The European Commission wants to embed resilience more deeply in its humanitarian and development programs — and it has proposed a new policy to do just that.
The proposal, dubbed “EU Approach to Resilience: Learning from Food Security Crises,” was forwarded Oct. 3 to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, which need to both approve it before it can be operationalized.
According to Kristalina Georgieva, the European commissioner for humanitarian aid, international cooperation and crisis response, the policy reflects a “shared vision” and “joint commitment to act” on resilience from the EU development and humanitarian departments.
European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs, meanwhile, stressed that building resilience and tackling the causes of recurrent crises “is not only more efficient but also much cheaper.”
The proposal does not include practical details yet on how a new policy on resilience could affect actual EU funding and programs. These details would likely be included in an action plan the commission aims to prepare in the first quarter of 2013.
The communication does hint at potential action points. For one, the new policy will build on the lessons from and results of two existing resilience-focused initiatives of the European Commission: the Supporting Horn of African Resilience, or SHARE, and the l’Alliance Globale pour l’Initiative Résilience Sahel, or AGIR-Sahel, projects. SHARE aims to mobilize up to €270 million ($349.1 million) through 2013 while AGIR-Sahel’s target funding is at €750 million over the next three years.
It also identifies a set of principles to guide EU engagement in this field: align EU support with recipient country priorities, support the development of national resilience strategies, boost the flexibility of EU aid programs, and elevate resilience in the list of aid priorities in countries facing recurrent crises.
The European Union will also engage partner countries in political dialogue to address security concerns, promote innovative approaches to risk management and work with other stakeholders to develop country-level platforms for exchanging information and aid coordination, the policy says. Further, it commits the European Union to replicate SHARE and AGIR and to promote resilience in international venues like the G-8 and G-20 annual meetings.
Meanwhile, on the same day the resilience-building proposal was presented, the European Commission released a joint communication with the EU High Representative for foreign and security policy that presents concrete suggestions on implementing tools for supporting countries in transition.
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About the author
Ivy Mungcal
As former senior staff writer, Ivy Mungcal contributed to several Devex publications. Her focus is on breaking news, and in particular on global aid reform and trends in the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas. Before joining Devex in 2009, Ivy produced specialized content for U.S. and U.K.-based business websites.
