Monthly Highlights from ECDPM's Weekly Compass Update Great Insights, Volume 1, Issue 8, (October 2012)

Smart EU support to decentralization. Weekly Compass, no 123, 28 September 2012 
The European Commission is embracing an increasingly political approach to development cooperation that recognises the crucial role of developing countries’ local authorities in ensuring domestic accountability. It is preparing a document to frame EU support to decentralisation. To ensure that policy-making responds to the realities on the ground, the EC organised a four-day seminar with EU delegations’ representatives, facilitated by ECDPM. The seminar report was published this week and provides important strategic and operational messages for the EU on how to provide smart support to decentralisation

ECDPM at the EDDs: Confronting inequality. Weekly Compass, Issue 122, 21 September 2012
Over 70% of the world's poor live in middle income countries like China, India, Indonesia or Nigeria. As such, high socio-economic inequality is detrimental to poverty reduction, economic growth and political stability. Thus, promoting “inclusive” growth has to go hand in hand with addressing inequality. A European Think Tanks Group (ODI, DIE, ECDPM and FRIDE) panel at this year’s European Development Days will debate how the EU could response to rising inequality in developing countries. On the blog on the European Think-Tanks Group’s new webpage researchers from all institutes write about how public policies and private investment could target distributional issues. 

Addressing the "dark side of globalisation". Weekly Compass, no 122, 21 September 2012 
Fragile states are particularly vulnerable to the dynamics and risks involved in the process of globalisation because of their generally weak governance systems and/or low capacity. The OECD DAC’s International Network on Conflict and Fragility has opened a consultation to complete its study “Think global, act global: Confronting global factors that influence conflict and fragility”. It proposes nine entry points where the international community can address some of the negative global influences on conflict and fragility more effectively and coherently, such as regulation to prevent transnational organised crime and illicit markets in military goods and services.

“Everything that comes out of Political Economy Analysis is dynamite”. Weekly Compass, no 120, 7 September 2012 
In an interview with capacity4dev.eu, ECDPM’s Jean Bossuyt, a member the European Commission’s Political Economy Analysis (PEA) Team in Senegal, outlines some of the key aspects of the EC’s PEA methodology. “Political Economy Analysis’ purpose is to better understand where the reform processes come from, where the dynamics come from, who are the ‘blocking’ actors, etc.,” he says. “Everything that comes out of Political Economy Analysis is dynamite, so you have to be sure that you can use it properly and politically.” He considers the first important step is to ensure that the process has the full support of the EU Delegation. Secondly, the objectives of the evaluation must be clearly defined and a multi-disciplinary team, with a mix of international and local expertise, should undertake the process. “The initial PEA cannot solve all problems, but can provide a better overview of what really drives reforms and this can be used later on, in a sequenced way, to perhaps do more targeted PEAs, for instance in a sector,” Bossuyt concludes. 

This article was published in Great Insights Volume 1, Issue 9 (November 2012)

This article was published in Great Insights Volume 1, Issue 8 (October 2012)