Report on the European Development Days in Strasbourg

Bernard Kouchner, the French Minister for Foreign and European Affairs, and Alain Joyandet, the French Minister of State for Cooperation and the Francophonie, opened and closed this keynote development event whose theme this year was devoted to local governance.

Coming between the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra and the Doha International Conference on Financing for Development, the EDD was one of the highlights of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the field of development.

The 2008 event was characterised by several important elements:

• An exceptional level of participation, in terms of numbers and the quality and diversity of participants. The 5 000 participants came from every continent and included members from over 1 200 organisations involved in development policies, ranging from governments, agencies, NGOs and universities to local authorities, who were particularly well represented due to this year’s focus on local governance;

• The high number of ministers from developed and developing countries in attendance, along with several Heads of State, notably Blaise Compaore, the President of Burkina Faso and Chairman of ECOWAS and WAEMU, Michèle Pierre-Louis, the Prime Minister of Haiti, Marc Ravalomanana, the President of Madagascar, Amadou Toumani Touré, the President of Mali, and Thomas Yayi Boni, the President of Benin. Morgan Tsvangiraï, the leader of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change, also attended the EDD closing ceremony in Strasbourg.

• The reaffirmation, on the heels of the G20 summit in Washington, of the need to take development issues into account with regard to a worldwide response to the financial crisis. This requirement was stressed by Bernard Kouchner, the French Minister for Foreign and European Affairs. Alain Joyandet, the French Minister of State for Cooperation and the Francophonie, took the initiative, at a lunch held on 17 November, to associate his European counterparts and Henrietta Fore, USAID Administrator, in a dialogue with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and several ministers from partner countries (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Togo, Benin and Yemen) who were also in attendance in Strasbourg. Given the diversity of participants, the statement adopted on the basis of consensus at the end of this event represents an important message on the eve of the Doha Conference on the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, the inclusion of their interests in the responses put forward at this conference and the reaffirmation of donors’ aid commitments.

• A call for the European Union to take action to address the food crisis. Joyandet announced that a conference on investment in the agricultural sector would be organised by the Presidency on 8 December 2008.

• The launch of the European Development Cooperation Charter in Supporting of Local Governance, the culmination of several months work between the actors concerned. This process was welcomed in the conclusions of the Council of the European Union on 11 November.

• A commitment to ensure widespread coverage and communication of development issues and promote a positive image of Africa. This was the aim of the cultural and development awareness raising events – debates, concerts, films, exhibitions and a women’s micro-enterprise fair – that took place during the EDD throughout Strasbourg. The events were the subject of reports filmed by Cultures France that can be seen on the EDD website.

Third European Development Days in Strasbourg - Davos meets Porto Alegre  (Announcement)


 

• Updated: 27.12.2008

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