We asked Dr. Moleskis to explain why Cyprus is providing EUR 2 mln aid to Yemen over the next four years, EUR 400,000 to Mali and EUR 540,000 to Lesotho?
Dr. Moleskis took no offence and said there is a very common misconception in society about development cooperation. "In fact, when we reply to the “what do you do” when we say we work for a team called CyprusAid which is the service responsible for providing development assistance to foreign countries, it is almost certain that the person replies back with these two questions:
“Really? Cyprus gives assistance to others?" and “Have we solved all our problems first and now we deal with helping others?”
As you see, it is more a matter of raising awareness within society on what “development cooperation” actually is all about, why we do it and what should we expect out of it, both for Cyprus as a donor, for the partner/recipient countries and also further for the global community.
Aid effectiveness
The subject of “foreign assistance” has and still is being seen by each donor country as a “tool for implementing foreign policy”, there’s no denying that, although the trend nowadays, especially by the EU, is to provide most importance to the “development benefit” part for the partner/recipient countries, ergo the efforts mentioned above to improve “Aid Effectiveness”.
In the Technical Assistance programme, the offer of scholarships serves a two-fold purpose: a) to provide the opportunity for education to people who would otherwise not have it and thus indirectly provide expertise and know-how to that country; and, b) to promote foreign relations with the partner/recipient country by establishing a “network” of “ambassadors of Cyprus” to the partner/recipient countries.
The scholarships scheme is constantly being upgraded by including more schools, degrees and specialities in the options and, of course, by providing more scholarships.
Development aid
When talking purely about enhancing “Development”, which is the primary purpose of development cooperation, then we should concentrate on activities that promote core economic and social growth in the partner/recipient countries and carry an “investment” effect in the sense that it is sustainable and will have a long-term horizon impact. Ideally these activities should be able to create jobs, remove education and health access barriers and promote welfare and stability in general.
“Development benefits everyone” and this is what we must have in mind when we think about development. Even if you think of it on a purely “selfish” grounds, if there weren’t any poor countries around, then there wouldn’t be a need for providing assistance would there? Instead, we would have more trade partners able to purchase more of our exports, more competition lowering prices, less crime, conflicts and terrorism, less illegal migration, etc.
Essentially, development is beneficial both for the recipient (directly) as well as the donor (indirectly). So, when we think about providing “assistance”, we should primarily keep this in mind instead of just thinking with a nationalistic “cost-benefit” approach, although as mentioned, there is always benefit…
Yemen, Mali, Lesotho
To answer the question about our presence in countries such as Yemen, Mali and Lesotho, Dr. Moleskis said these selections were made on the basis that these countries are under conditions of extreme poverty in regions like Africa and the Middle East, to which the EU assigns much importance as regards development interventions.
Lesotho also was under the dire situation of losing many of the donors involved there, leaving basically just the Irish as the main donor, from whom we had received consultation and assistance in our first steps.
As for the amounts mentioned, Cyprus' strategy, which is based on EU and OECD guidelines, is to keep the number of partner countries on a limited level and to be involved in each one for a long or medium-term plan (10 years).
The policy is to provide an amount of around EUR 200,000 yearly for each country, an amount expected to increase in the next years, as Cyprus will progressively increase the level of development assistance provided.
The amounts mentioned refer to the total amounts required to complete a project over a given period of years.
If you take the EUR 2 mln budget allocated to Yemen, this amount is spread over a 5-year period as follows: EUR 220,000 for 2008, EUR 280,000 for 2009, EUR 350,000 for 2010, EUR 500,000 for 2011 and EUR 650,000 for 2012. Also the amounts mentioned for Mali and Lesotho concern projects to be completed over a 2-year period.
In short, as regards Cypriot engagement, choice of countries, engagement period and total ODA figures, CyprusAid simply employs the EU and OECD guidelines on development cooperation activities. Although Cyprus is not a member of the OECD because of obstacles imposed by Turkey, CyprusAid conforms with the guidelines and regulations of the organisation, concluded Dr. Moleskis.
