Knock-on effects: an urgent call to Leave No One Behind

Access the full AidWatch 2020 report.

2020 marks the first year since 1998 that the global rate of poverty has increased.[1] The COVID-19 pandemic has much to do with that, but it doesn’t help that the EU and its Member States are further off-track than ever in meeting their aid targets. In fact, at the current rate of growth, the EU will not meet the (genuine) aid target before 2070, as revealed by CONCORD’s 2020 AidWatch report.

Since 2005, CONCORD’s annual AidWatch report monitors the quantity and quality of EU Official Development Assistance, or ODA. It holds the EU accountable for their commitment to allocate 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) to ODA by 2030. In 2019, despite an absolute rise of €3 billion, ODA fell for the third consecutive year in proportion to the EU’s GNI. So, the EU was off-track in its support to partner countries even before the global pandemic.

Kopin has been at the forefront of the AidWatch initiative in Malta first with influencing the design of the Maltese Government’s policy for its Official Development Aid and then in monitoring Malta’s performance as an emerging donor.

Despite the EU’s repeated reaffirmation of its commitment to meeting the 0.7% target by 2030, very few EU Member States are actually keeping it, making the chances of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals even more remote.

Malta is reporting 0.29% of ODA/GNI for 2019, up from 0.25% in 2018. In real terms, this is a year-on-year increase of €7.47 million (from €28.2 million in 2018 to €35 million in 2019). It can be traced to a rise of €10.05 million in bilateral assistance, which, however, was counterbalanced by a reduction in multilateral assistance of €3.26 million. While this is the third consecutive year with a notable increase (up 23.76% in 2017, 21.92% in 2018 and 32% in 2019) the Maltese AidWatch Working Group is concerned that these figures are due to the increase in reporting of in-donor refugee costs. Once again, this highlights a relative disproportionate reliance of the government on the inflated aid ratio.

The Maltese AidWatch Working Group is worried by the deterioration in the quality of the dialogue between the Development Unit at the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and civil society, especially when compared with the promising interaction established around and during the Council Presidency of early 2017. AidWatch Malta acknowledges that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic must have diverted energies and resources from the Ministry that might have also resulted in the unexpected cancellation of the annual NGO call for projects. AidWatch Malta notes with regret that the government has once more lost an opportunity to collaborate with civil society in supporting community organisations in partner countries to alleviate the impact of the pandemic on the most at-risk people.

Recommendations to the Maltese Government

  • Increase the amount and proportion of genuine aid to meet the objectives set at EU level and make refugee costs additional to the ODA levels previously committed to.
  • Increase the transparency of ODA reporting with an in-depth report on Malta’s overall ODA spending.
  • Improve aid effectiveness by ensuring predictability and multi-annual programming for funds allocated to high quality poverty eradication projects proposed by Maltese CSOs, by raising awareness of CSOs’ development impact of and introducing a co-financing mechanism for larger grants.
  • Support CSOs to increase capacity to implement and monitor projects focused on leaving no one behind.
    Engage with Maltese civil society and development experts in assessing the Maltese ODA programme and policy, evaluating, among other things, its geographical and thematic focus as well as its effectiveness.

 

EU Global Response to COVID-19

This year’s report also provides a preliminary assessment of the ‘EU Global Response to COVID-19’ in partner countries. The EU efficiency in adopting the package was welcome, but it did not introduce extra funding. It only diverted it from other programmes. Moreover, the lack of data availability makes it difficult to account for how the EU is spending this money.

COVID-19 brutally exposes how investments in social sectors are key to enabling sustainable development in partner countries. As we enter into the Decade of Action to accomplish the SDGs, EU ODA should be regarded as an essential expression of global solidarity. As Tomás Nogueira, Advocacy Officer at Portuguese NGDO Platform says, “… EU donors must drastically scale-up their efforts to achieve their international commitments. Otherwise, it won’t be possible to address the economic and social consequences of the pandemic on people around the world, especially the most marginalised.” In the recovery from COVID-19, EU donors must collectively work against the trend of national priorities overshadowing international commitments.

While the knock-on effects of failing to provide enough aid are becoming painfully clear, the report provides recommendations for EU donors to scale-up funding for ODA. Only in that way will we ensure that no one is left behind in the COVID-19 recovery.

 

[1] Mahler D. et al, Updated estimates of the impact of COVID-19 on global poverty, World Bank Blogs, 8 June 2020, https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/updated-estimates-impact-covid-19-global-poverty