‘No Time to Waste', published 22 May 2008 by CONCORD, the European NGO confederation for relief and development of which IPPF EN is a member, reveals that on current trends the EU will have given €75 billion less in aid by 2010 than it promised, threatening progress on the UN Millennium Development Goals set for 2015.  

"A hundred thousand estimated dead in Burma, food prices rocketing and a woman dying every minute in pregnancy or childbirth. Now, more than ever, European governments must deliver the aid they promised to the world’s poor" said Justin Kilcullen, President of CONCORD.

The official statistics, released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development  (OECD) in April, showed that European aid fell sharply in 2007, with Belgium, France and the UK recording falls of 10-30%.

The CONCORD report indicates that European governments continue to "inflate" their aid statistics with debt relief and refugee costs. The report finds that the 15 older Member States provided only 0.33% of their gross national income as genuine aid in 2007 – continuing to miss the target set for 2006 of 0.39% of GNI.

The 1,600 European NGOs represented by CONCORD demand that European governments increase the quality of their aid, making it accountable and transparent, and particularly "deliver on their international and regional commitments towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, by putting gender equality and women’s empowerment at the centre of the development agenda. Make available the necessary human and financial resources to implement these commitments and support the participation of gender advocates and women’s rights organisations in the development process."

2008 is a crucial year for aid, testing the credibility of European governments.  At the High Level Ministerial Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana this coming September, the EU will review its progress against crucial commitments made in 2005 in Paris. 

( AidWatch 2008 report available via: http://www.concordeurope.org/ )

Source: Concord

A special gender focus to the report with the help of the IPPF EN EU member associations

The 2008 Aid Watch report has a particular focus on gender aspects. IPPF EN has worked in collaboration with CONCORD through its EU member associations and SRHR organisations to contribute to this report, to provide the needed expertise on gender issues (including SRHR) and the related ODA levels. This is being helpful in keeping the member states accountable towards their gender commitments.