To increase the effectiveness of the European and national development policies, the EU Coherence Programme aims to place Policy Coherence for Development higher on the agenda of European and national decision-makers. Development NGOs have a major role to play in this process. To effectively strengthen the political will with decision-makers to take development objectives into account, NGDOs should pay structural attention to the promotion of PCD. We will have to make sure civil society's  Call for Coherence is heard loud and clear! With this aim, the joint EVF/CONCORD EU Coherence Programme invests in capacity building for PCD among the NGDO’s of EU Member States.

 

In many of the Member States that have recently joined the EU, there are no real institutional mechanisms in place to check if policies are coherent with development objectives. As most of these new Member States are currently in the process of developing their own strategies for development cooperation, this is an appropriate moment to pressure the governments of these member states to implement these mechanisms. To promote PCD, joint and continued NGO pressure is very important, not only on the national level, but also on the European level. However, several NGO’s (and governments) do not  have much experience with the issue of policy coherence  yet. This makes it difficult to address the issue effectively.

 

The EU Coherence Programme invests in awareness raising among NGOs, for instance by organising expert meetings about best practices and the role of NGO’s (last year in June and in November). Policy Coherence for Development is not yet familiar to or a focus of all NGDO’s. Within several NGDO’s, as the EVF/CONCORD NGO expert meeting in November 2006 showed, exists a clear interest in learning more about the concept of policy coherence  so as to be able to, in the future, address the issue more actively.

 

To increase knowledge of the concept of policy coherence for development among European NGO’s the EU Coherence Programme invests in PCD knowledge building. For instance by means of special trainings for civil society organisations on this subject. The sharing of good practices and experiences in lobbying for policy coherence on the national level and EU level is also facilitated.

 

Apart from the above-mentioned trainings, the EU Coherence Programme is looking for partners to cooperate with - to jointly lobby for improved coherence in policy areas where incoherencies still exist on either national or EU level. For this purpose, case studies can be elaborated together. Other opportunities for cooperation include the organisation of a joint expert meeting, the publication of articles on topical issues, the monitoring of MEPs and other policy makers, or campaigning activities with the aim to bring cases to the attention of (national) policy makers and MEPs.