German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul today presented the study "Towards a Division of Labour in European Development Cooperation: Operational Options", which was initiated by the German EU Presidency in collaboration with the other members of the team presidency, Portugal and Slovenia. The study investigates ways of improving European aid effectiveness.
The Minister stated, "As donors, we have recognised that the best way to help the developing countries is not to have all donors operating in all countries and all sectors. When, for example, eight donor countries from the EU alone are active in the health sector in Tanzania, coordinating these donors places a great strain on the country's government." The result of the reform process within the EU must, she said, be a reduction in the number of donors active in each country and each sector, coupled at the same time with a rise in aid volumes. This will, she continued, depend crucially on all countries displaying the necessary political will and being prepared to deploy their development funding in a more focused and effective way. This would mean donors concentrating on certain priority countries and sectors and possibly also providing funding for other donors' programmes as "silent partners". The Minister emphasised that the German Presidency had set itself the goal of agreeing on concrete operating principles and the first steps to be taken towards an improved division of labour within the EU.
Improving the division of labour within the EU is being approached as a long-term process, the start of which was marked during the last German EU Presidency with an initiative to improve donor coordination. The current study was commissioned in order to bring a scientific analysis into the political debate and to put forward specific proposals on how the division of labour within the EU could be improved. The study has identified considerable potential for an improved division of labour by reducing the severe duplication of donor activities within Europe. Germany, for its part, has reduced the number of cooperation countries over recent years from 120 at the end of the 1990s to around 75 and is also taking a more selective approach to the sectors in which it operates. The number of cooperation countries is to be further reduced.
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