Together with its Member States, the European Union is the world’s largest provider of development aid. More than 50% of development aid comes from Europe.
Through this year’s Year, the Union aims to raise public awareness of EU and EU Member States’ development cooperation, thereby strengthening citizens’ engagement, critical thinking and active interest in global issues.
The European Year for Development is a joint initiative of the European Institutions and CONCORD, the European Confederation of Humanitarian Aid and Development NGOs.
2015 is a special year for development aid. It is the first ever European Year to focus on the Union’s external action and Europe’s role in the world.
The motto of the European Year is ‘our world, our dignity, our future’.
Within the framework of the European Year for Development, a number of activities are being implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Czech Development Agency and many NGOs, including Europe Direct centres.
The activities taking place within the framework of the European Year for Development in the Czech Republic are summarised on the EU website: https://europa.eu/eyd2015/cs
Each month is dedicated to a different theme:
- January – Europe and the World
- February – Education
- March – Women and Girls
- April – Health
- May – Peace and Security
- June – Sustainable green growth, decent jobs and good businesses
- July – Children and Youth
- August – Humanitarian Aid
- September – Demography and migration
- October – Food security
- November – Sustainable development and climate action
- December – Human Rights and Governance
Information and updates can also be found on Facebook (European Year for Development 2015) and Twitter (@EYD2015).
In the framework of the European Year for Development 2015, the Europe Direct Bruntál Information Centre has published a publication with the same title, which contains information not only about the current European Year, but also about EU development aid and cooperation policy, the European Year initiative, the Millennium Development Goals, etc. Download in .pdf format here.
The publication is also published on the official EYD 2015 website.
The regular bulletin of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic is also a very useful source of information.
What you (didn’t) know about EU development aid:
- EU development aid helps around 150 countries around the world.
- The EU is the only donor in the world that provides aid to all countries threatened or affected by armed conflict.
- The EU has played a leading role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
- The EU is the most transparent donor of development aid. There are several tools (e.g. the EU Aid Explorer) that allow taxpayers to check where and what the money is going.
- A sophisticated system of controls and audits ensures that fraud, corruption and misuse of funds are kept to a minimum.
- The EU and its Member States are not only the world’s largest providers of development aid, but also among the most generous donors.
- Most funding is provided to local NGOs.
- Some of the funding is given directly to national governments so that countries can develop on their own.
- The development efforts of the Union and the Member States are combined to achieve maximum results.
- The main objective of development aid is to eradicate poverty in developing countries.
According to a Eurobarometer survey, a large majority of Europeans think it is important to help people in developing countries.
