Top story

Global partnership on Effective Development Cooperation: Will this weekend's Senior Level Meeting turn the tide on effective development?

In this blog, Eurodad offers its take on the upcoming senior level meeting (SLM) of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), a multi-stakeholder platform established to make sure all development actors deliver on their commitments to ensure development cooperation is really eradicating poverty and bringing about sustainable development. In light of donors’ stalled progress to deliver on key development effectiveness principles, the SLM is an opportunity to crank up the political momentum needed to deliver the development effectiveness agenda and the SDGs. This would require donors to change track and put developing countries in the driving seat of development cooperation.

News & reports

Opinion: IMF is failing people with disabilities in Argentina

During the last month’s Disability Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentinian disability rights activists carried signs in protest of a raft of drastic measures that have seen people stripped of potentially life-saving health insurance; denied rehabilitation that would allow them to live independently; and left without mental health care when they want and need it most. How did it come to this? While the full chain of events is complex, the conditions attached to the IMF's recent US$56 billion loan are having a crucial and insidious influence on the austerity policies now profoundly impacting some of the most marginalised Argentines.

EU development finance can play a stronger and better role, say CSOs

Over the last few decades, the European financial architecture for development has changed significantly. Development finance is currently a central piece in the EU's development policy toolbox but with scarce resources available, a serious assessment is needed. This week CEE Bankwatch Network, Concord, Counter Balance and Eurodad submitted a set of recommendations to the High Level Group of Wise Persons on the European financial architecture for development, read them here.

Spotlight report on sustainability in Europe - who is paying the bill? (Negative) impacts of EU policies and practices in the world.

Studying EU policies thoroughly means studying policies of externalization. The thirteen chapters assembled in this publication by SDG Watch Europe constitute impressive – albeit gloomy – evidence for this assertion. In fact, they point to the pressing political need for taking responsibility, to acknowledge that it is others who pay the cost for ‘our’ success – and that this is a moral burden we, the European citizens, should not be willing to bear any longer.

World leaders must stop fueling inequality

In the coming months, governments and global leaders will gather at numerous summits and high-level meetings, where the fight against inequality will once again be high on the agenda. And yet, they are failing to deal with the inequality crisis. In response, Eurodad has signed an open letter calling out the failure of the current approach and setting out a vision for radical change.

Useful resources

Push no one behind: how current economic policy exacerbates gender inequality

With just a decade remaining in its mandate, progress against the Agenda 2030 ambitions is way off course. In this briefing the Gender & Development Network suggest that the problem is not just that women are left behind but that they are pushed behind by current economic policies, which exacerbate and sometimes even exploit entrenched gender inequalities.

Our 2019 International Conference and General Assembly

On 3 and 4 June, Eurodad held its International Conference, followed by the General Assembly on 5 June in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Thanks to our excellent co-host Ekvilib Institute and the support of Focus, SLOGA Platform and EnaBanda, we were able to accommodate over 150 attendees to define our network’s way forward to achieve economic justice for all. Here are the key take away messages from three crucial days of strategising, planning and networking.

Upcoming events & job vacancies

Senior Financing for Development Advisor at Oxfam IBIS

Developing countries face an annual financing gap of US$ 2.5 trillion if they are to realise the sustainable development goals. Oxfam IBIS’ strategy for 2018-2022 stresses the need for ‘influencing decision-makers to enhance the size and effect of global and Danish development assistance and financing for development’. Oxfam IBIS is seeking a Senior Financing for Development Advisor to help deliver on this objective.

Global health; everybody's concern, everybody's business

On 6 September, Wemos will organise their congress ‘Global health: everybody’s concern, everybody’s business’ at COMM (Museum for Communication) in The Hague, the Netherlands . The day promises an enticing programme including(inter)national speakers such as Professor Brigit Toebes (University of Groningen), Denise Namburete (N’weti) and Anna Marriott (Oxfam GB). The full programme and registration details can be found here.

Development Finance Watch is taking a break - we'll see you again in September! We wish all of our readers a fantastic summer.

This newsletter has been produced with co-funding from the European Union, Bread for the World and Norad. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Eurodad and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the funders.