Europe wants ‘recognition’ for its aid to Africa

If she had her time again, the outgoing boss of the European Commission’s development department says she would focus more on telling people in Africa how much the European Union and its member states give in foreign aid. Jutta Urpilainen said in a video interview with the Center for Global Development think tank, released on Oct. 9, that communication was a challenge from the beginning of her mandate in 2019. “Taking into account how much funding we provide to our partners in the Global South, and the fact that we are still the biggest [official development assistance] provider in the world, I think we have not been able to communicate about it enough — or I would say, so strongly, as I hoped,” she said. The EU institutions and its member states accounted for €95.9 billion ($104.9 billion), or 42% of total official development assistance, or ODA, from the top Western donors measured by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, in 2023. Germany alone marshaled $36.7 billion and France $15.4 billion. The European Commission, which controls the bloc’s common budget, contributed $27 billion. Urpilainen said that her successor should make communicating about the joint contribution by the commission and EU states his “highest priority” in order to also “increase the recognition and acknowledgment of our work”. Former Czech industry and trade minister, Josef Sikéla, is due to take over command of the EU’s development portfolio for the next five years, provided he passes a grilling by members of the European Parliament on Nov. 6. Commission surveys show that “even though we have been one of the biggest donors in many of our partner countries — for instance, in Africa — the citizens in those countries do not recognize that,” Urpilainen said. Devex reported on the results of one study that showed how recognition for the EU brand and projects in some African countries ranked behind awareness of China, the United States, France, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations. The commission denied Devex’s access to the information request to see the full findings. However, the New York Times reported that those poor results led to the bloc paying for a €6.5 million advertising campaign to raise awareness of what the EU does on the continent. There are signs Sikéla agrees with Urpilainen’s diagnosis. He met with the liberal Luxembourger MEP Charles Goerens earlier this month, one of the most long-standing and engaged members of the European Parliament’s development committee. “As European efforts often remain not recognised by local populations,” Goerens posted on social media afterward, “we agreed that the [EU] needs to boost the visibility of its development aid around the world and improve its policy coherence.” More strategic communication Urpilainen’s complaint is not new. “Sometimes you get the impression that everything that the EU does is taken for granted,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, told Politico in February 2023 in reference to its funding outside Europe. And, as far back as May 2005, the then-president of the commission, José Manuel Barroso, gave a speech at the London School of Economics on the topic of EU development assistance. “I wonder if you, and others, realize how much the EU and its members are doing already,” Barroso told the audience. At that time, including the contribution of the United Kingdom before it left the EU, Barroso was able to claim that the commission and its member states made up 55% of all ODA. Reminders and advice on how to better sell the “narrative” of European development cooperation dot the OECD peer reviews from 2018, 2012, 2007, and 1998 of the commission’s aid efforts. In 2012, OECD peer reviewers wrote that the commission should “build a communication culture and shift the current focus away from ensuring visibility of EU development support towards communicating priorities, challenges and long-term results.” There are signs the commission is changing tack. It wrote in the 2022 and 2023 annual summaries of its activities that it had a new communications approach based on “political campaigning around a core narrative and high-profile deliverables,” which aimed to move away from promoting “fragmented, partner-implemented activities.” The name of the game now is “headquarters- and EU delegations-driven strategic communication, more strategic and focused on the EU’s political priorities,” the commission noted. The European External Action Service, the EU’s Brussels-based diplomatic corps, has also launched a seven-person sub-Saharan African stratcom task force. In May, a spokesperson told Devex that in its first year, the task force had been “monitoring and analysing the information environment” and increasing media engagement to “enhance [the] EU’s proactive communication and profile,” among other things. Branching out But it was not until the #WeSeeAfrica campaign in 2021 that the EU conducted a communications campaign outside its borders. A commission document noted that the campaign, which reached 85 million people in 2021, was structured around “hero stories,” “celebrating the success of ordinary people from seven countries who thanks to the partnership with the EU had brought lasting, positive change to their lives and those of their communities.” More recent efforts to promote the bloc’s Global Gateway strategy have been more difficult. A communications campaign in Africa was postponed due to the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel. A campaign in Latin America took longer than expected to prepare and communications in Asia were “postponed, pending more research to assess the key messages, channels and contractors to implement the campaign,” the commission reported. And perhaps most infamously, in 2022, an effort to teach young people about the EU’s Global Gateway investment strategy via a gala party in the metaverse — which cost EU taxpayers €387,000 — went viral worldwide after hardly anyone showed up. Update, Oct. 18, 2024: This article has been updated to clarify that ODA figures for Germany, France, and the European Commision are in U.S. dollars.