO 

SE 

SK 

SL 

SL 

UK 

UK 
UK 
UK 

UK 

and a Framework for Humanitarian Assistance 2014 – 2020 
(2012)  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  Netherlands,  Letter  to  the  House  of 
Representatives presenting the spearheads of development cooperation policy, 2012 
(2013)  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  Netherlands,  A  World  to  Gain  -  A  New 
Agenda for Aid, Trade and Investment, 2013 
(2011) Republic of Poland, Development Cooperation Act, 2011 
(2012) Polish Aid, Multiannual Development Cooperation Programme, 2012-2015 
(2016) Polish Aid, Multiannual Development Cooperation Programme, 2016-2020 
(2006)  Cooperação  Portuguesa,  A  strategic  Vision  for  Portuguese  Development 
Cooperation, 2006 
(2010)  Cooperação  Portuguesa,  Estratégia  da  Cooperação  Portuguesa  2010-2013 
“Novos Desafios, Novas Respostas,  
(2014)  Governo  de  Portugal,  Conceito  Estratégico  da  cooperação  portuguesa,  2014-
2020 
(2006)  Romania,  The  National  Strategy  on  International  Development  Cooperation 
Policy, [2006] 
(2011  –  2013)  National  Report  on  the  Official  Development  Assistance  Provided  by 
Romania in 2011, 2012 and 2013 
(2013)  Kingdom  of  Sweden,  Government  Communication  to  the  Rigsdag,  Aid  Policy 
Framework, 2013 
(2013)  Ministry  of  Foreign  and  European  Affairs  of  the  Slovak  Republic,  Medium-
Term Strategy for Development Cooperation of the Slovak Republic, 2014-2018, 2013 
(2006) The International Development Co-operation of the Republic of Slovenia Act, 
2006 
(2008)  The  Resolution  on  International  Development  Cooperation  of  the  Republic  of 
Slovenia for the period until 2015, Lubjiana, 2008 
(2006) DFID White Paper - Eliminating World Poverty - Making Governance Work for 
the Poor, London 2006 
(2009) DFID, Eliminating World Poverty: Building our Common Future, July 2009 
(2011) DFID, UK Aid: Changing Lives, Delivering Results, London, 2011. 
(2012) DFID, Bilateral Aid Review, Country Summaries & Technical Report, London, 
2012 
(2015) DFID, UK aid: tackling global challenges in the national interest, Presented to 
Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, November 2015 

26 

 
 
II. 

Institutional Policy & Implementation Reports 

European Union 

-  EU 

Accountability 

Reports 
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/policies/financing-development_en  

(2002 

to 

2015), 

available 

at 

-  Policy  Coherence 

for  Development  Reports 
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/policies/policy-coherence-development_en  

(2007  –  2015),  available  at 

-  European  Commission,  The  EU  Roadmap  process:  taking  stock  Capitalisation  report, 

Report, October 2015 

-  European Commission, EU Country Roadmaps for Engagement with Civil Society, State 

of play and next steps, Brussels, 16 February 2016 

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 

-  DAC  Peer  Reviews  (from  2000  to  2015),  available  at  http://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-

reviews/  

-  OECD  (2015),  Better  Policies  for  Development  2015:  Policy  Coherence  and  Green 

Growth, OECD Publications 

-  Making  Development  Co-Operation  More  Effective:  2014  Progress  Report,  OECD, 

UNDP 2014 

-  OECD (2014), Mainstreaming Cross-Cutting Issues – 7 Lessons from DAC Peer Reviews 

EU Member States 

-  Department  for  International  Development  (DFID),  Building  the  evidence  to  reduce 

poverty The UK’s policy on evaluation for international development, June 2009 

-  Department  for  International  Development  (DFID),  Multilateral  Aid  Review  Update 

Driving reform to achieve multilateral effectiveness, December 2013 

-  Barry, F.; King, M.; Matthews, A. Policy Coherence for Development: the State of Play in 

Ireland, 2009 

-  Deutsches  Institut  für  Entwicklungspolitik,  The  Future  of  the  "European  Consensus  on 

