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