Abstract
The Cotonou Partnership Agreement, signed in Benin in 2000 between the European Union (EU) and its African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) partners, constitutes the basis for much of the EU's interaction with developing countries. The Agreement stresses the need to prioritize poverty alleviation and sustainable development as part of the overall development process. While an all-embracing approach to tackling problems of poverty and the environment ostensibly fulfils a number of social and political requirements where the EU's moral obligation towards the South is currently concerned, Cotonou's flagship provisions invite closer scrutiny. This paper considers the EU's attempt to marry poverty alleviation and sustainable development within its pro-poor strategy and assesses the likely efficacy of this approach in achieving Cotonou's stated aims.
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Notes
In terms of food security, on a national level, self-sufficiency entails ‘meeting food needs as far as possible from domestic supplies and minimising dependence on food trade’ while the concept of self reliance ‘takes into account the possibilities offered by international trade’ (UNESCAP Bulletin on Asia-Pacific Perspectives 2004–2005).
Approximately 30 percent of all incidence of disease in Sub-Saharan Africa can be linked to environmental factors (Steele et al. 2002).
In southern Africa, reliance on non-agricultural sources of income for the rural poor is estimated to be as high as 80–90 percent of household earnings (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 2001).
The so-called ‘EBA (Everything But Arms) Regulation’ (Regulation (EC) 416/2001) was adopted by the EU in February 2001, granting duty-free access to all imports from least developed countries (LDCs) without any quantitative restrictions, with the exception of arms and munitions. Only imports of fresh bananas, sugar and rice were not fully liberalized immediately. Duty-free access was granted for bananas in January 2006, while duties on the remaining products will be gradually reduced, for sugar in July 2009 and for rice in September 2009.
That this position is largely accepted as a truism is acknowledged by the EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson (2005), in a speech in Edinburgh in July 2005. He argues that the public should not fall into ‘the simplistic trap of believing that abolition of all or part of the CAP is the solution to the problems of Africa’.
Botswana is a good case in point. The country represents an economic success story in a region of often failing or faltering economies. Botswana managed to achieve and sustain growth rates of over 7 percent between 1985 and 1999, accruing nearly USD6 billion in foreign exchange reserves in the process as well as diversifying its economy away from the mining sector. Despite this, 47 percent of the population remain below the poverty line, confined, in many instances, to marginal, environmentally fragile areas (Leith et al. 1999).
‘Farm-to-fork’ legislation, based on the European Commission (2000a) White Paperon Food Safety, was passed in January 2002. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was established to oversee the implementation of the policy. See Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety.
Recent research suggests that the future of the banana may be threatened by the black sigatoka fungus which attacks the ubiquitous Cavendish variety. As nearly all plantation farmed bananas are of this variety, a rapid spread of the fungus could be catastrophic for the industry (New Scientist (13 May 2006): 5).
Traditionally, coffee is a shade-grown crop that requires little fertilizer in order to develop. However, in order to increase yields ‘full-sun’ variants were developed. These require substantial quantities of agro-chemical inputs in order to propagate successfully (Clay 2004).
The EU will liberalize around 95 percent of its imports from South Africa within 10 years, while the respective figures on the South African side are approximately 86 percent in 12 years (European Commission 1999).
Adapted from figures in Kirk and Stern (2003).
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Flint, A. Marrying poverty alleviation and sustainable development? An analysis of the EU–ACP Cotonou agreement. J Int Relat Dev 11, 55–74 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2008.1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2008.1