A rethink for development policy?

Global governments, including those of the EU, must “rethink development policy in its entirety” if any real change in the developing world is going to come about in the future.

According to Rajendra Pachauri, 2007 Nobel Laureate and Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global powers “cannot continue on current development policies as we now understand them” if any real change is to come about for those currently living in extreme poverty.

His comments were made at the European Development Days conference in Stockholm, the largest international gathering organised by the Swedish presidency.

With the Copenhagen conference in December, the focus of the Swedish meeting is unsurprisingly veering towards climate change. However, Pachauri has been quick to warn against the emptiness of words, arguing that those rich nations “must fashion a new message and translate it into action” where combating climate change and alleviating poverty is concerned.

A “stringent policy of mitigation” he said, would cost “no more than 3% of global GDP”, a message directed towards the other main concern of governments these days – the global economic crisis, which has, according to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, “led to diabolical consequences” for many in the developing world, particularly through unemployment and the loss of agricultural yields.

Poverty, he said, is closely linked to climate change, and the era of unchecked markets “must come to an end” and that any new economic framework must be “for the genuine good” of all.

In this, Reinfeldt was close to Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, who maintains that the financial crisis “has shown the need to work together” in overcoming poverty, and that a “higher level of commonality” between countries is needed if we are to pull out of recession. This was, he said, a case of “enlightened self-interest”.

Unlike the Prime Minister, however, Barroso did not explicitly refer to any recovery packages, which have been the source of much controversy, and has left the issue of trust in banks and governments still hanging in the air.

Expressing the theme more strongly, Hugette Labelle, from the Board of Directors of Transparency International and former Canadian Secretary of State, was in no doubt that continued poverty and degradation in the developing world is the “intolerable price for the abuse of power” by rich nations. Appropriate government and governance, she said, is the key to ensuring effective development policy, with access to information vital for maintaining trust in the political system, a topic very much in line with the interests of the current Swedish government and its presidency priorities.

Transparency in government budgets and large scale development projects needs to be implemented fast, she said, but “without full support from governments, this will not happen. Without the right framework for governance, citizenship participation will be lost”.

With all thoughts on climate change, and how it remains interlinked with the economic crisis, whether or not a complete overhaul of EU development policy happens any time soon is a debatable point.

The current Commission remains committed to both its climate goals and development commitments, largely with the backing of international governments, and according to the latest figures, about 90% of citizens do not believe that aid spending should be cut; all of which appears to point to business as usual, at least as long as Europe is tied up trying to finalise a climate deal. As for the long term, that remains more uncertain.