JPA Report on "Effectiveness of Aid and Definition of Public Development Aid"

Honourables Waven William (Seychelles) and Anne Van Lancker (Member of the European Parliament), Co-Rapporteurs for the ACP and the EU, respectively, presented their preliminary Working Document on "Effectiveness of Aid and Definition of Public Development Aid" to the Committee on Economic Development, Finance and Trade, meeting on Saturday 15th March 2008 during the 15th Session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

A key point made in the Working Document, which is of direct relevance to countries like Seychelles, is the case of the Small Island Developing States and the Middle Income Countries, whose specific concerns are not properly addressed in international development strategies. The Report calls for the EU to join hands with the ACP to influence change in the international community's attitude towards these countries.

The Report is largely based on the panel discussions of the Committee at its January 2008 Brussels inter-sessional meeting. It draws attention to the Paris Declaration of 2005 and the Third High Level Forum (HLF3) on Aid Effectiveness, scheduled to take place in Accra (Ghana), 2-4 September 2008. The primary intention of the HLF 3 is to take stock and review the progress made in implementing the Paris Declaration with a view to broaden and deepen the dialogue on aid effectiveness by giving space and voice to partner countries and newer actors (such as Civil Society Organsations and emerging donors). It is widely expected to identify the action needed and hurdles to overcome in order to make progress in improving aid effectiveness for 2010 and beyond. The Co-Rapporteurs are hoping that their Working Document can feed into HLF3, and called for the JPA to approve their request for their participation in the Accra meeting.

Members of the Committee congratulated the Co-Rapporteurs for the draft working document and suggested many ideas for the Raporteurs to consider in drafting the Resolution, which will be tabled for further discussions in the Committee's next meeting in Brussels, September 2008. The final Report is expected to be adopted in Papua New Guinea, November 2008, at the JPA's 16th Session.

Direct from Ljubljana.

ACP Secretariat Announces New Job Vacancies

Seychellois citizens qualify to apply for the new job vacancies at the ACP Secretariat.

The announcement of the vacant positions was posted on the ACP Secretariat's website (http://www.acp.int/) on 13th March 2008. It is to be noted that selections are made on the basis of qualifications. Suitable Seychellois applicants would stand an excellent chance as no Seychelles national has yet been employed by the ACP Secretariat, which is based in Brussels, Belgium.

As per the announcement, applications for these posts must reach the ACP Secretariat no later than 12 May 2008 and must be accompanied by a complete curriculum vitae, certified copies of diplomas, certificates and any other document testifying to the competence and professional experience of the candidates.

Indian Ocean Countries Signal Closer Ties

The Courier Magazine (www.acp-eucourier.info), a magazine of the Africa, Caribbean, Pacific and EU Co-operation and Relations, has carried an article on the recent Colloquium of the Indian Ocean Commission which took place in Seychelles between 4th and 6th March 2008. Below we carry the full story courtesy of The Courier Magazine.

"Indian Ocean countries signal closer ties

05/03/2008 - Debra Percival

Meeting to look at IOC shipping links © M Percival

Closer links between Indian Ocean countries have been signalled by a high level meeting in the Seychelles, March 4-6.

A colloquium “Globalisation and regional integration: the future of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC)”, is looking at how opening of world makets harbours both challenges and opportunities for the region. It is organised by President of Seychelles, James Michel who is current IOC President.

Founded in 1984, the IOC includes ACP nations Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar and the Seychelles and French islands of Reunion and Mayotte.

Experts, donors, regional and international bodies and the private sector are studying how to make regional ties stronger among IOC, in particular shipping and airlinks.

“Developing our shipping and air links between the countries of the sub-region and beyond is of fundamental importance to us, as without this basic infrastructure and networks, the objective of deepening regional integration will remain elusive,” Barry Faure, Ambassador of Seychelles in Brussels told ‘the Courier.’

He added: “For the moment our sub-region only has a few airlines serving regular schedules but these are rare and flying from one island to the other can take days in certain cases.Also, global developments are happening that affect the development and viability of the airlines in the region, which depend primarily on tourism traffic from Europe as their revenue mainstay.”

Shipping is in the same boat: “Whilst there is regular traffic, mostly by foreign operated vessels, some of the ports of the region (unlike Seychelles) suffer from a lack of capacity where congestion is quite severe, and costs can be much higher to certain destinations (like to Seychelles) because certain shipping lines monopolise the traffic,” said Ambassador Faure.

This week’s event is ahead of a meeting of IOC Council of Ministers March 27-28, which is expected to take on board recommendations made.

The EU has recently concluded “goods only” European Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the four ACP states in the IOC. Negotiations with the EU are expected to continue in 2008 to conclude fully-fledged EPAs to broaden trade cooperation.

The EPA negotiations, explained Ambassador Faure, had heightened interest in the role and status of the IOC in building regional and trade cooperation in the East and Southern Africa sub-region which had, “hitherto been on the back-burner.”

When it became clear in October 2007 that the East and Southern Africa region would not be able to conclude an EPA with the EC by the end of 2007, President Michel called for a extraordinary meeting in the Seychelles of all four ACP Member States of the IOC with France Reunion as an observer to form a sub-group in the ESA region to to defend the interests of the island states and avoid trade disruption with the non-Least developed Countries (LDCs) in the IOC, Mauritius and Seychelles. This led the way to the initialling of the “goods only” interim agreements with the IOC four.

Ambassador Faure said there was also increased scope for the IOC four to step up cooperation with the French island of Reunion. Reunion already has cooperation agreements with individual IOC states in the fields of tourism, fisheries, the environment, land use management, education and martime surveillance and control."

Seychelles attends CTA Brussels Briefings on "The Climate Challenge for ACP Agriculture"

On February 13th, 2008, Ambassador Faure attended the CTA Brussels Briefing on "The Climate Challenge for ACP Agriculture". The objective of the briefing was to raise awareness of ACP policy-makers on the impacts of climate change on their agricultural sector and to discuss the various policy responses to adapt or mitigate them.

Ambassador Faure in an interview with Euforic TV, gave his impressions of the workshop and the importance of agriculture to Seychelles, as well as the challenges posed by climate change. He also stressed on the importance Government attaches to environment as it is embedded in the Constitution.

The full video of the interview, courtesy of Euforic TV, can be viewed below and has also been published in Brussels Briefings (see right hand column).

Click To Play

The Seychelles Embassy in Brussels Launches Blog

The Seychelles Embassy in Brussels has launched today its own blog following the Embassy´s participation in the "Web2.0 Policy-Makers' Awareness Raising and Capacity Building Initiative Workshop", organised by the CTA in collaboration with the ACP Secretariat.

Photo: courtesy of Alec Singh, ACP Secretariat

Some 30 participants from ACP embassies in Brussels, including Seychelles, were sensitized on the different available web applications and tools that can be used by them to become better performing and cost-effective.

The Seychelles Embassy was represented by Ambssador Barry Faure and Miss Audrey Dine, the newly-appointed Counsellor (see photo on the left). Below are their reaction to the workshop.

Ambassador's views:

"I feel extremely happy that the CTA and the ACP Secretariat have joined hands to, for the first time since I have been posted here (18 months), something that will go a long way towards improving the efficiency of our Missions."

Counsellor's views:

"It was a very productive workshop, which broadened the knowledge of participants in web applications and tools that can be used by the embassies and their headquarters for making the sharing of information, as well as collaborative work, much easier."

The Seychelles Embassy's blog will be used as a communication tool for the Government and the Embassy's activities in Brussels.