EDC2020 · European Development Co-operation to 2020

This is an important moment in the history of Europe's development policies and it’s relations with developing countries. Over the next decade a combination of old and new domestic issues and substantial changes in the global landscape require a reshaping of Europe’s development policies. These include challenges facing EU’s development policy agenda through new actors in international development, issues around energy security and climate change. All these changes take place in times of wide-ranging global challenges, and at a time when questions of European identity loom large in national debates. A key questions will remain: How will member states approach the issue of working together on common problems? It is crucial for decisions on the emerging matters to be based on good research and sound evidence. The public and policymaking debate needs to be informed by research voices. To this end, the overall objective is “to improve EU policy-makers’ and other societal actors’ shared understanding of emerging challenges facing EU development policy and external action.“ In addition it seeks to understand how EU development policymaking processes work and why or how EU policies then change or remain the same. EDC2020 will contribute to this objective by promoting interaction across the research and policy arenas to share perspectives, learn from each other, and strengthen working relationships through policy-oriented publications, a shared project website and high-level European policy forums. The proposal contributes to the work programme as it is addressing ‘new challenges’ which go beyond the issues touched by SHH work programme 2007 and take a wider and longer term view of the challenges facing concerned policy fields. In order to effectively contribute to the work programme both in promoting understanding and drawing the attention of the policy-makers, the project has strong interdisciplinary approach and communication components.