Europe Development Digest

On the heels of the 6th annual meeting of the European Commission and the African Union in Addis Ababa (joint statement here), which aims to prepare for next year's Africa-EU Summit to update the 2007 Joint Africa-EU Strategy, a new paper by Damien Helly of the European Centre for Development Policy Management looks at the four key variables in the relationship between Africa and the EU since the adoption of the 2007 Joint Strategy: economy, development, governance and politics, and multilateralism. A "continental drift" is in the making, he argues, associated with widening cracks in economic blocs.

The number of people internally displaced by armed conflict, violence and human rights violations reached 28.8 million in 2012, the highest figure recorded by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), according to its annual report. Around 6.5 million people were newly displaced, almost twice as many as in 2011. The higher figures are consistent with the rise in the number of violent conflicts around the world, particularly in Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which account for about half of new displacements. Speaking at an NGO eventin Washington, DC, UN high commissioner for refugees António Guterres paints a gloomy picture for humanitarian workers, whom he said face  unprecedented challenges ahead.

Austria - a major tax haven - will join European negotiations on the automatic exchange of banking data, allowing the European Union (EU) to begin talks over bank secrecy with non-EU states such as Switzerland,reports EurActiv. Austria was the last EU country to bloc the scheme, after Luxembourg - its long-time ally - caved in two weeks ago. Austrian officials hope to reach a deal before the European Council meeting in May, when EU leaders will discuss ways to curb tax dodging.

A new report by Global Witness finds that the extensive granting of "shadow permits" is undermining efforts to preserve rainforests, protect indigenous rights and strengthen the rule of law in timber-producing countries in Africa. Originally intended to promote small, local enterprises and to meet local needs in a controlled, regulated way, "shadow permits" are now being used to bypass tighter regulations, enabling companies to continue to export large amounts of timber to the US, EU and China at the expense of local communities. An open, transparent and competitive permit allocation process, improved due diligence and a meaningful legal framework are among the report's recommendations for moving forward.

Building on French president François Hollande's recent efforts to combat tax evasion, 22 French civil society organisations, including CCFD - Terre Solidaire, Oxfam France, Sherpa, Transparency international, and Caritas France published a roadmap to end tax havens and financial secrecy. Among their recommendations are: country-by-country reporting requirements for multinationals, automatic exchange of bank information, banning shell companies, strengthening sanctions against legal and financial intermediaries, and ensuring that developing countries are included in any global tax reforms.

Representatives of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) gathered in Rome last week to debate the 2014-2015 budget (including a proposed 1 percent budget increase) and discuss innovative approaches to food security, among them: a new strategic framework (to be endorsed in June), two new plans to engage the private sector and civil society (both approved), and a new role for African countries, Devex reports. Countries were divided on the issue of the proposed budget increase, with the EU opposed. The meeting coincides with a new report by Development Initiatives which shows that official development assistance for basic nutrition has increased by only 1 percent of the total required to eradicate hunger, as estimated by the World Bank. 

In a new paper, the Overseas Development Institute introduces a new model of growth, inequality and poverty that allows for systematic, methodologically transparent, comparative analyses of estimates of poverty in the future based on a range of different methods. Given how estimates of the scale and location of future poverty varies by approach, experts should use these models to develop a range of possible outputs that reflect the inherent uncertainties and assumptions involved, the report argues.