Development", Briefing paper, May 2016 

Global Policy 

III.  Academia, Policy Think Tanks 

-  ECDPM, Assessment of the EC Development Policy DPS Study Report, Brussels, 2005 
-  ECDPM, New trends in EU development policy, Briefing note, April 2011 
-  From  Aid  to  Global  Development  Cooperation  -  The  2011  Brookings  Blum  Roundtable 

Policy Briefs 

-  Carbone Maurizio, ‘Development and Foreign Aid’, in The SAGE Handbook of European 

Foreign Policy, 2015 

-  Concord, Aid Watch – Looking to the Future, Don’t Forget the Past – Aid Beyond 2015, 

Brussels, n. d. 

EU Member States Policies 

27 

 
 
 
 
-  Alexandru, C-M, Europeanization in the Central and Eastern European New EU Member 
States - A Strategic Approach to Development Cooperation, Central European University, 
Budapest, 2012 

-  Visegrad  Fund,  Development  cooperation  of  the  Visegrad  Group  in  the  context  of  the 

European Union, Briefing paper, 2011 

-  Bucar, M; Mrak, M., Challenges of development cooperation for EU new member states, 

2011 

-  Gertcheva  Vessela,  Bulgarian  Official  Development  Assistance  and  Peacebuilding,  IFP 

Capacity Building and Training Cluster, 2008 

-  Kudzko,  A.,  Not  so  Normal  Donors:  Development  Cooperation  Policies  of  Central  and 

Eastern European States, Central European University, Budapest, 2014 

-  Horký-Hluchán,  A.;  Lightfoot,  S.  (ed.),  Development  Cooperation  of  the  ‘New  EU 

Member States’, Beyond Europeanization, EADI – Global Development, 2015 

-  Lightfoot,  S.;  Szent-Ivánj,  B.,  Reluctant  Donors?  The  Europeanization  of  International 

Development Policies in the New Members¸ [2013] 

-  Lightfoot, S.; Szent-Ivánj, B., New Europe's New Development Aid, Routledge, 2015 
-  Kugiel  Patryk,  Polish  Development  Cooperation:  A  Turning  Point,  PISM  –  The  Polish 

Institute of International Affairs, Policy Paper N. 13, 2011 

-  Kugiel  Patryk,  Sustainable  Development  Goals  and  Post-2015  Agenda,  PISM  –  The 

Polish Institute of International Affairs, Bulletin n. 83, September 2015 

Policy Coherence for Development 

-  Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Policy Coherence for Development in the EU 

Council Strategies for the Way Forward, Brussels, 2006 

-  Keijzer, Niels (2010): EU Policy Coherence for Development: from moving the goalposts 

- 

to result-based management?, ECDPM Discussion paper No. 10 
Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr  (IMVF)  (ed.),  EU Member States  on the Road Towards 
More Policy Coherence for Development (PCD), Lisbon, 2012 

-  Orbie,  Jan  (2008)  “The  European  Union’s  Role 

in  World  Trade:  Harnessing 
Globalization?”  In  Orbie,  Jan  (ed.)  Europe’s  Global  Role:  External  Policies  of  the 
European Union. Ashgate, Surrey, pp. 35-66. 

-  Holland,  Martin  (2009)  The  EU  and  the  Global  Development  Agenda.  In  Carbone, 
Maurizio (ed.) Policy Coherence and EU Development Policy. Routledge, Oxon & New 
York 

-  Carbone,  Maurizio  (2009)  “Mission  Impossible:  the  European  Union  and  Policy 
Coherence  for  Development”.    In  Carbone  M.  (ed.)  Policy  Coherence  and  European 
Development Policy. Routledge, London & New York, pp. 1-20. 

-  Dearden,  S  (2008)  Delivering  the  EU's  development  policy:  policy  evolution  and 
administrative reform, Perspectives on European politics and society, Taylor & Francis 

IV. List of Strategic Evaluations (European Commission) 

Thematic and aid modalities evaluations 

28 

 
 
 
 
-  Evaluation  de  la  coopération  Nord-Sud  en  matière  de  lutte  contre  l’expansion  de 
l’épidémie du VIH/SIDA et aide aux politiques et programmes démographiques dans les 
pays en développement, 2000. 

