Eurostep was established in 1990 to co-ordinate the activities of its members at the European level. Its two principal aims are first to influence official development co-operation policies of multilateral institution, and in particular those of the European Union; and secondly to improve the quality and effectiveness of initiatives taken by NGOs in support of people centred development.
The positions and perspectives that form the basis for Eurostep’s advocacy are drawn from the experiences of member organisations and their partners. These experiences are derived from working with local communities in various parts of the world, and in particular with people living in poverty.
Rooted in their own societies the member organisations play an important role in engaging in dialogue and debate with representatives of their own governments. Member organisations work together in Eurostep around common positions to bring their perspectives into the development co-operation policies and practices of the EU and national governments.
Eurostep is governed by its General Assembly that meets in June and December each year. Comprising the General Directors of member organisations, the General Assembly determines the policies and procedures of the network as well as the orientation of its programme of work. A five person Steering Committee, elected from the membership of the General Assembly, oversees the implementation of Eurostep’s policies and programmes as well as the work of the secretariat. The secretariat, which is based in Brussels, monitors the EU’s development co-operation policies and their implementation and facilitates the activities of Eurostep and its member organisations.
Eurostep works with the other Brussels based NGO networks to maximise the impact that can be made by the NGO community as a whole on the policies and practices of the EU and its member states.
The activities of Eurostep,
including the costs of the secretariat, are covered by
contributions from the member organisations.
Statement from the ChairWhen development NGOs from many of the European countries came together in 1990 to establish a network for European Solidarity Towards Equal Participation of People, in brief called Eurostep, the European as well as the global development context was quite different from what we experience today. Official Development Assistance (ODA) was certainly not what it should be, but in absolute as well as relative terms ODA was nevertheless larger than today. There was a feeling that although the level of ODA had been stagnating around 0.33% for some years, the new East-West situation following the fall of the Wall would result in an upward trend in resources for development. This has not happened, neither at the global level nor in Europe. As described in the 2000 edition of Reality of Aid, we continue to witness a growing gap between rich and poor, as well as between the increasing wealth of the rich countries and the shrinking generosity of donor countries. Today the European Union is an even more crucial player on the global arena than was the case in 1990. Economically the Union is significantly greater than either the United States or Japan. Not only does it collectively provide almost two thirds of total world ODA, it is also the source of more than half of global foreign direct investment. It exports more than one third of the world’s goods and services, and is responsible for an equally large share of the world’s GNP. Yet as a global player its leadership has been weak, particularly in promoting coherent strategies for equitable development. This has been clearly illustrated by the lack of vision provided by the European Union in the negotiations with the ACP countries leading towards the Fourth Lomé Convention. It has been even more evident in the inability and unwillingness of the European Commission to effectively implement the 1997 Coherence Resolution. We have also seen it in the decisions to support the necessary re-construction of the Balkans at the cost of the poor in Africa. All of these issues have been important targets for Eurostep initiatives during 1999. These as well as other initiatives by Eurostep are described in some detail in this Annual Report. The critical reader will ask us, if we have been able to make an impact on the policies being pursued by the European Union – if we have made a difference? My response will be that we have definitely not made impact enough, but yes, we have made some difference. Some of the issues raised by Eurostep in negotiations with ACP countries have been given serious consideration, and several member states have used our documentation on coherence to put more pressure on the Commission than ever seen before. The second half of 1999 saw the appointment of a new Commission under Prodi, and the appointment of a new Commisioner for Development. It also saw the election of a new European Parliament with increased powers. The entry in the EU of countries from Central and Eastern Europe will have a profound inpact, not only in the way the EU works but also on its orientation towards the rest of the world. The trade agenda will dominate the EU's external co-operation, increasingly linked to a common foreign policitical policy. These events provide the area of development co-operation with new opportunities, and the start of the new millennium therefore marks a new phase for the EU. It is the intention of the 21 members of Eurostep – all major NGOs in their own countries, collectively working in around 100 countries with a combined annual budget of more than 650 million Euros – to seize these opportunities. Solidarity towards and equal participation of poor and marginalized people will only remain on the agenda of the European Union if we, together with other networks and movements, struggle to keep it there. Bjørn Førde Chair of Eurostep Secretary General of Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke |
The importance of investing in social development is central to Eurostep’s approach to poverty eradication. Since the 1995 World Summit for Social Development Eurostep has been pressing for the commitments made by the international community to be incorporated in EU development policy and its implementation. Over the last few years these commitments have been reflected within policy resolutions made by the EU Development Council, but have yet to be translated effectively into practice.
