OECD

The Development Assistance Committee, DAC, is a body of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that addresses global economic and social development issues. The Committee’s main task is to co-ordinate assistance provided by the most developed OECD member states to developing and transition countries.

The DAC’s work is focused on four planes:

• development of guidelines and recommendations for member states with regard to running development co-operation programmes,
• making periodic (every three years) inspections of the member states’ development co-operation programmes, primarily in terms of the consistency of individual programmes with guidelines adopted by the Committee and from the point of view of the quality of the management of funds allocated for development assistance,
• constituting a forum of dialogue, an exchange of experiences in building international consensus on development co-operation issues,
• publication of statistical reports on in-kind and in-cash flows to developing countries. Currently, the Committee is composed of nine auxiliary bodies (task forces) dealing with individual areas of development co-operation. The Committee task forces convene periodic sessions that are usually attended by the representatives of member states dealing with development issues.
• DAC High Level Meetings are usually organised annually. The OECD member states are represented by Ministers or Vice-Ministers responsible for development co-operation. During the DAC High Level Meetings, the general trends in the OECD member state policy are determined with regard to development co-operation, and major issues influencing global development co-operation are discussed.
• The Development Assistance Committee also convenes (usually once or twice a year) DAC Senior Level Meetings, which provide an opportunity for the participating representatives of the member states’ assistance institutions to discuss current development co-operation issues.

Poland is a member of the OECD, but it is not a member of the Committee.

The European Union

For several dozen years, the European Union has developed its own foreign assistance mechanisms. In that system, the European Commission plays a double role of an independent assistance provider and a co-ordinator of the activities of the entire EU community.

Since the moment of joining the European Union, Poland has been bound by the objectives and principles of providing development assistance set out in the Community law.

In 2005, the EU adopted two important documents on development policy: “The European Consensus on Development” and “The EU and Africa: Towards a Strategic Partnership”.

The European Consensus defines, for the first time in history, common objectives and principles of EU development co-operation. Those objectives include:

• reduction (eradication) of poverty,
• observance and protection of human rights,
• good governance practices.

The European Consensus refers to the principles of development co-operation:

• ownership and partnership - assistance activities should be consistent with the needs of beneficiary countries and carried out on a partnership basis,
• political dialogue,
• participation of civil society representatives,
• gender equality,
• prevention of the weakening of the state as an institution.

The EU and Africa: Towards a Strategic Partnership – the part devoted to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and development assistance assumes the EU commitment to the development of human capital in Africa, the development and improvement of medical care, facilitation of access to drinking water sources, job creation, promotion of cultural diversity and positive use of the impact of migration.

The European Parliament also comprises a Development Committee whose task is to analyse bills related to foreign assistance.

The EU carries out activities aimed at improving the efficiency of development assistance. One of the intentions is for each country with at least two active EU donors, to develop an action plan for the co-ordination and harmonisation of assistance procedures.

UNO

The United Nations Organisation is the only international organisation of common and universal nature. Its activities are mostly devoted to the issue of development co-operation:

• there is an ongoing debate on development on UNO’s agenda,
• UN agencies and programmes exist in areas related to development assistance (e.g. the United Nations Development Programme, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS).

The activities of the UNO and the ongoing development debate have led to the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, which were adopted at the organisation’s summit in the year 2000. The eight Millennium Development Goals compel the international community, including Poland, to reduce poverty and hunger worldwide, to achieve equal status of women and men, to improve the state of health, the educational conditions, to combat AIDS, protect the natural environment, and develop a global partnership for development.