Voices & Views

Climate change affects everyone – from villagers in the most remote parts of the world, to metropolitan heads of government and private sector leaders. Amid a changing political landscape and an increase in climate impacts, dialogue and collaboration are needed more than ever to make a lasting difference.

Over the last 20 years, digital technologies have reshaped the scope of international development. From the Internet of things and open data to artificial intelligence and robotics, emerging technologies have presented unprecedented opportunities for social and economic transformation across the world. But their implementation is riddled with many challenges.

With over 3,500 migrants rescued from the desert and 15,000 assisted in returning home from dire situations across the Central Mediterranean routes, the first year of the EU-IOM joint initiative has yielded substantive results. Here’s what we’ve learned.

Over two years since the Ebola crisis, Sierra Leone has seen modest recovery while continuing to struggle with the legacy of its civil war. EU Head of Cooperation, Thierry Cozier, discusses the challenges of addressing food insecurity, corruption and revenue generation.

With €235 million allocated for the 2014-2020 period, Honduras represents the second largest EU portfolio in Latin America, after Bolivia. Former EU Head of Cooperation (2015-2017), Madeleine Onclin, discusses rule of law and engagement modalities.

In the second part of our series on Universal Health Coverage, we look at how the EU is supporting partner countries achieve UHC, through mechanisms like the IHP for UHC 2030, the UHC Partnership, and the SPHIP programme.

Most of the humanitarian response in Somalia remains focused on short-term assistance that doesn’t address the underlying causes of poverty and vulnerability among Somali communities. The growing consensus among international actors is that more long-term approaches are needed to make a sustainable difference in people's lives.

Four-fifths of humanitarian crises now last five years or more, causing traditional short-term responses to become increasingly recurrent. It is therefore important to start thinking long-term while responding to immediate needs.

Under Agenda 2030, the European Commission has committed itself to helping partner countries achieve UHC. In the first part of our series on Universal Health Coverage, Capacity4dev speaks to Dr Joseph Kutzin of WHO and Matthias Reinicke from DG DEVCO on the history of Universal Health Coverage and the common challenges to achieving it.

In recent years, Indonesia has graduated out of bilateral EU development assistance. Franck Viault, who recently finished his post as the Delegation’s Head of Cooperation, explains the different projects and programmes and how they’ve been affected by the country’s graduation.

In development and humanitarian contexts, access to accurate and timely information is crucial for distributing aid and reporting on its results. Frequently, however, the data made available by donors and implementing partners comes in different formats and lacks comprehensiveness and consistency, making it impossible to compare it with data sets from other organisations.

The EU Delegation has played a prominent role in Mali’s recovery as one of a group of international donors who together pledged €615 million to support the country. Cécile Tassin-Pelzer, who recently finished her posting to Mali as Head of Cooperation, discusses the EU delegation’s key projects and how foreign donors can best operate in a fragile state whose multiple problems increase the complexity of cooperation.

Public transportation systems could remedy many of the problems faced by major cities in developing countries. But is there a one-size-fits-all solution to implementing them?

Like its North African neighbours, Morocco has long been the gateway into Europe for people from sub-Saharan Africa. In recent years, it has also become a country of destination. Head of EU Cooperation Philip Mikos discusses what Member States can learn from Morocco’s experience and explains how the country’s status as a Neighbourhood partner affects its cooperation with the EU on areas from vocational training to gender equality.