| Eurostep’s principal
goals for the review of the World Summit for Social
Development The enabling environment must encourage social development, ensuring that Structural Adjustment Programmes support social development objectives. The impact of trade policies on social development need to be monitored. Initiatives to cancel external debt need to be implemented quickly and more comprehensively. Defence spending should be decreased. Mechanisms to control and tax international flows of capital need to be established. The political and legal environment for the right to social development needs to be strengthened. Official Development Aid should be geared to achieving the eradication of poverty. The commitment to reach the 0.7% UN target must be implemented. Increased priority should be given to basic social services, including the implementation of the 20/20 initiative. Gender equality must be mainstreamed in all policies and programmes. Participation of civil society has to be central in policy dialogue, planning, implementation and evaluation. |
The June 2000 five-year review of the Copenhagen Summit provides an opportunity to re-focus on the commitments made in 1995. During 1999 Eurostep started its preparations for the review and prepared a set of proposals which were delivered at the official preparatory meeting in New York in May.
Eurostep has been working with Social Watch, a global coalition of civil organisations established in 1995 to monitor the implementation of the commitments made by national governments at the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women. Social Watch publishes a report each year to coincide with the UN’s Commission for Social Development. Eurostep provides a contribution to the report on the EU’s implementation of the international commitments. In October Eurostep facilitated the presentation of Social Watch in the European Parliament.
For the June 2000 review Eurostep and its member organisations are planning a series of activities to draw attention to the need for the Copenhagen commitments to be fully implemented.
| Basic Education An Ad-hoc Working Group of Eurostep has focused on the importance of basic education in achieving development objectives. The objective is to ensure a greater role for Southern states, in participation with civil society, in EC aid to education policy. Although education is a powerful force for democratisation, this cannot be achieved until national education systems have themselves been democratised. Creating the space for Southern civil society participation in donor aid to education policy would help to democratise national education systems and encourage education as a force for democracy and good governance. Eurostep has sought to have these objectives explicitly identified in the next agreement between the EU and ACP countries, with an increase in the resources available to basic education and disbursements tied to stated education targets. In September a report was presented to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the result of which was a proposal for a hearing in the Development Committee in preparation for the review of the Copenhagen Summit. Some research was commissioned on levels of participation in the Commission’s approaches, which will lead to proposals for mechanisms to encourage participation in the EU's work on education in the South. For the next few months the focus in this work will be towards the EU’s Round Table on the Beijing+5 review, and the EU’s positions at the World Education Forum in Dakar in April 2000 and the World Summit for Social Development Review in June 2000. |
Since the establishment of Eurostep gender equality has been a central component of its programme. Its focus has been to press for the implementation of the EU’s gender and development policies. These policies, adopted in a resolution by the Council in December 1995 incorporate the results of the Beijing conference. As an immediate follow-up Eurostep produced a position paper on Gender and Humanitarian Aid in 1996, as this area was not developed within ECHO.
In 1999 Eurostep has sought to increase the focus on the implementation of policies. The publication of Poverty Eradication and Gender Equality – a Benchmark for the Successor Agreement to the Lomé Convention was an initial step in seeking to establish a firmer basis for enabling gender equality to be fully integrated into the programming phase of the new agreement. This paper was produced as an input into the ACP-EU Joint Ministerial meeting in July.
Eurostep has also sought to ensure that development forms a central part of the EU’s preparations and approaches to the five-year review of the Beijing Women’s conference, that take place in June 2000.
In the run up to the Seattle Ministerial meeting of the WTO, the annual meeting of the Gender Working Group focused on gender and trade. It also drew up some proposals as to how Eurostep could establish a viable mechanism for mainstreaming gender throughout all of its activities.
The Treaty of European Union agreed in Maastricht in 1992 not only established the EU's development co-operation objectives as being the campaign against poverty, sustainability and the gradual integration of developing countries into the world economy, it also required that other policies and actions of the EU be coherent with those objectives. Since that time Eurostep has drawn attention to a number of cases where policies were incoherent.
On coherence Eurostep calls
for:
|
In 1992 Eurostep focused on the adverse effects of EU subsidised beef exports to West Africa on Sahelian cattle farmers supported by the EU development programme. In 1997 attention was drawn to the potential damage of the EU's proposed fisheries agreement with Senegal to the artisanal fishing sector in that country. In 1998 Eurostep join others to press for a comprehensive EU code of conduct on arms sales, much of which has helped fuel costly conflicts in developing countries.
In 1999 Eurostep published a position paper entitled CAP and Coherence – Coherence in EU policies towards developing countries. This paper, which identified a number of instances where the CAP was undermining production in developing countries, called for a systematic approach to ensure coherence was achieved. The paper was introduced into the May 1999 Development Council by the Dutch Minister. At the same time many member organisations used the paper to successfully raise the issues with their Ministers of development and agriculture.
