Third TED Country Engagement Carried Out: Support for EU Delegation in DRC

One of the objectives of the Team Europe Democracy (TED) initiative is to strengthen the coordination among European Union Member States and European institutions in partner countries. To achieve this goal, the TED Secretariat, operated jointly by GIZ and Enabel, supports the work of EU Delegations in different countries on themes related to democracy support in a Team Europe format and with the backing of a variety of experts in this field.

One of the partner countries supported by TED is the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has faced a number of conflicts in recent years. The security and humanitarian situation in the DRC has recently worsened, raising the concern of the European Council in July 2023.

From June to July 2023, two TED consultants worked closely with the European Delegation in the capital Kinshasa and representatives of the Swedish, Belgian, Dutch, German, and French embassies and their respective development agencies in DR Congo. The main objective of the exchanges was to boost the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) in Peace and Security in place in DR Congo since 2021.

The TEIs are initiatives of Member States, EU institutions, and EU financial institutions which focus on identifying critical priorities that constrain development in a given country or region, where a coordinated and coherent effort by Team Europe would ensure results with a transformative impact. Since the TEI in Peace and Security was put in place in DR Congo, the political situation has changed, resulting in the wish of the European actors to adapt it. With the support of TED consultants, the EU Member States and the European Delegation are now planning to expand their work in a specific province, where the right mix of humanitarian, development, and peace approaches is possible and where they already support the civil society, community-based organizations, as well as local and provincial authorities.