Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, July 02, 2004.
Nigeria, others to get EU, UNDP aid package
By Chuks Isiwu,
Energy Editor, Lagos
The European Union (EU) and the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) have announced the forging of an agreement on a
unique strategic partnership that would strengthen their ability to deliver
efficient, high quality aids to developing countries, including Nigeria.
The partnership, which is the first of a series of
such initiatives planned by the EU with United Nations (UN) agencies, covers
the areas of governance, conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction.
Nigeria, with its various internal crises, is
expected to benefit from the new initiative, which is specifically planned to
promote the shared goals of establishing solid foundations for peace and
recovery from crises in developing countries and to promote the millennium
development goals, particularly the fight against poverty.
Although the partnership will initially focus on
governance, conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction, attention
would also be given to improving the transition from relief to rehabilitation
and development in countries that emerge from conflict.
EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid,
Mr. Poul Nielson, is quoted as saying at the signing ceremony at the UNDP headquarters
in New York: “We have had successful collaboration with UNDP in the past.
Now, we want to build on this experience and expand our collaboration. This is
the signal we are sending today. The UNDP has key expertise and is uniquely
placed to be an important delivery vehicle for a number of our policy
priorities. We have to capitalise on the complementarity of our two
organisations. If we succeed in forging closer ties, the quality and the
effectiveness of our aid will improve to the benefit of the poor.”
UNDP Administrator, Mr. Mark Malloch Brown, said:
“We are extremely pleased and gratified to be announcing this new
partnership, the first of its kind between the European Union and a UN agency.
This strategic collaboration will greatly strengthen our ability to respond
swiftly and thoroughly in conflict and post-conflict crisis situations, where
early and vigorous and well-conceived intervention is absolutely essential for
long-term impact. As with the commission’s support for our continuing work
on democratic governance, this should also help move the world community a step
closer to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.”
The EU and the UNDP have had a long history of close
cooperation in the field of development assistance, particularly in areas such
as de-mining, conflict prevention, human rights and democratisation. EU’s
support to UNDP-led activities totaled 124 million Euros from 1999 to 2002.
Co-operation has usually been on an ad-hoc basis. The new strategic partnership
- the first of its kind - now provides for a more systematic and
well-targeted collaboration. This will involve regular policy dialogue at headquarters
level to foster common development aid approaches, paving the way for more
systematic collaboration in the field.
With a closer collaboration in the field, the EU and UNDP hope to become
better positioned to capitalise on their respective comparative advantages. The
result, officials of the two bodies said, should be a division of labour that
promotes efficiency and avoids duplication.
In addition to the efficiency gains, the promotion of common approaches would
play well into efforts by recipient country governments to promote donor
co-ordination and strengthen ownership of the development process, thereby
boosting quality and sustainability of the aid efforts.
