Policy Coherence for Development (PCD)

Glopolis has released a study focusing on the impacts and coherence of  the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)  with the EU development policy, with a detailed look on the role of the Czech agricultural sector and the Czech agrarian foreign trade.

Glopolis' Portuguese partner Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr released as part of the joint project aimed at strengthening European policy coherence with development goals  a paper focusing on the impacts and coherence of European policies on development in CapeVerde.

A Dutch nongovernmental organisation Evert Vermeer Foundation, Glopolis' partner, published within the joint project aimed at strengthening European policy coherence with development goals  a paper focusing on the impacts European policies on development in Rwanda.

On 2 May 2012 the European Commission met to discuss the European biofuel policy, more specifically the problematic issue of high carbon emissions connected to indirect land use change (ILUC). More than 100 NGOs from all over the world, including Glopolis, signed an open letter to the European commissioners calling for the EU to put measures into place to avert the negative impacts biofuel policies have on climate change.

European policies in support of biofuels have unfortunate consequences – western firms are taking over land in Africa to cultivate crops such as jatropha, essentially destroying local agriculture in the process. “These firms are creating a very poor impression of western countries in the eyes of Africans. People are alarmed over what could happen next,” says Francis Namu Njoka, a Kenyan biofuel and biomass expert.

What is the role of renewable energy sources – especially biomass, biogas and biofuels – in Africa? Can renewable energy sources make a significant contribution to future development in Africa? What are the pitfalls and obstacles to renewable energy sources in Africa and what is the outlook for change? Answers to these and other questions were sought by Glopolis during the week from 12 March till 15 March during which a series of seminars and discussions for students, professionals and the general public were held. The keynote speaker was Francis Namu Njoka, a renewable energy expert from Kenya.

Poverty refers not only to one’s economic situation, but also to other factors that influence life. Especially in the past years the term “energy poverty” has become more common.

In recent years African countries have enjoyed interest from abroad, thanks in part to a great amount of available land apparently ideal for cultivating crops for providing food security and for the production of biofuels.

On 14 December 2011, the Glopolis analytical centre in cooperation with the UN Information Centre held the seminar entitled Biofuel: Opportunities, Risks and Impacts on Developing Countries.

Glopolis and the Czech Climate Coalition have issued a fact sheet on the approaching United Nations climate change conference in Durban, South Africa (28 November – 9 December 2011).

Petr Lebeda from Glopolis took part in the regular board meeting of the Council on Development Cooperation that took place on February 3, 2011. He presented conclusions and recommendations from the study which builds on the new IDC concept in the area of policy coherence, foreign debates and analysis of the situation in the Czech Republic with a focus on institutional framework. He offers practical procedural steps on the working level of public administration.

Between August 6 – 31, 2010 Glopolis realized a research trip to Ethiopia. The aim of the research was to establish a network of contacts in this Sub-Saharan country that is now priority for International Development Cooperation (IDC) in the Czech Republic, and to obtain data and background information for two Glopolis papers focused on Czech and European policies coherence with development goals.

Glopolis’ Dutch partner, Evert Vermeer Foundation, published a paper focusing on the impacts of certain European policies on development and the fight against poverty in Ghana, within the joint project aimed at strengthening European policy coherence with development goals.

The European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development CONCORD;language=eng#header published a report calling for the European Union to stop policies that harm developing countries. The report is a response to the European Commissions’ announcement on policy coherence for development. A brief evaluation of Czech policies is also included in the report which the Prague Global Policy Institute – Glopolis and FoRS (Czech Forum for Development Co-operation) partook in writing up.