Need 'to be present' hampering development aid spending, says EU

The European commission's head of development has admitted that EU aid could be better spent.

Stefano Manservisi said that between €5 and €7bn a year in aid could be allocated "more efficiently."

The frank admission by Manservisi comes a day after a major UN report called for an increase in overseas development aid.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, Manservisi, director general for development, conceded that there was a need for "better coordination" in the way overseas aid is spent.

He said that various authorities and bodies, such as the EU, were "competing" with each other "to be present" in those areas where aid is disseminated, such as Africa.

"This competition is good but it also leads to a sort of fragmentation which is very costly. What I would like to see is more of an emphasis on output rather than the aid process itself."

Manservisi, who was addressing a European Policy Centre (EPC) lecture on EU development policy and health, went on, "At present, all the actors involved in overseas aid policy want to do the same thing but the way things are done is, rightly in my opinion, can be open to criticism.

"I think we should organise ourselves better and this is something I want to try and underline today."

The EU has identified three objectives in the field of health with specific targets to be reached by 2015 - improving children's health, as well as maternal health and halting the spread of HIV-Aids, malaria and other diseases.

As the biggest donor in the world, the EU has a vital contribution to make towards improving health provision and access to healthcare in developing countries, said Manservisi.

He also stressed the importance of the relationship between development policy and health.

The UN report published on Monday said, however, that efforts to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015 were unlikely to be met unless there was an increase in the overseas development aid budget.

The UN MDGs, which the EU is committed to achieving, recognise the importance of health as a development factor.

The lecture was organised in cooperation with the Coalition for Health, Ethics and Society.

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