About the Project: Call for Coherence

During the Finnish EU presidency KEHYS and the Finnish NGOs interested in development issues will focus on Policy Coherence for Development. Development aid and debt reduction on their own will not bring lasting solutions to the problems of the worlds poorest. Therefore we need a comprehensive approach.

What campaign? The Presidency Project aims to bring policy coherence more strongly to the attention of all relevant stakeholders. KEHYS and the NGOs will focus on five areas where common goals with development policy are especially important. The areas are trade, security, environment, HIV/AIDS and migration.

During the presidency KEHYS will also carefully monitor the official development agenda and focus on advocacy actions in Finland as well as in the EU. KEHYS will serve all interested Finnish and European NGOs: inform about related events and current affairs on the development agenda. The Aim of the Campaign? European NGOs have compiled a list of five recommendations concerning policy coherence for development. The recommendations to the EU as well as the national governments are as follows:

● The European Union must reach the collective target of 0.7% of the GNI allocated to Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2015. All EU Members States that have not yet done so must set a clear timetable for reaching the long-promised 0.7% target.

● There is a clear need for an independent development cooperation policy geared towards poverty eradication. The values, objectives and political space for development policy must not become subordinate to foreign, security or commercial policy agendas.

● It must be ensured that internal and external (EU) policies integrate development objectives, so that these policies contribute to and do not undermine sustainable development and poverty eradication. Ex ante mechanisms, programming tools, coordination and other institutional mechanisms to address coherence issues must be improved. ● The role and expertise of European civil society organizations and NGOs in research and monitoring policy coherence and its implementation should be recognised.

● EU must contribute to the ability of the developing countries to implement the international agreements they are committed to such as the poverty reduction strategy papers.

What happens during the Presidency?

The Manifesto A working group of Finnish NGOs has compiled cases in which concrete links between trade, migration, security, HIV/AIDS and environment policies and development policy are shown. The manifesto features a list of recommendations from the NGOs. You can download the manifesto from the main page or you can order paper copies from the KEHYS secretariat.

More information: “Call for Coherence” Conference

KEHYS organised the main event on 2-3 October together with Finnish NGOs, CONCORD, European Commission, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Development Policy Committee of Finland. The conference took place in Helsinki and it was also the main event for CONCORD in 2006. The conference served as a discussion forum for different stakeholders and the aim was to produce recommendations on how to improve policy coherence: coordination and institutional mechanisms. A joint message from the conference was sent to the General Affairs and External Relations Council in Luxembourg on 16-17 October.

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Development Education Conference KEHYS organised a conference on Development Education on 3-4 July in Helsinki together with the European Commission, interested Member States, OECD, North -South Centre of the Council of Europe and CONCORD. The conference was a follow-up for the conference in Brussels last May and the focus was on the European DE strategy and the role of DE in the New Member States. The aim was also to concentrate on how the recommendations of the Brussels conference have been taken into account in the Member States and in the Commission and how the implementation of those could be enhanced and monitored in the future.

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Euromed Civil Forum KEHYS will take part in the preparations for the Euromed Civil Forum which will take place in Marrakech, Morocco on 4-7 November. The forum will focus on developing dialogue and cooperation between the civil society in the EU and the Mediterranean region. The European Neighbourhood Policy will also be on the agenda. KEHYS will organize a national consultation and choose the national delegates.

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