A report published on Tuesday 9 April by the Social Democrats (S&D) highlights the disparities between the development measures set out in the European Commission’s Annual Action Plans (‘AAPs’) and their practical implementation by the partner countries, particularly with respect to combating poverty and inequality.
According to the Italian Centre for International Policy Studies (CeSPI), which carried out the study, many European initiatives focus on capacity building and strategy development, predominantly targeting government officials, without always translating into tangible benefits for populations.
“While gender equality receives more attention, both in the share of projects that feature this issue as the main initiative and in budget allocation, its frequency is substantially lower than expected targets, and actions are mostly designed to target girls and women indirectly”, conclude the authors of the report.
A total of 176 Annual Action Plans relating to the Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), which guide the Commission’s actions across 89 countries, were analysed.
“The observed discrepancies tend to undermine the effectiveness of the Commission’s development programmes, notably in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, which should be the primary objective of any actions undertaken within this framework”, said Udo Bullmann (S&D, German) in a press release on Tuesday.
Link to the S&D Group report: https://aeur.eu/f/bq2 (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)