In November a case study focusing on the effects EU subsidies on Jamaican milk farmers was presented to the Development Council as an illustration of the continuing damage being done. A delegation of Jamaican dairy farmers toured a number of European countries to argue their case to governments and the media.
In February 2000 the fourth Lomé Convention, which governs the co-operation between the EU and the countries of the Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, expires. As this agreement covers the support provided by the EU for the majority of the World’s poorest nations Eurostep has sought to influence the content and form of the agreement.
Eurostep's proposals
for EU-ACP co-operation
|
In 1999 Eurostep and its member organisations actively engaged with officials on both sides of the negotiations. The three Joint ACP-EU Ministerial meetings were monitored and a number of meetings were organised involving officials from the European Commission, EU Member States Missions, ACP Embassies, national Ministers and government officials.
Eurostep member terre des hommes Germany (together with WEED and KOSA) organised a conference in Bonn entitled Farewell to Lomé? This meeting focused particularly on the EU’s trade proposals for future EU-ACP co-operation based on free trade agreements and was followed by dialogues in Brussels on the proposed trade arrangement.
In November a hearing on regionalisation was organised in the European Parliament in collaboration with Max van den Berg MEP and the Trans National Institute. The aim was to identify key factors that should be addressed in developing future regional agreements between ACP countries and the EU.
Throughout the year Eurostep has worked with other European NGOs and networks, in particular with the ACP Civil Society Forum.
In December 1998 an Ad-hoc Working Group was established to draw up proposals for bringing a focus on trade into the Eurostep programme. Its principal concern was the WTO and the preparations being made for a Millennium Round set of negotiations. As a contribution to the NGO preparations for the Seattle Ministerial meeting, the Working Group set up a seminar in Tanzania which brought together representatives from Eurostep member organisations and their partners in Africa and Asia.
In 1996 Eurostep held its first partner consultation in Zimbabwe. Bringing together representatives from Eurostep’s member organisations and from partner organisations in the region, the meeting sought to provide a focus on the EU’s development co-operation in the region, and the role that the Eurostep programme could play in influencing EU policies.
In April the second Eurostep partner consultation took place in Nicaragua. Originally planned for November 1998, this had been delayed as a result of the devastation brought to Central America by hurricane Mitch. The meeting brought together participants from Eurostep’s member organisations and NGOs from 6 countries in the region.
The consequences of hurricane Mitch were the central issue for many participants, and the need to use the opportunity to pursue development strategies that did not result in the previous inequalities. In part the meeting helped in NGO preparations for the Stockholm post-Mitch donor conference that took place soon after the consultation.
The partner consultations have become an important part of the Eurostep programme. They not only in provide opportunities to discuss Eurostep’s programme with representatives of partner organisations from developing countries, but they also to bring field staff of member organisations into contact with Eurostep and its activities.
At the end of 1999 a new programme was adopted for the period 2000 to 2005. This programme, which primarily relates to the EU’s agenda on external co-operation with developing countries for the next five years, covers three focal areas:
The new programme will also seek to integrate gender equality, ecological sustainability and a rights approach into all aspects of the programme. At the same time there will be a review of the changing role of development co-operation.
The Reality of Aid of aid was published in 1999 for the sixth successive year, with a focus on basic education, especially for girls. It was launched in Oslo in December. The Reality of Aid is produced in collaboration with NGOs in member countries of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee and from a number of developing countries. Its aim is to provide a critique of the development co-operation policies and practices of official donors.
Eurostep is the main European partner with the majority of national reports from European countries being provided by member organisations. The report has been used by Eurostep to emphasise the trends and role of development co-operation in the EU. It has also been used in a similar way at the national level by many of Eurostep's member organisations.
Eurostep also published EU Global Player in co-operation with terre des hommes Germany, WEED and the Transnational Institute. EU Global Player is a detailed critical review of the EU's development policies and was initially produced for the terre des hommes Germany/WEED seminar on Lomé in April.
Eurostep also produces the Pro-Active File on a weekly basis to provide information about the current discussions and activities around the EU's co-operation programme relevant to the issues of the Eurostep programme. It is primarily for Eurostep's membership, but is also distributed to a broader readership within the EU institutions, diplomatic missions and NGOs.
Eurostep has its web site on Euforic, an internet co-operative that brings together information of European development co-operation. Established in 1997 Euforic is the first European wide co-operative. As a founding member Eurostep is part of the Board of Directors.
February 2000
Updated on 21February 2000
Please address comments to [email protected]
Developer's Note: These pages were developed for use on the
Netscape browser.