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The debate aims to lead to recommendations to Andris Piebalgs, the new European Commissioner for Development - an appeal from experts from Africa, Europe, the authors of the report, and the citizens of Maastricht, the 1992 cradle of the current EU development policy. With:

• Mr. Peter van Lieshout, lead author WRR report ‘Less pretension, more ambition. Development aid that makes a difference' (Minder pretentie, meer ambitie: ontwikkelingshulp die verschil maakt)

• Mr. Paul Engel, Director European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)
• Mrs. Brave R. Ndisale, Malawi Head of Mission to the European Union

Background information:

• English summary of the WWR report

• Conclusions of the WRR report

• Online discussion at "The Broker" following the report by the WRR on 18 January  (postings in English or in Dutch)

• Report 'Minder pretentie, meer ambitie: ontwikkelingshulp die verschil maakt’ (pdf, in Dutch)
• WRR website
• 26th Globalization Lecture with Dambisa Moyo and Peter van Lieshout
• New European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs wins applause (European Voice)
  

Development aid has a lot of successes and a lot of failures: the popular question ‘Does aid help’ cannot be answered unequivocally. The important thing is to learn from what works and apply those lessons to improve the quality of development aid.

According to the WRR report:

1. Aid must make a more targeted contribution to development: “It is significant that three quarters of Dutch development aid is spent on healthcare and education, and less than a quarter on infrastructure, agriculture and economic activity. Although it is important to provide social care from a humanitarian perspective, it does not automatically lead to the fundamental changes which promote growth and development, and which gradually make countries and people self-sufficient”

2. Aid should not limit itself to classic aid but focus more clearly on major, global topics (climate change, financial, security, migration, intellectual property rights); policies in these areas need to be made ‘development-proof’.

3. Aid delivering countries (like the Netherlands) need to specialize and professionalize.
4. Aid must be sensitive to context instead of delivering one-size-fits-all concepts; accountability must be organized accordingly. This requires a strong knowledge infrastructure.

Given the framework of the report, the debate will frame the discussion towards Europe – with the use of voices from Africa, Europe as well the lead author of the WRR report. What would a European agenda towards development aid look like? How focus it on tipping the balance between aid for social sectors and aid for ‘infrastructures’? How make EU external policy ‘development-proof’? How make ‘Europe’ act as one rather than as 28? How specialize and harmonize/coordinate? How deal with knowledge for development?