Engaging with the EU

The European Union has a clear commitment to poverty alleviation with significant funding available for humanitarian and development action. EU-CORD therefore provides information and support to assist Members in exploring funding opportunities and developing relationships with the European Union.

In 2011, EU-CORD Members were running 39 EuropeAid funding projects (at just over €34 million) in Central America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. The scope of projects reflects the network’s diversity but there are some strong common themes:

• Food Security: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, South Sudan,
• Disability programming: Afghanistan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Thailand.
• Education: Bangladesh, Kenya, South Sudan, Thailand.
• Water and Sanitation: Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal.
• Child Rights programming: Guatemala, Haiti.

In terms of humanitarian funding, access to ECHO funds by NGOs is through a rigorous pre-approval system. Currently, 10 EU-CORD members hold such Framework Partnership Agreements (FPAs).

In 2011 Cord, MAF, Medair, Tearfund UK and ZOA were running 22 ECHO grants between them totalling €16 million in countries such as Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Pakistan, Myanmar/Burma, Sri Lanka and Haiti.

EU Delegation Watch 2012

2012 Delegation Watch Cover

In 2005, the European Commission took the bold step of decentralising its project management to EU Delegations. This caused both opportunities and problems. To monitor the positive aspects of this approach and to highlight where things are going wrong, CONCORD (network of development platforms and networks of which EU-CORD is a member) undertakes an annual survey of the experiences of civil society in their engagement with EU Delegations. The 2012 report has just been released. Key findings from the 2012 … Continue reading →