-  Evaluation of EC Food Aid Security Policy, Food Aid Management and Programmes in 

support of Food Security, 2000. 

-  External  evaluation  of  community  aid  concerning  positive  actions  in  the  field  of  human 

rights and democracy in the ACP countries, 2000 

-  Evaluation of voter education in the context of EU electoral support, 2001. 
-  Synthesis  report  on  EC  activities  in  the  field  of  human  rights,  democracy  and  good 

governance, 2001. 

-  Evaluation  de  la  coopération  de  la  communauté  européenne  en  matière  d’appui 
institutionnel  aux  Ordonnateurs  Nationaux  et  Régionaux  du  Fonds  Européen  de 
Développement, 2002. 

-  Evaluation of EC support to the education sector in ACP countries, 2002. 
-  Evaluation  of  the  EC  cooperation  with  ACP/ALA/MED  countries  in  the  health  sector, 

2002. 

-  Evaluation  of  the  relationship  between  country  programmes  and  fisheries  agreements, 

2002. 

-  Evaluation des actions de réhabilitation et de reconstruction financées par la Communauté 

européenne dans les pays ACP/ALA/MED/TACIS, 2003. 
- 
Joint evaluation of external support to basic education in developing countries, 2003. 
-  Thematic  evaluation  of  the  integration  of  gender  in  EC  development  co-operation  with 

third countries, 2003. 

-  Evaluation of the EC interventions in the transport sector in third countries, 2004. 
-  Evaluation of the environment and forest regulations, 2004. 
-  Evaluation  of  trade-related  assistance  by  the  European  Commission  in  third  countries, 

2004. 

-  Thematic evaluation of food-aid policy and food-aid management and special operations 

in support of food security, 2004. 

-  Thematic evaluation of population and development oriented programmes in EC external 

co-operation, 2004. 

-  Evaluation  of  European  Community  support  to  private  sector  development  in  third 

countries, 2005. 

-  Evaluating  co-ordination  and  complementarity  of  country  strategy  papers  with  national 

development priorities, 2006. 
Joint evaluation of co-ordination of trade capacity building in partner countries, 2006. 
Joint evaluation of general budget support, 2006. 

- 
- 
-  Thematic evaluation of the EC support to good governance, 2006. 
-  Thematic evaluation of the water and sanitation sector, 2007. 
-  Evaluation of the Commission support for statistics in third countries, 2007. 
-  Evaluation thématique développement rural et agricole, 2007. 
-  Evaluation of Commission’s aid delivery through development banks and EIB, 2008. 
-  Evaluation  of  Commission’s  external  cooperation  with  partner  countries  through  the 

organisations of the UN family, 2008. 

-  Evaluation of EC aid delivery through civil society organisations, 2008. 
-  Evaluation of EC support to partner countries in the area of energy, 2008. 

29 

 
 
-  Synthesis  of  the  geographical  evaluations  managed  by  the  Evaluation  Unit  during  the 

period 1998-2006, 2008. 

-  Thematic evaluation of European Commission  support to  conflict prevention and peace-

building, 2009. 

-  Mid-term evaluation of the Investment Facility and EIB own resources operations in ACP 

countries and the OCTs, 2010. 

-  Thematic  global  evaluation  of  European  Commission  support  to  the  education  sector  in 

partner countries (including basic and secondary education), 2010. 
-  Evaluation conjointe des opérations d’aide budgétaire au Mali, 2011. 
-  Study  on  legal  instruments  and  lessons  learned  from  evaluations  managed  by  the  Joint 

Evaluation Unit, 2011. 

-  Thematic evaluation of European Commission  support to  conflict prevention and peace-

building, 2011. 

-  Thematic  evaluation  of  European  Commission  support  to  justice  and  security  system 

reform, 2011. 

-  Thematic evaluation of the European Commission support to respect of human rights and 

fundamental freedoms (including solidarity with victims of repression), 2011. 

-  Thematic  global  evaluation  of  European  Commission  support  in  the  sectors  if  ESI 
(employment  and  social  inclusion)  in  partner  countries  (including  vocational  training), 
2011. 

