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Mid-term review "in country" phase extended to 15 November - 21.10.09 - The European Commission has put back the deadline for its Heads of Mission in ACP countries to submit draft mid-term review reports until 15 November.  This is to ensure that there civil society and other non state actors are engaged in the preparation of the draft report.  The Commission's Director General for Development has informed Heads of Mission that there must be an effective involvement of civil society for the draft reports to be accepted in Brussels. See note to delegations


08-06-09- Gabon's leader Bongo died - The president of Gabon, Omar Bongo, has died after 41 years in power in the west central African country.  Read BBC article


New website for journalists provides single entry point to EU development cooperation. -

DevWire.eu is a unique website set up to help journalists covering EU development cooperation. The site is a comprehensive one-stop shop presenting relevant, up-to-date and reliable news from a variety of sources, such as the European Institutions, NGOs, think tanks and media.
Find the Press Release, go to Devwire.eu



EU-ACP Council of Ministers - EU-ACP Council of Ministers to be held on 29 May in Brussels. Find the provisionnal agenda here


Guidelines for MTR - 05.08.09. EC announces the guidelines for the Mid-term review will be ready by June 12th. (see here)

Budget Support

Budget support refers to the infusion of financial resources by a donor government to the National Treasury of a partner country under a set of agreed conditions for payment. In the context of the EU, there are two forms of budget support -- General Budget Support (GBS) which aims to support national development or reform policy/strategy and Sector Budget Support (SBS) which pertains to the support of a particular national sector programme policy and strategy.

Budget support is seen as a means to ensure predictability of aid and which according to an OECD-DAC evaluation, results to higher allocations to health and education by partner governments, higher budget execution rates, and improved access to services. On the other hand, due to the nature of the instrument, one cannot directly attribute budget support to results in development.

The European Commission is increasing its use of general and sectoral budget support in line with the European Consensus and the Paris Declaration commitments. In ACP countries under the 10thEDF, the share of resources programmed as BS is expected to increase to about 44% (or € 13.5 billion), compared to 25% at the start of 9th EDF. This reflects a moderate increase in GBS of 3.4% and a substantial leap of 16.1% in SBS.

Click here for the list of ACP programmes supported under Budget Support.

Related Documents  

Fiche on Budget Support

Related Links

European Commission: Aid Delivery Budget Support and Economic Governance