EU development cooperation change-makers conference. Where have we got to? What's next?

24 - 25 June 2013

Venue:

Overseas Development Institute

ODI Conference Rooms A-C

Details

The ‘EU Change-makers’ group, consisting of senior policy-makers, researchers and civil society representatives from European Union (EU) Member States, met at ODI to address the future challenges of EU development cooperation – and especially to help shape the agenda prior to the European Parliament elections in 2014, and the installation of a new European Commission later in the same year.

The discussion focused on where, how and on what the EU could invest its resources and focus cooperation efforts, how it could make the transition from ‘old aid’ to ‘new development’ as well as who it could collaborate with to achieve its goals. The ringing of the changes in 2014, will be important staging posts in delivering new development cooperation in the second half of the decade.

The EU Change-makers agreed:

Post-2015, the development agenda will change, with poverty reduction still a priority, but accompanied by a greater emphasis on tackling global problems.
EU development cooperation will need to be transformed to remain relevant.
Relevance in the future will require high-level skills in brokering global deals, better use of financial instruments, improved partnerships, and effective joining up across policy domains.
EU Member States have work to do in fixing the role of EU institutions: a classic challenge of collective action.
The EU Change-makers and the European Think-Tanks Group can help to construct EU-wide consensus.

Read the Conference Report.

Welcome

Kevin Watkins - Director, ODI

Chair

Simon Maxwell - Senior Research Associate, ODI

Speakers, Panellists and Respondents

Mikaela Gavas - Research Associate, ODI

Erik Solheim - Chair, Development Assistance Committee, OECD

Gustavo Martín Prada - Director of the 'EU Development Policy' Directorate, DG DEVCO, European Commission

Michael Anderson - Director General, Policy and Global Issues Programmes, the UK Prime Minister's Special Envoy on UN Development Goals

Andrew Norton - Director of Research, ODI

Bernice Lee - Research Director for Energy, Environment and Resource Governance, Chatham House

Uta Bőlhoff - Director General, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Multilateral Policy, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Annalisa Prizzon – Research Officer, ODI

Stephany Griffith-Jones – Financial Markets Program Director, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University

Simon Commander – Managing Partner, Altura Partners

Richard Gledhill – Partner, PwC

Tamsyn Barton – Director General, European Investment Bank

Dirk Messner – Director, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

Giovanni Grevi – Acting Director, Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE)

Rem Korteweg – Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Reform

Felix Fernandez-Shaw – Head of the Development Cooperation Coordination Division, European External Action Service (EEAS)

Andrew Rogerson – Senior Research Associate, ODI

James Mackie – Senior Advisor, European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)

Timo Olkkonen – Director of General Development Policy and Planning, Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Baroness Glenys Kinnock – Member of the UK House of Lords

Louka Katseli – Professor of Economics, University of Athens (former Greek Minister for Labour and former Head of the OECD Development Centre)

Olivier Consolo – Director, CONCORD Europe

Follow #euchangemakers on Twitter for live coverage.

Agenda

Welcome
Overview
The challenge of a new development agenda
Reengineering development finance in the 21st Century
Managing strategic partnerships in a multi-polar world
Capability and capacity in future EU development cooperation
Conclusions and next steps

Documents

EU Development Cooperation Changemakers Conference Agenda

(pdf, 242.79k)

Conference report: EU development cooperation. Where have we got to? What's next?

(pdf, 1.85M)

Session 4 Background note Capability and capacity in future EU development cooperation

(pdf, 249.91k)

Session 3 Background note Managing strategic partnerships in a multi-polar world

(pdf, 182.19k)

Session 1 Background Note Challenges of a new development agenda

(pdf, 523.48k)

Session 2 Background Note Reengineering development finance in the 21st century

(pdf, 502.83k)

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document

EU Development Cooperation

(docx, 69.69k)

An effective EU in a changing world: seven reflections from ODI’s ‘Changemakers’ conference

Opinion - Articles and blogs - 28 June 2013

What changes does the European Union (EU) need to make in the development arena if it is to remain both relevant and useful? How can it make the leap from ‘old aid’ to ‘new development’? Who should it work with to do this? What must be on the agenda for the European parliament elections in 2014 and the appointment of a new European Commission?

Read and comment