Europe is the world’s leading provider of official development assistance (ODA). The EU and its member states account for 60% of all development moneys. Africa alone receives roughly US $14 billion a year from its northern neighbours. But is Europe also an agenda setter in the global development arena? Not quite. Authoritative paradigms and policies have always originated in Washington and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York.

Sindre Ellingsen, Alamy

The European Commission (EC) – after gentle insistence by researchers – has realized that if Europe wants to play a more prominent role in setting development agendas, its policies and vision must be informed by rigorous and original research. The European Report on Development (ERD) is considered a step toward achieving this. The ERD is to be a flagship report that will be comparable in stature to the World Development Report (WDR) and the Human Development Report (HDR).

The Broker invited European academics and researchers to evaluate this initiative. The opinions expressed, and some general information on the ERD project, are presented in the first part of this special report.

We asked the same academics for their views on the role that the European Union (EU) could or should play in fighting poverty and global inequality, and what unique expertise or experience Europe has to offer that can benefit the poor areas of the world. Our respondents from Sweden, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Italy report that, in their countries, the subject of Europe’s role in development is approached with ‘mixed enthusiasm’ or ‘a fair bit of scepticism’. No big surprise there. Yet there is a growing sense that without concerted efforts and a common vision on the part of the EU member states, the potential impact of the money spent on development assistance will not be realized. That is the subject of the second part of this report. Also included are short interviews with two people who have been closely involved with the ERD initiative: EC economist Françoise Moreau and Simon Maxwell, director of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London.