EU parliament calls for closer scrutiny of aid programmes in Africa

The European Union (EU) parliament has called for closer scrutiny of aid programmes in Africa to ensure they deliver measurable and sustainable benefits to people in partner countries.

Udo Bullmann, member of the European parliament, said the move was necessary to inform future decisions on aid, especially as the global landscape shifts and African countries demand greater autonomy in their deals.

Bullmann spoke in a meeting with African journalists at the European parliament in Brussels, Belgium.

The meeting was facilitated by the Taz Panter Foundation as part of a workshop on the impact of global powers on local realities, held between September 20 – 29 in Berlin and Brussels.

On Europe-Africa alliance, Bullmann said the future of the EU’s external action lies in its partnerships with countries of the Global South.

“In times of geopolitical insecurity, where actors like China or the US, follow a strong strategy of pure extractivism in Africa, the EU wants to offer an alternative,” the German lawmaker said.

“It wants to create partnerships on equal footing, where the benefits for the people and the environment in African partner countries are at the centre of our collaboration.

“Europe has understood that it needs critical minerals for its technological transition and its economic and political position in the world. European stakeholders know that a whole lot of minerals are in the soil of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and therefore have an interest to win new partners and strengthen existing ones.

“Instead of simply exporting raw materials, I advocate for a larger part of value creation to stay for instance in Africa. If more processing and refining is done locally, we can ensure that more jobs and prosperity are created locally.”

THE GLOBAL GATEWAY PROGRAMME

Launched in 2021, the global gateway is the EU’s €300 billion strategy to create stronger and links between Europe and the world.

It focuses on five sectors — digital, climate and energy, transport, health, and education and research.

Last year, Gautier Mignot, EU envoy to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said the EU aims to strengthen its partnership with Nigeria through the strategy.

In March, the EU announced a €290 million investment package for Nigeria to support digital infrastructure, healthcare manufacturing, agriculture, and migration management.

Asked how the EU measures the impact of its interventions, Bullmann expressed concern over a lack of clear framework for assessing their outcomes.

“Monitoring the outcomes of our programmes is important to ensure that they have a positive impact on the people of our partner countries,” he said.

“The more clearly we scrutinize projects and collaborate with actors – such as NGOs, civil society organisations, or parliaments, in our partner countries – the easier it is to improve programmes.

“We can measure development through the amount of jobs we create, whether fair wages are paid, what the impact on the environment is and whether the development is sustainable on the run. This is what we need.”

He said discussions are advanced in the EU parliament on establishing a framework to measure the outcomes of such projects.