-  Evaluation  methodology  and  baseline  study  of  the  EC  technical  cooperation  support, 

2012. 

-  Evaluation of Commission’s cooperation with the Council of Europe, 2012. 
-  Evaluation of visibility of EU external action, 2012. 
-  Thematic evaluation of the European Commission support to the health sector, 2012. 
-  Thematic  global  evaluation  of  European  Commissions  support 

to  agricultural 

commodities in ACP countries, 2012. 

-  Thematic  global  evaluation  of  the  Commission  support  to  decentralisation  processes, 

2012. 

-  Evaluation of the EU’s support to private sector in third countries, 2013. 
-  Evaluation of the EU’s trade-related assistance in third countries, 2013. 
- 
-  Thematic  global  evaluation  of  the  European  Union’s  support  to  integrated  border 

Joint evaluation of budget support to Tanzania, 2013. 

management and fight against organised crime, 2013. 
Independent evaluation of budget support in Mozambique, 2014. 

- 
-  Evaluation de l’appui budgétaire au Burkina Faso, 2015. 
-  Evaluation  of  EU  support  to  gender  equality  and  women’s  empowerment  in  partner 

countries, 2015. 

-  Evaluation of EU support to the transport sector in Africa, 2015. 
- 
-  Strategic evaluation of EU support to Research and Innovation for development in partner 

Joint evaluation of budget support to Uganda, 2015. 

countries, 2016. 

-  Blending evaluation (forthcoming 2016). 

Geographic evaluations 

30 

 
 
 
-  Ghana, 2005 
-  CBI in Southern and Eastern Africa, 2000 
-  PALOP, 2001 
-  Caribbean, 2005 & 2012 
-  Benin, 2005 
-  Mali, 2006 
-  Rwanda, 2006 
-  Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros, 2006 
-  West Africa, 2006 
-  Central African Republic, 2009 
-  Chad, 2009 & 2015 
-  Tanzania, 2006 
-  Central Africa, 2006 
-  SADC, 2007 
-  Moldova, 2007 
- 
Jordan, 2007 
- 
India, 2007 
-  Central America, 2007 
-  China, 2007 
-  Guyana, 2008 
-  Synthesis of geographical evaluations, 2008 
-  Pacific, 2007 & 2015 
-  Malaysia, 2009 
-  LAO PDR, 2009 
-  Nicaragua, 2009 
-  Vietnam, 2009 
-  Thailand, 2009 
-  ASEAN Region, 2009 
-  Senegal, 2010 
-  Egypt, 2010 
-  Ukraine, 2010 
-  Maldives, 2010 
-  El Salvador, 2010 
-  Philippines, 2011 
-  Tunisia, 2011 
-  Colombia, 2012 
-  Ecuador, 2012 
-  Honduras, 2012 
-  Nepal, 2012 
-  East and South ENPI regions, 2013 
-  Bolivia, 2007 & 2014 
-  Djibouti, 2012 
-  Botswana,2009 
-  Burkina Faso, 2001 & 2010 
-  Liberia, 2010 
-  Nigeria, 2010 

31 

 
 
Jamaica, 2006 & 2012 

-  OCTs, 2011 
-  Niger, 2010 
-  Mozambique, 2000 & 2007 
-  Namibia, 2001 & 2009 
-  Uganda, 2001 & 2009 
-  Republic of Congo, 2012 
-  Angola, 2009 
-  Dominican Republic, 2000 & 2011 
-  Zambia, 2012 
- 
-  Madagascar, 2015 
-  Malawi, 2003 & 2011 
-  Caribbean, 2003 & 2010 
-  Burundi, 2014 
-  Cameroon, 2014 
-  Democratic Republic of Congo, 2014 
-  Timor Leste, 2015 
-  Ethiopia, 2004 & 2012 
-  Haiti, 2014 
-  Kenya, 2014 
-  Lesotho, 2004 & 2015 
-  Togo, 2014 
-  EU  cooperation  with  the  occupied  Palestinian  Territory  and  support  to  the  Palestinian 

people, 2014 

-  Asia, 2014  
-  Georgia, 2015  
-  Central America, 2015  
-  Yemen, 2015 

32