Last week the European Commission released its 12 point plan to support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on fighting global poverty, stating; “2010 is a ‘year of opportunity’ for the EU, at all levels, and its partners to make a revitalised and concerted effort to achieve the MDGs.”.

The plan outlines the Commission’s development focus for 2010-2011, in advance of the UN MDG review summit in September this year. It targets various development issues including: 

• enhancing aid effectiveness between EU members through tighter cooperation on aid programmes;
• targeting fragile states and those making least progress on MDGs, including Afghanistan and Pakistan;
• prioritising critical MDGs of health, education, food and agriculture, and gender equality;
• fighting tax evasion and boosting regional trade, as well as vague reference to ‘innovative financial mechanisms’ hinting at the on-going global tax deliberations;
• an annual ‘fast-start’ fund for climate change to the tune of $24billion a year;
• on-going call for reform of UN and World Bank and IMF voting structures;

Despite recognising; ‘Success stories all point to the importance of strong local political engagement’ in the plan and calling for progress on governance, accountability and ‘policy coherence’, the Commission fails however to address the need to further involve and support local government within those countries i.e. those public agents closest to communities. The plan also ignores the rapid pace of urbanisation taking place in many African countries, particularly Sub Saharan Africa, and the predicted growth in urban poverty and slum communities that needs to be urgently addressed.

The European Platform for Local and Regional Authorities for Development ‘Platforma’, a network working to share good practice on decentralised cooperation, has been lobbying the European Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs with other key local government bodies, including UCLG, to encourage the Commission to further decentralise its support for the MDGs, including to enhance the provision of direct budgetary aid to the sector.

Earlier this week the Commission has also released its joint ‘Roadmap to MDGs’ with the USA – focusing on joint working on financing, food, health, fragile states and climate change.

For more information, please download the Commission’s 12-point plan here.

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