The years 2012 and 2013 will be marked by transition for ECDPM. The Centre will maintain its strong track record as an independent broker and contributor to strengthening cooperation and relations between Europe, its members states and institutions, and the countries and institutions of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). In 2011, the Centre celebrated its 25th anniversary with a high-level, forward-looking seminar on the future of the relationship between Europe and the ACP Group of States. Also in 2011, the ECDPM Board, management and staff engaged in intensive internal reflection and external consultation to prepare for the next five-year strategic period. An essential input to this process was an external evaluation carried out by a team of experts from Africa and Europe.
After extensive consultations with external stakeholders, the evaluation team concluded that ECDPM has become well established as a centre of excellence. It also concluded that the Centre continually delivers high value for money, achieving substantial outcomes and impact in the field of EU-ACP policy, cooperation and related capacities. The external evaluation team further pointed out ECDPM’s noblesse oblige: to remain relevant and effective in the current complex and dynamic global policy arena. In short, ECDPM is now challenged to build on its strengths. In response, we will take a number of decisive steps in the upcoming strategic plan period to adapt and renew in the face of today’s changing global development context.
ECDPM aligns its strategy with the evolving global development landscape. We look for the general direction of change and its deeper causes and identify major transitions that will drive the dynamics of international cooperation in the years to come. For the 2012–2016 period, these are six:
• Increasing scarcity, especially of raw materials and water, leading to global competition for access to resources and a corresponding potential for conflict
• The transition towards a “green” economy, with the related challenge of effective global management of climate change
• Demands for more inclusive growth and development, characterised by increasing pressure “from below” to achieve a fairer distribution of resources, social justice, democracy and respect for human rights
• The need to safeguard human security by addressing conflict and improving the resilience of communities to (external) shocks, such as environmental degradation and rising food prices
• The acknowledged global responsibility for global public goods, alongside the question of how to address the broader development agenda via new forms of dialogue and cooperation between various policy domains
• The restructuring of the global “multi-level governance system” and associated shift of power to new actors and new frameworks of global governance
