Efter mange års løfter og forpligtelser har EU ikke nået sit eget mål om en udviklingsbistand på 0,7 procent i år 2015, konkluderer årets AidWatch rapport. Det skriver Globalt Fokus, der platformen for en række danske udviklingsorganisationer.
Siden 2005 har udviklingsorganisationer på tværs af hele EU samledes under civilsamfundsplatformen CONCORD (som Globalt Fokus er en del af) og produceret den årlige AidWatch rapport, der undersøger udviklingen i EU’s medlemslandes udviklingsbistand.
CONCORD AidWatch har fulgt og udarbejdet anbefalinger til både kvaliteten og kvantiteten af EU-landenes udviklingsbistand. AidWatch ønsker at se EU-landene møde deres løfter til verdens fattige gennem effektive og transparente udviklingsprogrammer.
Onsdag udkommer den 10. årlige AidWatch-rapport ”Looking to the future, don’t forget the past – aid beyond 2015”.
Rapporten ser overordnet på, hvordan EU har misset sin egen målsætning om at give 0,7 procent af BNI i bistand i 2015.
Kollektivt ligger EU-landene langt under målet ved i 2014 kun at bruge 0,42 procent af BNI på bistand, og kun fire ud af de 28 medlemslande lever op til 0,7 procent-målsætningen. Det er Luxembourg, Sverige, Danmark og Storbritannien.
Hertil kommer, at bistandsbudgetter over hele EU i stigende omfang bliver brugt til at dække udgifter til flygtningemodtagelse. Dette gælder ikke mindst Danmark.
AidWatch-rapporten samt individuelle landesider for alle EU’s medlemslande og EU’s institutioner kan hentes her.
Rapporten om Danmark
Her er hvad CONCORD skriver om Danmark og den danske udviklingsbistand.
“If there are elements of Danish development assistance that do not support our foreign and security policy interests, they have to be cut.”
– Jakob Ellemann Jensen, Venstre’s spokesperson on development, 2014
Will Denmark meet the 2015 aid target?
In 2014, Denmark was still well above the 0.7 percent target. However, the change of government in 2015 has significantly lowered ambitions for the years to come.
Main changes in 2014
Denmark’s ODA level remained fairly stable, at around 0.83-0.85 percent, through the years of the socialdemocratic government (2011-15).
The development cooperation minister of the time seemed very keen to engage and cooperate with the Danish private sector. As a result, that government set up a new strategic platform, including several new instruments for various private-sector initiatives.
Some of these instruments involved creating partnerships with civil society. In general, the new government puts even greater emphasis on the inclusion of the private sector in development cooperation.
At the end of 2014, negotiations that were important from the aid quantity perspective were held. In addition to the government budget for 2015, there were talks on how to finance hosting refugees, following the increase in arrivals in 2014.
A deal was reached that provided new resources for covering a large proportion of the unexpected costs, though it entailed downscaling several development initiatives, including cooperation initiatives in East Africa.
Trends and projections for 2015 and beyond
In June 2015 a new government took power after an election campaign in which they promised to bring Denmark’s ODA down to 0.7 percent of its GNI. The budget for 2016, presented in late September 2015, fulfilled this campaign pledge.
The budget, including aid, is currently being negotiated. During negotiations, it emerged that the new government had already cut vast parts of Danish aid in 2015, bringing it down to about 0.73 percent of GNI from an expected level of 0.87 percent which took into account the increase in the costs of incoming refugees.
The reductions proposed for the 2016 development budget include big cuts to international organisations, especially the UN agencies, and the winding up of operations in several former priority countries (Bolivia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Vietnam).
Support to the development activities of Danish civil society organisations will be cut by 27 percent across the board.
In terms of strategy, the government’s plans are to focus Danish development assistance on countries where migration to Europe can be mitigated or where Danish industry has longterm commercial interests.
The whole set of government priorities in relation to foreign policy are currently being reviewed.
The new government has commissioned a high-level diplomat to examine Danish foreign policy and interests and bring forward recommendations for future priorities in all policy areas, including defence, trade and development.
Recommendations
The Danish government should:
- Bring Denmark back to the forefront of the fight against poverty and inequality by bringing aid back up to previous levels, and stop losing decades of expertise and experience in international development as a result of aid cuts.
- Put pressure on all EU member states to agree on binding timetables to reach their individual and collective aid quantity targets.
- Ensure that poverty reduction and human rights become the guiding principles of development cooperation, including in those cases in which aid is used in cooperation with the Danish private sector.
- Do not increase refugee costs at the expense of cuts to long-term development priorities and objectives.
- Make climate finance additional to development flows and targets.
Download hele rapporten Looking to the future, don’t forget the past – aid beyond 2015 og bilagene om hvert af de 28 EU-lande.
