EC Funding Instruments

APRODEV is engaged in reflection, information and advocacy work on EU budget and funding issues with the objective to make sure that :

• the European Union external relations budget is oriented towards eliminating poverty and establishing gender equality
• the accessibility for non-governmental development organisations to the relevant budget lines, as well as to the European Union institutions, is improved
• the transparency and accountability in the use of the Community budget is improved.In all activities relating to EC Funding, Aprodev tries to work in close collaboration with other EU NGOs and in that view is an active member of the CONCORD Group on EU Funding for Relief and Development.

General power point presentation on EC Development Cooperation and Funding

EC THEMATIC PROGRAMMES AND BUDGET LINES

The rationalisation of the EC aid instruments and budget lines has been subject to long debates and multiple consultations inside the Commission and with external stakeholders. NGOs and Aprodev in particular have been part of it through CONCORD since the beginning of the process and have published several contributions to the debate in the forms of briefings and position papers. European NGOs particularly concentrated their work on the future programme for civil society organisations that will replace the existing co-financing budget line and the programmes and budget lines related to human and social development and to human rights and democracy.

• EC aid intruments and programmes for the period 2007-2013: general overview

A presentation of the future aid instruments and thematic programmes in a schematic form. More details on EC aid instruments are available on EuropeAid website.

See also APRODEV comments on the complementarity between geographic and thematic programmes.

Much analysis and lobby work was undertaken by APRODEV in collaboration with other CONCORD members at the time of the negotiation of the Financial Perspectives and new aid instruments for the period 2007-2013. Briefings, comments and concerns are available here.

• Brussels counts in seconds, rural areas count in seasons...

  this was one of the conclusions from a training workshop on EC funding organised by Aprodev members in Nairobi in March 2006

• Joint EU NGO statement on the rationalisation of the EC’s thematic funding instruments
  in the field of external relations (January 2006)

This joint statement from several EU NGO networks active in different areas of work came in anticipation of a series of communications on each of the proposed new thematic programmes published by the EC in the beginning of 2006.

• CONCORD’s vision for the European Commission’s Partnership with Civil Society Organisations (November 2005)

The purpose of this paper is to set out where European Development NGOs see civil society
relations with the EC going, both within Europe and in developing countries and how a future
Civil Society Organisation (CSO) thematic programme could contribute to that bigger vision. It was prepared on the basis of a broad two-stage consultation of CONCORD members based on a discussion paper prepared by a small task force including Aprodev.

• Principles on Promoting Cross-cutting issues and a Thematic Approach in EU Development Cooperation (April 2005)

This paper seeks to set out the basic principles shared by CONCORD members relating to the overall process of rationalising the EC’s thematic funding instruments in the field of external relations.

• Summary note produced by the EC on the rationalisation of certain financial instruments of development policy and the NDGOs response

The NDGOs response presents NGDOs concerns and makes recommendations on the EU policy towards civil society participation, the programming of EC aid, the deconcentration of aid management to the delegations, the role and importance of thematic budget lines and the modalities of their implementation.

After the publication of these two papers, the process of rationalisation of EC aid instruments was postponed to 2005-2006 when the 2007-2013 multi-annual political and financial framework of the enlarged Union was being decided. More information on the debates around the new multi-annual framework can be found with the documents on the new Financial Perspectives.

• Indicators and Targets in EU Development Aid - How to assess the Poverty Focus?
  (March 2002)

Briefing paper on the introduction of output targets and performance indicators in the EU Development Aid budget. The paper refers to the on-going debate between the Commission and the European Parliament on this issue.