How is the EU reporting on development?

Caritas Europa, together with seven civil society organisations, co-signed a joint letter on the need for development donors to safeguard development assistance for poverty eradication and inequalities reduction, and not to divert it for migration containment purposes.

Development assistance provided by donors such as the EU Member States and institutions is meant to aim at eradicating poverty and reducing inequalities in countries in the global South. Activities funded by development assistance can include a broad range of areas, including migration. In fact, migration can be a powerful tool for development, for example, through remittances and labour mobility.

However, many donors also implement migration containment activities, such as border management and returning migrants back to their countries of origin, which can hardly contribute to sustainable development in low- and middle-income countries.

New criteria have recently been adopted by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The new criteria aim to help donors assess whether or not migration-related activities qualify for official development assistance (ODA). With this joint civil society organisations reaction, we present our views on the adopted criteria and call on the EU to report on official development spending in line with these criteria and with the objectives and principles of development assistance.