According to a report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA) published on Wednesday 7 February on the results of an audit over the period 2012-2016, EU development aid to Burma, which is very substantial at nearly €1 billion for the 2012-2016 period, has thus far supported the country's priorities well, but has only been partly effective.
The reason for this is mainly the lack of prioritisation and coordination between the directorate-generals of the European Commission responsible for managing development and humanitarian aid, difficulties in absorbing the funding thus provoking delays in implementation of the trust fund programmes managed by the United Nations and financed by the EU, and shortcomings in the quality of the indicators and monitoring of the projects.
The result is that only half these projects have produced the expected outcomes, ECA states.
The auditors particularly note that the generation of national public income (a key factor in a country's development) does not feature among the priorities, which has damaged the impact of EU support.
To increase the impact of development aid to Burma, the ECA recommends that the European Commission and European External Action Service limit the number of areas benefitting from support, and strengthen coordination between the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development and the Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection.
For greater effectiveness, the ECA also recommends: - justifying and documenting the amount of funding allocated to the different sectors and actions; - increasing the cost-effectiveness of multi-donor actions; - strengthening the monitoring of information on the outcomes and their impact; - improving the management of projects and ensuring better visibility be given to EU actions; - re-assessing the opportunity to extend the scope of application of the joint peace fund to Rakhine State. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)