Month: February 2015

Change policy, change the world?

Article 208 of the Treaty of Lisbon holds one very important, but too often overlooked sentence.

‘The Union shall take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies that it implements which are likely to affect developing countries.’

Try to imagine for a moment what the impact for poverty eradication would be if that article would be completely executed. If all EU policies, whether they are about international trade, or (illicit) financial flows, or agriculture, or climate change, would fully take into account the impact for developing countries. If that would be the case, support for developing countries would go way beyond the ‘ traditional’ development cooperation and the potential positive effects for developing countries would be inconceivable.

Unfortunately, that is not yet the case. There is growing awareness of Policy Coherence for Development (which is the official term) visible in the EU, but this is not enough. Out of the 177 impact assessments of proposed EU-policies between 2007 and 2013 only 33 of those assessments considered the impact on developing countries. This is for a large party due to the fact that policy coherence is no legal requirement for the EU.

Woord en Daad started asking attention for this matter early 2014, both on a national level in the Netherlands as well on a European level in Brussels. Since one cannot take the whole weight of the world on one’s shoulders Woord en Daad decided to focus mainly on policy coherence on the field of trade agreements between the EU and developing countries. Woord en Daad represents EU-Cord in the PCD Working Group of CONCORD (the European NGO confederation for relief and development), and keeps in touch with MEPs and other policy makers on this issue. The new European Commission and Parliament seem to be motivated to take PCD to the next level which gives hope for the future. Nevertheless, Woord en Daad and EU-Cord will keep an eye on this important issue and will advocate for more coherent EU policies and a legal embedding of PCD.

Picture: A Burkinabe man working on his field

Ruth Faber

4 February 2015

Advocacy Hub
Improving humanitarian intervention

Hassan and Marwa fled Syria with their sons into Jordan by hitching a ride on a cattle car. They were dropped into the middle of the desert near the Jordanian border. After walking for five hours, they finally arrived in Jordan, finding a small apartment in Amman where they live with their three sons.

Two of their boys, Ahmad and Lochan, are severely disabled. Neither can stand, walk, eat, speak, or bathe themselves. Marwa spends most of her days caring for the children. Their third son, Yeyha, is a lively five year old who already helps his mother care for his brothers. During their flight to Jordan, Hassan and Marwa carried their two disabled boys and Yeyha walked.

Hassan said their village became dangerous because of the close proximity to the airport. They had to move to protect themselves from the aerial attacks and bombings. Lochan (17) and Ahmed (7) both received extensive therapy in Syria before they were forced to flee, and now miss out on the therapy they received at home. The boys are the sons of Marwa’s sister, who was married to Hassan but died several years ago. Hassan then married Marwa, who gave birth to Yeyha; she now cares for all the children.

The family has received some assistance from NGOs but they still struggle to get therapy for the boys and cope with their extensive medical issues. Both boys are malnourished and were identified by Medair’s team of community volunteers, who screen Syrian women and children for malnutrition.

Yeyha’s dedication to the boys is inspiring and is a glimmer of hope and kindness in the midst of such difficulty. The nutritional supplements the family receives from Medair to help improve the health and weight of the boys doesn’t solve all of the families’ challenges, but is a significant contribution to the health of their sons.

EU-CORD works with Light for the World to provide training and to work with other members engaged in humanitarian response on how best to support children like Ahmad and Lochan.

Ruth Faber

4 February 2015

Learning Space

Change policy, change the world?

Improving humanitarian intervention