Monthly Highlights from ECDPM's Weekly Compass Update, Great Insights, volume 3, Issue 4 (April 2014)
How Does the EU Make Decisions That Matter for Africa? Weekly Compass, No. 184, 4 April 2014
ECDPM’s latest guide is for African and European audiences eager to know more about how the European Union makes decisions on Africa in an ever changing and interdependent relationship between the two continents. What guiding documents, financial and other instruments does the EU use? What are the main dynamics and challenges? No death by powerpoint here! This new guide is an in-house presentation supported by infographics and narrated by our own Essete Abebe Bekele and Clem Silverman. It is based on previous ECDPM's research and body of knowledge.
By the Numbers – How Donors Can Support a Demand-led Post-2015 Data and Statistics Revolution. Weekly Compass , No. 183, 28 March 2014
Do we need a ‘data revolution’ goal to create the right demand for a data and statistics revolution post-2015? Recent calls for a ‘data revolution’ emphasise how in the dark we are on the social, economic and developmental status of developing countries, especially in Africa. Accurate, timely, relevant and available data and statistics in many cases simply don’t exist. Efforts to improve data are mostly donor-driven, and given fluctuating aid levels, they’re rarely systematic, and relegated to technical discussions far-removed from what data should be for: good governance, transparency and accountability. ECDPM’s Florian Krätke argues for a global goal to improve the quality and availability of economic, demographic, environmental and social data alongside the goals in thematic areas.
Sometimes it takes a donor to get things back on track. Weekly Compass, No. 182, 21 March 2014
The launch of the Institute for Development Studies Centre for Business and Development was held in London last week. The centre ‘aims to become a global research and policy engagement centre that will tackle critical questions’. ECDPM’s Bruce Byiers writes that at the event there was a danger of the conversation succumbing to clichéd interventions and full agreement. But thankfully, he says, DfID turned up and injected some energy, frankness, slight provocation and a call for realism. And that isn't something you can often say…, Byiers adds in this blog post.
The Implementation of the Joint Africa-Europe Strategy : Rebuilding Confidence and Commitments. Weekly Compass, No. 181, 14 March 2014
EU’s relations with Africa are multidimensional and still need to be guided by high-level political ambitions through the Joint Africa Europe Strategy (JAES). Despite its bureaucratic shortfalls, some engaged in Africa - EU relations actually managed to use the JAES effectively, in areas such as peace and security and infrastructure, but the partnership has lost its political traction because of serious divergences on trade.
