ACP Mid-Term Review

From July 2009 to April 2010, the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the 10^th European Development Fund (EDF) is taking place. The EDF is the main instrument for deliver aid to ACP countries in the framework of the Cotonou Agreement (CA). The 10^th EDF started in 2008, it will last until 2013 and it has a budget of 22.682 billions of Euros. The MTR process aims to assess the Country Strategy Papers (CSP) and the National Indicative Programs (NIP) that were defined during the 10^th EDF programming. This assessment can lead to the adaptation of the strategies if the context, priorities or objectives of the partner country have changed. It may also lead to the adjustment of the granting according to the current needs and performance. Above all, the 10^th EDF MTR represents an opportunity for the European Commission to fulfil the commitments of the CA, so as the civil society’s studies have highlighted that the 10^th EDF programming process have failed to deliver on several points. In fact, it appears that there has been a lack of transparency in the fields of ownership and governance; education, health, environment sustainability and gender were not enough taken into account; the EU tends to promote its interests alone when it came to Economic Partnership Agreements; and the involvement of non-state actors and national parliaments, though it is formally planned by the Cotonou Agreement, has appeared to be put aside.