Cotonou monitoring objectives

Monitoring EU co-operation in the Cotonou Agreement:
Aims and objectives of the Eurostep initiative

Overall Objectives
The overall objectives of the initiative is to ensure that EU co-operation with a specific country directly contributes to the reduction and eradication of poverty in that country, and to the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals as interim steps to achieving this objective. In order to achieve this the initiative aims to:

promote the effective participation of civil society actors at all stages of the co-operation process;
promote human rights, gender equality, and ecological sustainability as fundamental principals of the EU co-operation in practice;
promote the coherence of all EU's policies and practices;
encourage a consistent and complementary approach between the European Commission and EU Member States.

Focus of the project
This initiative on the implementation of the EU's co-operation is focused principally focused around three core issues:

The effective participation of civil society actors;
The programming process, with a particular emphasis on basic education within programming;
Regional trade agreements.

Civil society participation
Principal aim: To secure the space and define modalities for effective civil society participation in the national (and consequently regional and global) development process, at all its different stages.

Specific Actions:

To establish strategic partnerships with civil society organisations in identified countries with whom to develop joint approaches towards the EU's co-operation with those countries;
To promote analytical reviews on civil society participation in the preparation of the National Indicative Programmes and their subsequent implementation;
To establish strategies for using these reviews and their recommendations to promote proposals for policy changes for increasing their effectiveness in achieving set objectives.
To identify and establish "best practice" for civil society participation in all aspects of the Cotonou Agreement, and at all levels.
To work with civil society organisations to promote and develop regional and global structures that can facilitate dialogue at those levels.

Output/tools: The production of analytical reports from a civil society perspective of EU co-operation, e.g. critical reports on civil society participation in the programming process in the identified countries. Specific proposals for optimising a participatory process.

Regional trade agreements
Principal objectives: to advocate for EU trade arrangements with the ACP that foster sustainable development, income equality and poverty eradication; to promote a people-centred approach to the trade negotiations and to the resulting trade arrangements; to promote a formal mechanism for involving civil society actors in the process to define trade arrangements between the ACP and EU.

Specific Actions:

To define common positions with civil society actors in identified countries;
To follow and influence the EU and ACP official preparations for the negotiations;
To produce reports and proposals drawn from the national and regional perspectives;
To develop and pursue a common strategy for influencing the negotiations.

Output/tools: The production of analytical reports on the expected impact of the trade co-operation between the EU and specific ACP countries and regions. Also to produce a paper setting out the concerns of civil society actors related to the future trade agreement, as well as to define a benchmark for the expectations of civil society for the outcome of the negotiations.

Programming, with a specific focus on support for basic education
Principal objective: To promote the centrality of poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals for the National Indicative Programmes of identified countries. To this end to secure EU financial and technical assistance that will contribute to credible national policies for reducing poverty and achieving the international goals. In particular to ensure a substantial contribution from the EU to achieving the international goals for providing universal access to basic quality education, and to the realisation of the commitments of World Education Forum in Dakar (2000).

Specific actions:

To work with identified civil society organisations in analysing the Country Strategy papers;
To develop a common strategy with civil society organisations in selected countries for monitoring the implementation of the National Indicative Programmes, identifying in particular the attention given to basic education;
To work for an effective contribution by the EU towards achieving the international development goals, and those related to the provision of quality education in particular.

Output/tools: Critical reports on the Country support strategies and on the National Indicative Programmes, for use within the ongoing work around Cotonou, the EU and its co-operation with developing countries.