From aid to investment: shaping Europe's global role in a changing world

Past event Online

Global Europe

30Oct2024

starts 10:00

ends 10:30

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🔴WATCH: From aid to investment: shaping Europe's global role in a changing world

Historically, when public sector budgets are pressured, official development aid (ODA) funding is a casualty and an easy target to cut. This is partly related to the reputation of ODA, how its relevance has been communicated, and its conception in policy terms. ODA came from a time in which the world was very different, and its model is perhaps not fit for purpose nowadays.

Germany reduced its aid budget by €500mn in 2023, France’s ODA budget is expected to stagnate at around 0.55% of GNI and Sweden already slashed €640mn from its development aid budget. These cuts reflect a broader EU trend of prioritising domestic challenges over international commitments, raising concerns about the EU’s ability to meet its 0.7% ODA target by 2030.

This event features Jean Van Wetter, CEO of Enabel and Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, Chair of the Management Board of GIZ, who represent the Belgian and the German development cooperation agencies. This discussion will include how to redefine ODA as policy and funding which reflects our modern world and underscores it as an opportunity based on reciprocity in a highly interdependent world.

#CriticalThinkingLive is the latest expansion in our #CriticalThinking family, bringing influential voices from across a range of sectors to challenge, inspire and influence current thinking on the biggest issues facing Europe and the world.

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Speakers

Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra Kanani was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.

*Consultant at Friends of Europe.

Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel is the Chair of the Management Board and Labour Relations Director of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Previously, he served as member of the Hesse state parliament and chair of the SPD state parliamentary group and state association in Hesse. Schäfer-Gümbel was then appointed as deputy party chair of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) at the national level, and was notably one of three acting co-chairs of the SPD at national level in between June and September 2019.

Prior to his current position as CEO of Enabel, Jean Van Wetter was the Executive Director of the NGO Humanity and Inclusion/Handicap International and lived in several countries in Africa, Europe and Asia. He is a frequent panelist on issues related to international cooperation and sustainable development goals. Van Wetter started his career as a strategy consultant for Arthur Andersen before moving into the international cooperation sector.

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