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Publication
Cities

Official Development Assistance in the Time of Multiple Crises

Image
Official-Development-Assistance-ODA Cover Photo
Author
Marjan Huč, Reka Si and Samar Zughool
Publisher
European Network of Political Foundations. ENoP
Year of Publication
2023
Abstract

Our world has been faced with numerous global challenges in the past few years, from climate change and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to the worsening global order and the potential fragmentation of smaller regional groupings. All of these challenges have impacted the smoothness of dierent global supply chains which are required for the current global system to function. Ocial Development Assistance (ODA) has been a mechanism for solidarity and for balancing the power dynamics of global politics through financial compensation. This paper reflects on the trends accompanied by ODA in the past few years and consists of two parts: • A debriefing paper which consists of information on the definition of ODA, the structure of monitoring plans used by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the determination of multilateral and bilateral aid, as well as an introduction to the EU’s ODA policies and an analysis of Slovenia’s ODA policies. Based on this information, the debriefing paper concludes with recommendations to Slovenia’s government and Ministry of Foreign and European Aairs (MFEA) as its ODA coordinator. • A background paper with information on the prominent trends which accompanied the EU’s ODA between 2020 and 2022 through the lens of the multiple crises of COVID-19 and the invasion of Ukraine. It is essential to highlight that many crises took place between 2020 and 2022, and that reducing global concerns to just COVID-19 and the invasion of Ukraine would be Eurocentric and a neglect of the diverse challenges that occurred at multiple levels worldwide. However, this paper begins with a focus on identifying how COVID-19 and the invasion of Ukraine impacted gender equality in multiple sectors of Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The paper then highlights the financial aid and measures taken by the EU in order to support the recovery and resilience of LDCs, focusing on gender equality in multiple sectors. From a practical perspective, this paper examines measures taken by the EU in general and examines practices implemented by Germany and Slovenia. The Povod Institute in Slovenia conducted a public conference and interactive workshop which gathered CSO representatives, media persons and policymakers on 14 and 15 December 2022 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and the information collected in the background paper was presented. The remarks, recommendations and concerns gathered during the public conference and interactive workshop are integrated into dierent parts of the paper and in a comprehensive summary with concrete questions, statements and recommendations from the speakers and participants of both activities. It concludes with concrete recommendations for EU member states on strengthening external financial aid and ODA as tools for resilience and recovery through gender equality in LDCs.

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