This report highlights the challenges facing ECDPM as it works to strengthen international cooperation in an increasingly complex global governance environment. It demonstrates the unique opportunity presented by ECDPM’s particular role as an interlocutor between Europe and some of the world’s least developed regions.
At ECDPM, a key focus in 2009 was fine-tuning our work to take cognisance of the emerging dynamics shaping the international cooperation agenda.
At ECDPM, a key focus in 2009 was fine-tuning our work to take cognisance of the emerging dynamics shaping the international cooperation agenda. We continued to integrate the activities of our three core programmes to more effectively tackle the interconnectedness of development policy with other global concerns, including financial stability, trade, environment and security. We also began exploring ways to build synergies with partners outside of the traditional development sector.
A core challenge in this was finding innovative means to help partners better understand the policy implications of the changing geopolitical landscape. With regional integration emerging as a key response to global uncertainty, we invested considerable energy in streamlining our research, process facilitation and outreach activities to focus on the governance and institutional questions that are at the heart of these developments.
For ECDPM, remaining relevant to our partners is in large part about remaining true to our mission and focusing on our strengths. This approach was validated by the mid-term review of our 2007-2011 Strategy, which revealed the great value that stakeholders and partners continue to place in ECDPM’s core role as an ‘honest broker’ in policy dialogue between ACP countries and the European Union.
