ABOUT
I. BACKGROUND
Many European Union New Member States (NMS) have recently shifted from being recipients of development assistance to a role of international donors.
European Union NMS have pledged to provide portion of their national budget to development aid. As the degree of experience in providing development assistance, along with policy, infrastructure and manpower development varies from country to country, the necessity in exchange of information and know-how, overview of trends and future challenges in the field of development assistance appears essential.
A transition process which NMS have successfully concluded in the recent past provided them with a valuable knowledge of transition and European Union accession best practices as well as the understanding of potential difficulties and obstacles in this process. Moreover, due to common historical experiences operators from NMS have substantial comprehension of the state of affairs in the neighbouring non-EU member countries and former Soviet Union countries.
The conference "Development Assistance Operators from the EU New Member States: Experiences, Trends and Challenges" will provide common ground for stakeholders, involved in development assistance from old and new member states, to meet and tackle above mentioned matters.
II. DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
Development aid or development cooperation (also development assistance, technical assistance, international aid, overseas aid or foreign aid) is aid given by governmental and economic agencies to support the economic, social and political development of developing countries.
Since the 1990s, the idea of partnership and the corresponding term "development cooperation" have replaced the traditional milieu in which the relationship was dominated by the wealth and specialised knowledge of one actor. Development aid may come from developed or developing country governments as well as from international organizations such as the World Bank. It differs from humanitarian aid as being aimed at alleviating poverty in the long term, rather than alleviating suffering in the short term.
The developing countries are responsible for their own development as development assistance can only be subsidiary and complementary to the efforts of the developing countries themselves. Aid supports activities for which developing countries have final responsibility and ownership.
III. STAKEHOLDERS
Organizers
The conference is organized and coordinated by the Slovenian development assistance operators - Centre for European Perspective (CEP), Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF), Foundation "TOGETHER" and International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF).
Countries of NMS
The last two EU enlargements occurred on May 1, 2004, when 10 new member states joined (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia), and on January 1, 2007, when Bulgaria and Romania joined.
Participants
The conference by the participants from the European Commission, ministries of foreign affairs, development agencies and operators from European Union member countries, recipient countries of European Development Assistance, bilateral and multilateral donors, and academic world.
IV. CONFERENCE GOAL AND OBJECTIVES
Conference Goal
The conference "Development Assistance Operators from the EU New Member States: Experiences, Trends and Challenges" aims to examine the needs of NMS in order to (re)design their development assistance policies and to explore best practices of institutional arrangements for the assistance implementation.
Conference Specific Objectives
The specific objectives of the Conference are as follows:
- To identify the implications of NMS' new status as donors on the subject of European development cooperation and division of labour. This demands better coordination and harmonization between the Community and Members.
- To facilitate an open exchange of information between development assistance stakeholders; to jointly examine the development needs and policies, prioritisation of development issues and identification of the role of development assistance operators in this matter.
- To provide development assistance operators with an overview of the development policies, strategies and funding mechanisms of the government development agencies and other donors.
- To grant an overview of the development assistance policy, programming and management including Project Appraisal, Programme Assistance, Project Evaluation and Technical Co-operation and so forth enhance efficiency and effectiveness of assistance delivery.
- To present the examples of best practices in institutional arrangements for the assistance implementation and facilitation of better coordination and/or co-operation between development assistance stakeholders.