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EC aid. FERN. Introduction. EC aid= European Community (EC) development aid. Managed by the European Commission 9.7 billion Euros in 2001 Low transparency and openess Development of environmental and social policies- behind other donors. Why are we interested in EC aid ?.
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EC aid FERN
Introduction • EC aid= European Community (EC) development aid. • Managed by the European Commission • 9.7 billion Euros in 2001 • Low transparency and openess • Development of environmental and social policies- behind other donors
Why are we interested in EC aid? • 1. Poor people depend on forests’ natural resources for survival. IP’s have specific links with forests and specific rights. Aid funds that threathen forests will undermine these people’s livelihood • 2. Aid funds can threathen forests by funding directly bad forests projects, by ignoring forests and forests peoples in other aid funding: road, mining support, structural adjustment support, trade promotion, etc… • 3. Civil society participation: lacking • 4. Grant (tax payer) money is furthering the economic and political agenda of the EU
EC development policy • Main objective: poverty alleviation Six focal areas: • Trade and development • Regional integration and co-operation • Macro economic policies • Transport • Food security and rural development • Institutional capacity building • Environment, Human rights and Gender to be mainstreamed • NGO/FERN protests • EC Development Policy is part of the problem , not part of the solution. Grant money is being used to further the econominc andpolitical agenda of the EU • No forest strategy exist to support integration of forests and forests peoples’ interests in programming documents
EC aid programming • Country and Regional Strategy Papers • Identify priority areas of intervention • Country ownership (3 to 5 years) • Civil society participation • Under the umbrella of PRSPs • Developed at country level and approved in Brussels • Mid-term review
Have environment/forests issues been taken into consideration into CSPs/RSPs? • Investigate 18 CSPs and RSPs in highly forested countries • Main findings • Selection of focal areas • Quality of CSPs • Environment: poorly analysed and not integrated • Transport and importance of roads • Inadequate consultation with civil society • Neglect of Ips issues • Almost no funding for forests and the environment
What we want • An implementation of EC development policy that focuses truly on poverty alleviation • A programming of aid that understand that environmental integirty and sustainable management of natural resources are pre-conditions for any development • Policies and programming developed and implemented only with full participation of local communities and IPs and civil society at large • Policies and programming that fully respects IP’s rights • Policies and programming that ensures transparency and good governance
EC Forest Platform • There is no platform of environmental NGOs looking at development policies and programmes and their impact on forests and forests peoples