Directing EU development aid towards resilience building

Abstract

The brief paper argues that although the provision of EU aid to satisfy basic needs, such as feeding mouths and curing the sick, is essential in emergency cases and in impoverished developing countries, it is of paramount importance that medium-term and long-term aid be aimed at enabling developing countries, particularly African ones, solve their own economic problems, notably through improved economic governance and economic resilience building. In addition, because of country peculiarities, the recipient countries themselves should be enabled to identify their vulnerabilities and to determine and implement policies in order to attain their development goals.