In Europe, current efforts of achieving “policy coherence” and adopting “whole of government” or “joined-up” responses to global crises increasingly involve and entwine both the national and the European Union (EU) levels in the common performance of tasks. To better understand these...

Following the adoption of the Rome Treaty, the European Union (EU) developed a formal and privileged cooperation framework for its relationship with countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP). Since 2000 cooperation between the EU and the ACP is governed through the Cotonou Partnership...

This paper analyses to what extent the aid and development effectiveness agenda has been applied in the area of capacity development support, with a specific focus on the use of developing country systems. The paper is based on a literature review and a limited number of semi-structured...

This paper analyses the policies and priorities of the governments of Cambodia and Malawi with respect to capacity development support (CDS), based on secondary research evidence and perceptions of effectiveness from a wide range of stakeholders. The study concentrates on the two governments’...

The most recent addition to the development cooperation toolbox is results-based aid (RBA), a development cooperation modality that disburses grants or loans in response to the achievement of pre-defined results. There are ongoing experiments in the use of RBA, as well as ongoing research...

Ongoing experiments with results-based aid (RBA), a development cooperation modality that disburses grants or loans in response to the achievement of pre-defined results, constitute an important and influential trend in international development cooperation. This discussion paper seeks to...

This paper analyses the past and present efforts by the German government at the federal level and its 16 federal states to contribute towards ongoing academic and policy debates on translating the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into action. The paper applies the concept of “policy...

The role of the Cotonou Agreement during the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States has been well studied. This paper analyses the inverse of this relationship, namely the legal and...

This paper analyses the European Union's (EU) evolving motivations, priorities and current approaches to development cooperation under the label of 'Team Europe', following its introduction in April 2020 as the European Union's global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It assesses what Team...

This paper assesses the preferences of EU institutions and member states for the Union's development policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing both the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss and the exacerbating socio-economic inequalities requires a response that links the...