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In memory of Paolo Dieci, a passionate voice for international cooperation and development
On Sunday, March 11, a tragic plane crash took the lives of all 157 passengers travelling to Nairobi. Among the victims was Paolo Dieci, a most dedicated and passionate advocate for international cooperation.
Beyond sheer scenarios: how to shape an overarching Sustainable Europe 2030 Strategy
In the wake of the European Commission’s newly launched Reflection Paper on Sustainable Development, CONCORD asks current and future EU leaders to adopt an overarching SDG strategy.
CONCORD reacts: EU’s development work is put under the microscope
The EU, as a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, has recently had its development cooperation policies reviewed by its peers. Despite noted accomplishments, CONCORD underlines several recommendations of this assessment.
Accentuating the positive: making the case for solidarity
In some parting reflections, Seamus Jeffreson, CONCORD’s outgoing director, looks back on five eventful years in the NGO world. Despite current political pressure on CSOs, his outlook for civil society is one of solidarity, humanity, and resilience.
The upcoming presidency trio needs to set Europe on a sustainable path
Romania, Finland and Croatia recently published the Trio Programme for their upcoming EU Council Presidencies. The Trio Programme sets the joint political priorities for the presidencies and does not suggest radical changes, but puts emphasis on jobs and growth. European NGOs would like to see human rights based policies aiming at well-being within planetary boundaries.
Future EU Budget delay? Funding gap could put vital development aid at risk
Ahead of the European Council during which the external relations part of the future EU budget will be discussed, CONCORD urges EU leaders to safeguard the amount dedicated to Heading VI (external relations) and agree on the political timeline. The future development aid budget and the European Union’s engagement in addressing global challenges is at stake.
CONCORD appoints new Director, Tanya Cox, as Seamus Jeffreson leaves
After five years as Director, Seamus Jeffreson is moving on from CONCORD, the European Confederation of Development NGOs. From January 2019, Tanya Cox will take over and become the new Director of the Confederation.
Learning & Exchange Forum 2018: cultural shift towards resilience
CONCORD members gathered in Prague this November to explore possibilities of a cultural shift in NGOs sector. As Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are challenged, criminalised and losing support from their governments and the citizens, the aim of Learning & Exchange Forum 2018 was to explore how CSOs can change their culture to sharpen their values and remain relevant.
Let’s put Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development at the heart of EU Common Agricultural Policy
The current Common Agricultural Policy is going under a reform proposal for 2020-2027. With its new paper, CONCORD, together with partners from Local dairy Campaign, West Africa, has gathered recommendations on how the EU can and should integrate PCSD into the proposal.
Impact of EU policies in the world: seeing the bigger picture one year on
One year after CONCORD’s report analysing whether Commission impact assessments sufficiently take into account the impact of policy proposals on developing countries, where do we stand? In this new paper, CONCORD conducts a quantitative analysis of the impact assessments as well as a qualitative analysis of 3 particular cases.
Recommendations for the 6 strategic priorities of the future EU-ACP Agreement
The Cotonou Partnership Agreement is coming to an end in 2020. To ensure a fair ground leading to a “partnership of equals”, CONCORD has developed a list of recommendations, serving as a contribution from civil society to the ongoing EU-ACP negotiations to ensure mutually beneficial priorities.
Migration is not a problem to be managed, the real concern is inequality
Much of the current migration from developing countries to Europe — when not responding to immediate threats such as conflict, political persecution, famine and instability — is just a symptom, among many, of the massive social and economic gap that exists between certain regions of the world.
AidWatch Report 2018: inflated, decreasing and diverted EU Aid
For the first time since 2012, the EU’s aid spending decreased in 2017. This means, at the current rate of growth, the EU would need another 40 years to meet the 0.7% ODA/GNI target, reveals CONCORD AidWatch Report 2018.
Sustainable EU by 2030: EU Multi-Stakeholder Platform adopt common proposals
30 high-level members from the EU’s Multi-stakeholder Platform on SDGs adopted common proposals from civil society to move towards a Sustainable EU by 2030. Amongst a variety of backgrounds and constituencies, we found common ground to push forward together.
Is development going digital?
Digitalisation is becoming a vital part of our world, and by extension of development cooperation. It represents new challenges and opportunities for our sector. This report, commissioned by FOND Romania and CONCORD Europe, analyses key digital trends and impacts of digitalisation on the development agenda as well as explores the opportunities for civil society organisations.
Sustainable development must guide the successor Cotonou Agreement
The European Commission has officially launched negotiations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) on a new partnership agreement to succeed the Cotonou Agreement. This represents an opportunity to build people-centered cooperation as equal partners but, there is concern about the narrative of Africa being portrayed only as Europe’s trade and economic partner.
SDGs’ implementation: Good practices from across Europe
Many EU and its Member States are implementing the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in an innovative way. Therefore, CONCORD shares these good practices from across Europe to inspire each other on how to implement the SDGs.
EU Gender Action Plan II: transforming lives?
Is the EU Gender Action Plan II actually transforming the lives of women and girls in the world? With this report, CONCORD aims to demonstrate how the EU Gender Action Plan 2016-2020 is being implemented. Based on in-country research in Rwanda, Vietnam and Ghana, this report provides concrete recommendations on how to bring about a more impactful implementation of the GAP II.
CONCORD’s reaction to Juncker’s speech “State of the Union” 2018
Following Juncker’s speech “State of the Union 2018”, CONCORD reacts to the new ‘Africa – Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs’.
Rilli Lappalainen: how can we measure coherence?
Policy coherence for sustainable development is finally starting to break through both in political documents and speeches. This blogpost presents Rilli Lappalainen’s feedback on the High-Level Political Forum 2018 to provide insight on the progress done in policy coherence for sustainable development.
CONCORD’s position: assessing the flow of external migration funding
On 19 June 2018, the Committees on Budget, Budgetary Control, Foreign Affairs and Development jointly organised a joint hearing for assessing the flow of external EU migration funding. Fanni Bihari, from ACT Alliance EU, represented our Confederation in this public debate aiming at assessing the flow of current expenditure on the migration-related projects and the EU Trusts Funds.
European Council’s measures on migration: ineffective, costly and against human rights
The political directions endorsed by the European Council to continue lowering the number of migrants’ arrivals to Europe are concerning; and may easily be proven to be ineffective and a breach to founding European values.
Reporting back from CONCORD General Assembly 2018
Our 15th General Assembly gathered our members in Brussels in June 2018, marking several important milestones for our Confederation: new statutes, renewal of half the board and new financial guidelines. Our collective discussions on the 2019 EU elections and the future EU budget were intense, but rewarded by a festive celebrations at the end of the first day.
EU budget: development aid blended with foreign policy objectives
Today, the European Commission released the legal framework for the external funding instruments of the Multi-annual Financial Framework 2021-2027. CONCORD raises concerns that unproven investment schemes and migration control will overshadow the EU’s commitments to promote human rights, sustainable development and the fight against poverty.