“Development Cooperation emergency aid must be taken to the next level and turned into long-term partnerships”
Copenhagen, 16 March 2012 - “Regions hit by crises such as the Horn of Africa or the Sahel not only need emergency aid to help their people survive but also long-term partnerships that reach beyond the times of crisis“, State Secretary Waldner said on the occasion of an informal meeting of EU ministers in charge of development assistance. “Ethiopia and Burkina Faso are examples of such long-term partnerships established by Austria“, Waldner said.
“The development policy of the European Union needs to be increasingly geared to boosting growth, improving energy supply and creating jobs in partner countries in the future”, the State Secretary continued. “The green economy area is of particularly high interest for Austria in this context. Environmental technologies and green jobs will play an ever more important role in the future and Austria’s expertise in this field is generally recognised.”
The meeting of ministers of development assistance and experts in this field was also attended by Danish Crown Princess Mary, the EU commissioners Piebalgs (Development) and Georgieva (Humanitarian Affairs) and by the emergency aid coordinator for Syria Valerie Amos; preparation work was begun at the conference for the cooperation and interaction between humanitarian aid and development and the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012.
“Many developing countries, especially in Asia and Latin America, have enjoyed a highly positive development over the past few years. They have crossed the line from being recipients of aid to donors. Austria aims to involve these emerging donors into development cooperation at partnership level for the long term”, Waldner concluded.
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