• News
    • Latest news
    • News search
    • Health
    • Finance
    • Food
    • Career news
    • Content series
    • Try Devex Pro
  • Jobs
    • Job search
    • Post a job
    • Employer search
    • CV Writing
    • Upcoming career events
    • Try Career Account
  • Funding
    • Funding search
    • Funding news
  • Talent
    • Candidate search
    • Devex Talent Solutions
  • Events
    • Upcoming and past events
    • Partner on an event
  • Post a job
  • About
      • About us
      • Membership
      • Newsletters
      • Advertising partnerships
      • Devex Talent Solutions
      • Contact us
Join DevexSign in
Join DevexSign in

News

  • Latest news
  • News search
  • Health
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Career news
  • Content series
  • Try Devex Pro

Jobs

  • Job search
  • Post a job
  • Employer search
  • CV Writing
  • Upcoming career events
  • Try Career Account

Funding

  • Funding search
  • Funding news

Talent

  • Candidate search
  • Devex Talent Solutions

Events

  • Upcoming and past events
  • Partner on an event
Post a job

About

  • About us
  • Membership
  • Newsletters
  • Advertising partnerships
  • Devex Talent Solutions
  • Contact us
  • My Devex
  • Update my profile % complete
  • Account & privacy settings
  • My saved jobs
  • Manage newsletters
  • Support
  • Sign out
Latest newsNews searchHealthFinanceFoodCareer newsContent seriesTry Devex Pro
    • News
    • European Development Days

    Mimica says EU must do better on monitoring of development projects

    The monitoring and evaluation of development assistance programs may have been “neglected” in the first years of the Sustainable Development Agenda, the European commissioner on international cooperation and development has said, indicating that it will be a greater focus area in the future.

    By Jessica Abrahams // 08 June 2017
    Neven Mimica, European commissioner on international cooperation and development. Photo by: Ryan Brown / UN Women / CC BY-NC-ND

    BRUSSELS, Belgium — Monitoring and evaluation of development assistance programs may have been “neglected” in the first years of the Sustainable Development Agenda, but they will be a greater focus area in the future, the European Commissioner on International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica said.

    In an interview with Devex at the European Development Days summit in Brussels, Mimica — the Croatian politician who has led development policy at the European Union since 2014 — said that monitoring, reviewing and accountability have “maybe been a bit neglected in the first few years or stages of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals ... because we and all the international community were very much engaged in setting the right agenda and setting the implementation modalities of this agenda.”

    See more Devex coverage of the European Development Days:

    ► New WHO chief Tedros says 'no more excuses' on delivering universal health coverage

    ► EU signs new consensus on development amid NGO outcry

    ► Private sector, migration, Brexit and climate change loom over the EDD

    He added that accountability is an important element of those modalities and that “we shall be very clear and very much engaged in this” from now on.

    Mimica insisted that the EU already has “very much in place the criteria and the methodology that prevents a misuse of development assistance.” He suggested that development cooperation programs typically perform better in the EU’s annual reviews than programs implemented internally within the European Union.

    “The average error rate [where procedures have been followed incorrectly] is around 2 percent of our development envelopes,” he said. “But this is not satisfactory enough yet. Therefore, we shall work further on setting the right criteria in advance for disbursement of our projects; and criteria that are to be checked once the ... projects are disbursed.”

    “Current criteria are there, but we have to really upgrade the overall focus of our services on this element of the implementation process of our development projects,” he added.

    The EU’s new Consensus on Development — a development framework that was signed into force this week — is controversial among NGOs, in part because of its renewed emphasis on the role of the private sector in aid and on tackling migration. In both cases, some European NGOs believe there are insufficient safeguards in place to ensure the proper use of funds.

    However, Mimica told Devex that there would be a greater focus on accountability under the new framework.

    “Within the new agenda we make a shift from inputs to outputs; from counting money we put into the development cooperation to reviewing the results of development cooperation in each and every partner country. Therefore, this element of accountability will be more and more present and visible in our approach,” he said.

    Read more international development news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive the latest from the world’s leading donors and decision-makers — emailed to you free every business day.

    • Institutional Development
    • Project Management
    • Brussels, Belgium
    Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).

    About the author

    • Jessica Abrahams

      Jessica Abrahams@jiabrahams

      Jessica Abrahams is a former editor of Devex Pro. She helped to oversee news, features, data analysis, events, and newsletters for Devex Pro members. Before that, she served as deputy news editor and as an associate editor, with a particular focus on Europe. She has also worked as a writer, researcher, and editor for Prospect magazine, The Telegraph, and Bloomberg News, among other outlets. Based in London, Jessica holds graduate degrees in journalism from City University London and in international relations from Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals.

    Search for articles

    Related Jobs

    • Technical Assistance Officer (Contractual) - FADRM
      Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, United States | District of Columbia, United States | United States | North America
    • HR Business Partner (Advisory Partner)
      Amman, Jordan | Bogota, Colombia | Dakar, Senegal | Johannesburg, South Africa | Mexico City, Mexico | Nairobi, Kenya | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Brazil | Colombia | Jordan | Kenya | Mexico | Senegal | South Africa | Eastern Africa | Latin America and Caribbean | North Africa and Middle East | Southern Africa | West Africa
    • Individual Consultant: National TA Coordinator
      Samarkand, Uzbekistan | Tashkent, Uzbekistan | Uzbekistan | Central Asia
    • See more

    Most Read

    • 1
      Opinion: Mobile credit, savings, and insurance can drive financial health
    • 2
      How low-emissions livestock are transforming dairy farming in Africa
    • 3
      Opinion: India’s bold leadership in turning the tide for TB
    • 4
      Strengthening health systems by measuring what really matters
    • 5
      How AI-powered citizen science can be a catalyst for the SDGs

    Trending

    Financing for Development Conference

    The Trump Effect

    Newsletters

    Related Stories

    European UnionScoop: EU wants development staff in regional hubs, not delegations

    Scoop: EU wants development staff in regional hubs, not delegations

    Development AssistanceOpinion: From cuts to common cause, how do we rethink global development?

    Opinion: From cuts to common cause, how do we rethink global development?

    European UnionIs the political environment in Brussels the worst ever for NGOs?

    Is the political environment in Brussels the worst ever for NGOs?

    European UnionEurope is cutting development spending, and it's not because of Trump

    Europe is cutting development spending, and it's not because of Trump

    • News
    • Jobs
    • Funding
    • Talent
    • Events

    Devex is the media platform for the global development community.

    A social enterprise, we connect and inform over 1.3 million development, health, humanitarian, and sustainability professionals through news, business intelligence, and funding & career opportunities so you can do more good for more people. We invite you to join us.

    • About us
    • Membership
    • Newsletters
    • Advertising partnerships
    • Devex Talent Solutions
    • Post a job
    • Careers at Devex
    • Contact us
    © Copyright 2000 - 2025 Devex|User Agreement|Privacy Statement