|
Leading donors agree on better coordination of activities
in the Mediterranean region
Leading donors agree on joint efforts towards better
coordination of activities in the Middle East and North
Africa / Mediterranean region
The European Commission, the European Investment Bank (EIB)
and the World Bank today signed a joint Memorandum of
Understanding aimed at enhancing donor coordination in the
Middle East and North Africa / Southern Mediterranean
region. The agreement signed in Brussels by senior officials
from the three institutions will lead to a more focused and
complementary approach at all levels from programme
implementation to aid programming and overall policies.
Despite the region's rich cultural history and heritage, its
vast wealth
of natural resources and its undoubted development
potential, it is nonetheless beset by many challenges and a
vast prosperity gap between countries North and South of the
Mediterranean. The growth performance of most countries has
proved to be insufficient to tackle poverty and
unemployment. Almost 100 million new jobs need to be created
in the coming two decades to guarantee employment for
today's unemployed workers, and future, first-time
job-seekers.
There is increasing awareness among the donors in the region
that major improvements are needed in welfare for all
citizens. The EU's Barcelona Process and Neighbourhood
policy, the EIB's Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment
and Partnership (FEMIP) and the World Bank's regional
strategy testify to their commitment and engagement. To
date, the donors' policy response has been to focus more
closely on economic, institutional and sectoral reform
through broader engagement with the countries and
partnerships with civil society.
While each of today's signatories has its own mandate and
domains of policy emphasis, these are very complementary.
The European Commission, the EIB and the World Bank are
natural partners for development in the region, representing
major financing and technical capacity and strong
collaboration
at programme and sectoral levels. An aggregated approach
would avoid duplication and competition of efforts while
facilitating focus on the respective strengths of the
partners. The objective of the Memorandum of Understanding
is to further enhance, structure and streamline the
coordination process. For that purpose the agreement
envisages institutional
coordination, coordination of technical work, jointly
financed projects and a joint
progress review.
The principal beneficiaries of such an agreed and
coordinated approach at regional, country and sectoral
levels would be the countries of the region, who in the past
may have suffered the adverse side-effects of donor
fragmentation. A coordinated approach starting on a
pragmatic basis and linking EC grant assistance operations,
EIB project financing and World Bank
loans and technical capacity will enhance the efficiency of
each partner's efforts in responding to the region's needs.
The European Commission already has similar Memoranda of
Understanding with leading donors in the new Member States /
candidate countries and in the New Independent States.
|
