ACP Mid-Term Review

In-country discussions involving EC delegations, national governments and other actors, especially civil society organisations, are supposed to currently taking place in ACP countries.
However, we have little information about the progress of these discussions. Likewise, EC delegations’ websites don’t provide information about the MTR: only the EC delegations for Mali, the Pacific and Angola provide the guidelines for the MTR !! In this context, it seems difficult for CSOs, especially in ACP countries, to get involved in the MTR process.
Therefore, we would like to know who has some response about in country discussions. How is it taking place? Do EC delegations fulfill their commitment to increase the participation of CSOs ?

Eurostep decided to get involved in the MTR making a toolkit called “Influencing the discussions on Country Strategy Papers during the Mid-Term Review of the 10th EDF”. The aim of this kit is to encourage the participation of NGOs from ACP countries to the MTR. It provides information about what is at stake with the MTR of the 10th EDF, why it is important to get involved in this process and how to be involved. There is also a questionnaire for ACP feedback on the MTR in order to assess the process and evaluate whether the participation of non state actors has increased as well as the democratic accountability.

As far as the European Commission and the DG Development are concerned, we had some talks with them, especially about the guidelines and the participation of civil society organisations. But, nothing really raised of these as the MTR is much in the hands of EC delegations in ACP countries. This situation restrains our capacity to act in Brussels, to the Commission and the DG Dev.

That’s why we decided to put our efforts working with our partners and colleagues in ACP countries. The toolkit has been sent to more than 100 NGOs in ACP countries, NGOs which were supposed to have been consulted during the programming of the 10th EDF. Furthermore, we encourage all organisations to share information, experiences and points of view about the MTR on this blog.

We are looking forward to read your experiences !

Virginie Martin for Eurostep

The European Commission has adopted the guidelines (french version) for the MTRs.

The in-country discussions stage has been delayed as NGOs received a copy of the guidelines on July 7, while it was planned to get these on June 15.

This delay makes NGOs facing a number of issues, complicationg their involvment capacity and their power to act to the European Commission and particularly to the Directorate General for the Development (DG Dev).

Furthermore, the EC delegations in ACP countries have already received the guidelines and started their detailed planning. Therefore, the MTR process will be more in the hands of each delegation, which restrains the European NGOs capacity to act in Brussels, to the Commission and the DG Dev.

It is time for European NGOs to put efforts into working with their colleagues in ACP countries to promote the opportunity for their engagement in the MTRs. It os the best use of our capacity, as European NGOs, given the constraints we face.

Eurostep

Hello, welcome to our blog on the ACP Mid-Term Review.

You will find all the needed information about the Mid-Term Review of the 10th European Development Fund in “About this blog”.

Feel free to contribute to this blog ! It is time for civil society to take an active part in the MTR ! You can contribute to the review by analysing and commenting the existing Country Strategy Papers and reports, drafts or concept notes produced during the Mid-Term Review. In a word, all you think it is relevant to increase the participation of non state actors and the democratic accountability of the process.

To go back to the ACP-Programming site, click on the header image.

To go back to the first page of this blog, click on the title.

If you want to contribute to this blog by posting documents, or have any questions about it, please mail acp-blog (at) eurostep (dot) org