Director-General Stefano Manservisi on the New Consensus for Development

A lot has changed since the adoption of the 2005 European Consensus on Development and the European Union needs a new collective vision for development policy to respond to unprecedented challenges coming from climate change, rising inequality, irregular migration and global insecurity. The Commission has just adopted its proposal for a new EU Consensus for Development to deal with such challenges, consistent with the new global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promoting a new set of Sustainable Development Goals in favour of people, prosperity, planet, peace and partnership.

In the following interview, Stefano Manservisi, Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development, sets out what will change, why it is needed, and how development work can respond to global challenges hand in hand with other EU policies. 

Capacity4dev (C4D): What are the most innovative features of the Commission's proposal of a New Consensus on Development?

Director-General Stefano Manservisi (SM): The most innovative feature of the new EU Consensus is that it puts EU development policy in line with the UN 2030 Agenda and the new framework defined by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is an important shift because, as everybody knows and everybody has understood, we are passing from what we do for our partner countries under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approach, to a much more complex approach: Global problem, global response. We are working for common goods, and we are therefore sharing responsibility.

C4D: How will the New Consensus respond to the unprecedented challenges the EU is facing?

SM: The EU is facing increasingly global challenges. It has always been a sort of buffer between globalisation and European citizens, offering a unique model of regional integration with values and achievements like the European way of life, European welfare and solidarity, sharing responsibility, and making decisions in quite a unique way.

Now we are talking about new challenges facing the world: climate change, poverty, imbalances, sustainable consumption and production, and the way we distribute the fruits of our growth. All this is called SDGs, that is, a way to say we have to work and to further contribute to a world which is better and more just for everybody.

The new Consensus is a way to define a universal development policy, which can address globalisation, which thinks about people throughout, and which combines the different instruments we have, in order to contribute to a more sustainable world. This means the climate change agenda; peace and security; prosperity; and people. These are the challenges facing the European Commission as it proposes to Member States and citizens via the European Parliament a new approach on development that we call the European Consensus on Development. 

C4D: Why is development policy important in addressing such challenges?

SM: Development policy is important because by definition it has always dealt with poverty and inequality, and has always been at the centre of globalisation, with its opportunities and challenges.

Now is a moment where we have to have a shift in setting policies, and as we rethink our development policy, we also have to think about the policies we are setting at home, because there is a link between what we are doing in the Union and what we are able to represent outside the Union through our external action.

Second, development policy will be firmly embedded in our external action, which has been described by High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission (HRVP) Federica Mogherini as the EU Global Strategy.

Third, development policy represents a way to always keep people in mind when we talk about big issues. Very often, our citizens, as everywhere in the world, are a bit scared of globalisation, because while they see opportunities, they also see threats in their daily lives. They think about security and terrorism for example. Let’s also think about food security in the sense of equality, in the sense of standards and protection. There are new forms of poverty, which are shared by European citizens and the 'traditional' poor in our partner countries.

The first thing to think about is that our development policy should contribute to setting up good policies both within and beyond the Union. It will be at the forefront of the international scene to partner with countries and to put financial means in place to support them. Financial means does not just mean the old way of spending money, which was like charity. It’s a way to invest in our common future. Therefore, development policy can consolidate, protect and prepare for our future, but no longer alone. This is the change: we must do it together with our partners.

C4D: What will be different about the way the EU approaches development?

C4D: Can you explain what is driving these initiatives?

SM: As I said, the new environment is based on the SDGs, which are based on a comprehensive approach to development issues. It will try to identify, on the basis of the 2030 Agenda, the building blocks of the development policy of the future. One is people - not to lose sight of the fact that at the end our objective is to make people’s lives better. Second is our planet - the conditions in which we are working; climate change; the way we approach consumption and production; embracing sustainability.

The third block is productivity. We have to say clearly that there will be no inclusive development if there is no economic growth. We have to quite radically change the way we work. We have to put much more money into supporting investment. The most important feature which follows from the Addis Ababa conference on Financing for Development is that our development money should increasingly be spent as leverage for mobilising private and public money. The efforts and the needs are too big to be dealt with by ODA [Official Development Assistance] and by development aid as we used to do in the past. Therefore this is a powerful shift.

Then peace: no peace and stability, no development. And also, no development without peace and stability. We have to formulate policies to address fragilities, causes of instability, and causes of migration. Development policy should take on the challenge and the responsibility of being one of the key actors to address instability, insecurity, and wars. And we have to do it in complementarity with other actions.

In the Global Strategy, HRVP Mogherini clearly expressed the EU’s ambitions to be stronger, also in terms of defence. Development policy is not about formulating defence or military policies, or financing military policies. But it is a policy which must be complementary to this, and must work hand in hand. What we are doing these days in the Sahel region, for example, where the challenges of poverty and vulnerability in these countries; the traffic of human beings who very often end up in boats in the Mediterranean; the challenges of terrorism; and the challenge that all this is called poverty – these are intimately linked.

We are trying to address all this together and development policy has a major role to play, without any kind of timidity. We must be part of it, helping people, but helping people in a context in which all the instruments of the EU are put to work.

C4D: Are EU Member States on board with this?

SM: We will make a proposal and we hope that at the end there will be not only an agreement with the Member States at the European Council, but also with the European Parliament. So our ambition, which is the basic task of the Commission, is to make proposals which are representative and can be embraced by states and people. So far, we have had long discussions, good discussions; it’s not an easy moment, and there are some paradigm shifts which are quite important. But I’m very confident that Member States and the Parliament will be on board at the end and we will be stronger together.

C4D: What does the New Consensus mean for DEVCO staff and how will it affect ways of working in DEVCO?

SM: This change for our daily life is extremely important. We are living in a complex world, in a context in which everything is connected. We have to be able to connect the key dots in all this, and to see why development policy is linked to European integration. Why European integration matters, to make a contribution, to address the big problems in this unstable world. 

The first point is, I would like to open dialogue, constant dialogue, with all staff in order to encourage everybody to understand the context in which we are living, to enable everybody to connect the key dots, to work even more in teams with all the colleagues in other Directorate Generals, and outside the Commission administration, particularly with the European External Action Service. So our working method will change.

Then, to set policies before setting action fiches for spending money. This I think is something which is extremely important, otherwise we will never be able to formulate good proposals to spend money. It is a way in a sense to make our working day much richer. Much more complicated of course but also richer. Each colleague should understand that what s/he is doing is crucial for the future of the world. I would say that in this way – with modesty, with the awareness that we all make mistakes, that we have to learn by doing, but we have to talk, to work in teams, to think strategically, to use the money that taxpayers, European taxpayers in difficult moments have entrusted to us to spend to set up and implement these policies.

I think there is a change, but it is a change for the better. And I’m ready to work with each individual colleague in order to do it together. It’s not a question of management and staff, it’s a question of collective behaviour. And I’m ready to talk to everybody, to sit with everybody, in order to exchange views, to think outside the box, to create together and then to go and implement.

Further reading :

To hear Stefano Manservisi's views on the EU's evolving relationship with ACP countries, see our blog.