PURPOSE: to provide a report on EC development policy
and implementation of external assistance in 2002. CONTENT: this Annual
Report presents an overview of the European Community’s activities
undertaken in the field of external assistance. It accounts for the
EUR 6.5 billion committed and the EUR 5.2 billion
actually disbursed by the EC in 2002. The report is subdivided into 8
parts which can be summarised as follows: 1) presentation of the strategic
goals and achievements: the Monterrey and
Johannesburg summits settled the bases
for a new global partnership for poverty eradication and sustainable
development. If the Member States of the European Union comply with their
pledges, an extra EUR 8.5 billion could be available by 2006.
The first generation of Country Strategy Papers was completed in 2002 and
has led to increased focus on actions to fight poverty. This chapter also
shows the progress made in the field of EC cooperation with other donors.
A new framework agreement has been signed with the World Bank and the
revision of the EC-UN Framework Agreement for EC funding of UN projects
has been completed. Extensive policy dialogues took place in 2002 with
United Nation’s agencies and programmes; 2) reform of the management of EC
external assistance: this is starting to bear fruit: sharper programming,
improved quality and delivery timing, greater transparency and
accountability, devolution of responsibilities to delegations on the spot,
better coordination with other donors, especially Member States, and
implementation of a new single management information system for the DG
Relex; 3) progress made towards achieving strategic goals, in particular
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): this chapter highlights measures
taken to enhance the effectiveness of the Community’s assistance,
including adapting its approach to different country and regional
circumstances, effective targeting of resources, debt sustainability,
increased use of sector wide approaches and budget support. It also
outlines progress made in focusing the EC’s assistance on a more limited
number of areas and key policy developments in these priority areas during
2002. Social sectors like health and education, transport and food
security have all seen significant progress during the year. The
Commission has also worked with the MemberStates and other interested parties
(OECD, World Bank) to develop a core set of 10 indicators drawn from
the MDGs. Of these 10 indicators, six are directly related to the
welfare of children, while three have a specific gender dimension. The
Commission intends to measure progress against these indicators annually
for all developing countries to which it provides assistance; 4)
evaluation activities and Results-Oriented Monitoring (ROM): this chapter
summarises the conclusions of the evaluations completed and points out
certain emerging broad issues. Launched in 2001, the Results-Oriented
Monitoring ensures that the Commission has comparable data across all its
external assistance programmes. This chapter presents an analysis based on
2002 reports according to the various ROM criteria (Relevance, Efficiency,
Effectiveness, Impact and Sustainability) and the priority development
areas. The results and performance of EC funded projects and programmes
have been judged as generally good. Financial sustainability is identified
most often as a potential source of problems for projects as also the
cumbersome Community procedures; 5) ‘horizontal’ and ‘cross-cutting’
issues and their mainstreaming through the general structure of EC
cooperation: human rights, equality between men and women, environment and
conflict prevention are the main topics of this chapter which also
describes the implementation of thematic budget lines such as food
security, tropical forests, fight against AIDS or cofinancing with NGOs.
The European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights committed over
EUR 100 million in 2002, whereas the Rapid Reaction Mechanism
committed EUR 23.5 million in order to stabilise the situation
in Afghanistan and
continue the reconstruction efforts in the PalestinianTerritories. Close to
EUR 200 million was committed for cofinancing NGO projects and
almost EUR 50 million was committed for the environment and
tropical forests; 6) detail of cooperation activities by region: this
chapter details all the activities financed in Western Europe and Central
Asia (EUR 430 million committed with EUR 383 million
disbursed), in South-Eastern Europe (nearly EUR 654 million
committed and more than EUR 617 million disbursed in the Balkans
in 2002), in the Mediterranean Basin, Near and Middle East
(EUR 762 million committed for all the Mediterranean countries
and EUR 684 million disbursed), in the African, Caribbean and
Pacific Countries (ACP) and in the Overseas Countries and Territories
(OCTs) (almost EUR 2.4 billion committed for the ACP+OCT in 2002
and EUR 2.54 billion disbursed), in Latin America
(EUR 382 million committed and EUR 272 million
disbursed) and in Asia (EUR 540 million committed and
EUR 434 million disbursed). The assistance activities carried
out by ECHO and the EIB are also highlighted; 7) water management: this is
one of the most important challenges for development policy in the years
to come. The EU Water Initiative, launched at Johannesburg, seeks
to act as a catalyst for action aimed at halving by 2015 the number of
people without access to drinking water; 8) the last chapter contains
financial tables broken down by budget line, region, country and
instrument.