Eurobarometer: Europeans support Millennium Development Goals

As the world's largest donor of development assistance, the EU has made serious commitments to achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). On the eve of the symbolic mid-term date for these MDGs that have to be reached by 2015, a European Commission survey shows broad public support for the European Union's priorities in development co-operation. According to the Eurobarometer on Europeans and Development Aid, most EU citizens (66%) consider reducing extreme poverty and hunger in developing countries as a priority. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases is the second goal (46%), followed by access to education and ensuring sustainable development (graph, click to enlarge).

Across the EU, Sub-Saharan Africa stands out in most people's minds as being in greatest need of aid (64%). And interestingly, Europeans think the EU institutions should lead in decision making on development co-operation, more than the governments of the Union's member states or than NGOs.

This is clearly an issue on which Europeans are engaged, and so is the Commission. Last year, over €100 for every EU citizen went in official development assistance. Giving more aid, making it more effective, increasing the coordination among us and ensuring the coherence with other policies such as trade and environment: that is the way we can contribute to achieving the MDGs by 2015. - Louis Michel, Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner.

Commissioner Michel recently spoke at the International Conference on Biofuels in Brussels, where he identified green fuel production as an opportunity for development in poor countries. He pledged to spend part of a €220 million fund on aid to African countries to grow energy crops.

The new Eurobarometer on development co-operation shows that, overall, EU citizens appear to have rather well-defined ideas about the priorities of development aid. Reflecting the first objective of the MDGs, adopted by the UN in the year 2000, "reducing extreme poverty and hunger" is universally named as a top priority of development aid: 66% of EU citizens mention it as a top-three priority.

Linked to this, the majority of EU citizens (64%) consider that Sub-Saharan Africa is the area in greatest need of development aid. That's twice as much as the Indian sub-continent, which ranks second with 34%. This opinion is held by the largest segment of the poll in each Member State (graph, click to enlarge).

Regarding development aid for Africa, European citizens consider the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases as the most important field for EU development aid (46%), before peace and security (43%) and human rights (37%). Bioenergy projects come at the crossroads of investments in rural development, energy infrastructures and the environment. When it comes to these fields, 30% of EU citizens sees rural development as a priority. A quarter think infrastructures for energy and water should be focused on. While only 12% see protection of the environment as a goal of major importance for aid to Africa (graph, click to enlarge):
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: development aid :: poverty :: developing countries :: Africa :: Millennium Development Goals :: United Nations :: European Union ::

When it comes to the main motivation for richer countries to provide help to poorer countries, Europeans think pragmatically. 28% of EU citizens name global stability as the main motivation for development aid; another 28% name self-interest in terms of gaining economic advantages from increased trade between donor and recipient countries.

Moving on from opinions to knowledge, however, this study shows a considerable lack of knowledge of international development aid policy initiatives, such as the Millennium Development Goals (graph, click to enlarge) and the European Consensus on Development, a set of principles agreed by all EU institutions in December 2005 to improve the coherence and harmonization of European development aid. Even if a fifth and a quarter of EU citizens respectively have heard of these policies, only a very slight minority (4% and 6% respectively) is familiar with their content.

Interestingly, the largest proportions of Europeans think that the two EU bodies, the Commission and the Parliament, should have the most influence on the priorities for development aid to ACP countries, followed closely by the Member States’ governments (graph, click to enlarge). Since the EU was mentioned in the question asked, it can partly explain the relatively high figures for EU institutions. The remaining five actors – NGOs and other civil society organisations both in donor and recipient countries, governments of the recipient countries, citizens of the recipient countries, and European citizens - receive a fairly similar share of mentions.

In other words, EU citizens appear to think that the EU and its Member States are the legitimate actors to decide on the priorities of EU development aid while citizens and civil society as well as any actors in the recipient countries should have less influence.

The EU is the world's largest aid donor. In 2006, European official development aid amounted €48 billion, which represents 0.42% of GNI (exceeding the intermediate Monterrey target of 0.39% for 2006). In 2005, the European Council committed to raise aid spending by at least €20 billion per year by 2010 and to reach the 0.7% target by 2015.

The survey was carried out between in February and March 2007 in the 27 Member Sates of the European Union. Nearly 27,000 respondents were interviewed face-to-face at their homes in their national languages.

References:
European Commission: Europeans support the Millennium Development Goals - July 7, 2007.

Eurobarometer: Europeans and Development Aid [*.pdf] - Fieldwork: February – March 2007, Publication: June 2007.