When bad policies create hunger

With the euro zone debt crisis seemingly worsening and European leaders scampering about like cats on a hot tin roof looking for solutions, there has been increasing talk of cutting development aid to Africa and other developing regions. But would that be all bad, one might ask. Not if a newly released report by CONCORD (the confederation of European development NGOs) is to be believed.

The report, titled Spotlight on EU Policy Coherence for Development, says EU policies are continuing to seriously undermine rights in developing countries and that EU development objectives are in conflict with other policies. It further holds that the EU fails to comply with its own treaty obligations in this respect, which of course means that Africa – and other receivers of this aid – is once again getting the short end of the stick.

As Malian agro economist Salif Foulani Sissoko points out: “EU policies can do more harm than good in the developing world”.

In a nutshell, what the CONCORD-report says is that the lack of coherence between the EU’s various policies and its failure to comply with its Lisbon Treaty that states that European policies should take into account development objectives, is seriously undermining and jeopardising any positive development gains in the developing world achieved through EU aid-funded programmes and is also trampling on the rights of ordinary citizens of developing countries.

CONCORD is the European NGO confederation for relief and development, representing more than 1,600 NGOs through its 26 national associations and 18 international networks.

The CONCORD report focuses on the incoherencies of current EU policies in a number of thematic chapters relating to food security, natural resources management, human security, and migration.

The report was launched in Lome, Togo to coincide with the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries where decision-makers meet twice a year as part of the Cotonou Agreement. The Cotonou Agreement provides for the possibility for ACP representatives to question the European Commission on any policies that have or are likely to have an impact on development.

For Africa this report comes at a particularly critical time as South Africa will this week be hosting COP17, the UN climate change conference, where the continent will be united in seeking breakthrough agreements in a number of key policy areas.

Most important among these – also in relation to the EU’s development aid programme – is perhaps agriculture and food security. African delegates and various organisations have indicated that they will seek to ensure that linkages between climate change and food security issues are taken into account during the COP17 conference.

In September South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Petterson,  hosted a gathering of Africa’s agriculture ministers to push for the inclusion of agriculture on the COP17 agenda. In a local newspaper interview at the time she said:  “Agriculture should be accorded the due priority it deserves, especially in Africa. In the primary text of climate change we have never seen a single line on agriculture and we need to change this to a global initiative.”

The CONCORD report finds among other things that:

• ACP agriculture continues to be negatively affected by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy;
• ACP countries are experiencing more land grabs due to biofuel demands triggered by the EU’s renewable energy policy (refer to last week’s Out of Africa);
• Migration and human security are also affected by EU policies that fail to meet rights obligations;
• The EU is failing to comply with its Lisbon Treaty that states that European policies should take into account development objectives; and
• The Cotonou Agreement mechanism allowing for inquiries on EU policy impact on development is largely underused.

The importance of streamlining and coordinating the offending policies is made all the more urgent when it is pointed out that 925 million people went without sufficient food last year, which translates into almost one out of every seven people on earth going hungry. At the same time one-third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted, the report says.

Speaking at the release of the report in Togo, CONCORD’s Gerard Karlshausen said that it cannot be denied “that European policies have effects overseas, like right here in Africa”.

“Our report shows that European agriculture, trade and migration policies have negative impacts on ACP countries, undermining efforts to reduce global poverty.”

To which Sissoko added: “In Africa for example, we see the effects in our agricultural production where we just cannot compete with cheaper, subsidised European imports.”

“The EU must realise that global food security can only be achieved if poor countries are enabled to develop and safeguard their own sustainable domestic production," said Laust Gregersen of CONCORD Denmark.

CONCORD has called for more dialogue between the EU, most notably the EU delegations and the stakeholders in ACP countries, including civil society organisations, to avoid harmful policy impacts.

The EU invests €53 billion per year in its development policy, being the biggest aid donor. But without a clearer commitment to Policy Coherence for Development, the positive development gains achieved through EU aid-funded programmes will continue to be severely jeopardised by the negative impact of other EU policies, CONCORD says in its report.

Perhaps this is something they should be taking note of this week in Durban.

Stef Terblanche