EU development cooperation delivers for both donors and partners

The next EU budget offers an opportunity to play a leading role in the fight against global poverty. Most rich countries have cut development assistance, global health included, and more cuts seem likely. The EU’s next long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028 to 2034, is one of the few places where development cooperation could hold its own, and one of the few that could fill part of the gap the cuts have left. Whether it does so depends on a negotiation that is far from settled. 

EU Member States are negotiating that budget now, and the line that funds the EU’s work as a development partner is taking a larger cut than the budget as a whole. The Irish Presidency has to find a compromise that Member States can accept at home and defend abroad. Into that negotiation comes a new study by ODI Global, commissioned by rani, which puts twenty years of data to a simple question: what does Europe get back when it invests in development in Africa? 

Report by the Overseas Development Institute