1. The European Union should safeguard access to concessional finance for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and contexts most exposed to fragility as the development co-operation paradigm shifts.
2. While implementing a paradigm shift in partnerships, and in a context of official development assistance (ODA) cuts globally, the European Union should maintain its comparative advantage by:
communicating and applying the 360-degree approach that includes broad support to the enabling environment to ensure that investments place poverty and inequality at the core
continuing predictable support to basic human development and institutional strengthening, including beyond the Global Gateway strategy.
3. The European Union should leverage its complementary set of approaches and tools, such as policy-based loans, budget support and technical assistance, and conflict sensitivity and resilience analysis, to support policy reform in all geographies of its external action, including by continuing to share good practices across all directorates general from the external relations family as well as the European External Action service.
4. While modernising its global presence, the European Union should:
continue to accompany staff most affected by the modernisation process
ensure that staff working in reinforced delegations have a clear mandate and means to work across their geographic portfolios
nurture its country presence with development expertise to leverage the knowledge and network of Delegations and sustain engagement with national and local actors.
5. Recognising its role of facilitating co-ordination and promoting effective development co-operation, the European Union should:
continue incentivising and supporting the monitoring and evaluation of Team Europe Initiatives including their added value
select members for delegated co-operation on the basis of their demonstrated added value – such as country presence and technical expertise – and systematically assess whether direct funding to national and local actors would be more appropriate.
6. As the Global Gateway moves from start-up to scale-up, buy-in from stakeholders could be further strengthened by:
increasing external awareness on the Global Gateway’s objectives, processes and selection criteria
publishing comprehensive information on projects (including stage of implementation, implementing partners, expected outcomes and impact, and investment amounts by source of financing).
7. The EU should build on its strong track record on untying and continue to operate in line with the DAC Recommendation on Untying of ODA as the development co-operation paradigm shifts.
8. Recognising the leading role of the European Union on policy coherence, and as it increasingly relies on the private sector to create development impact in partner countries, the EU should:
continue promoting high environmental and social standards in global value chains, building on its history of leadership on responsible business conduct
ensure that regulations in all policy areas within its competence are designed in ways that further consider their impact on developing countries and provide appropriate support to help partner countries adjust to sustainability expectations.
9. In order to maximise its impact, the European Union should strengthen the guarantee scheme by:
simplifying and accelerating its process to improve its attractiveness
preserving its focus on local private sector development
sharing information on the additionality of its investments
facilitating private finance mobilisation.
10. The European Union should build on its strong track record on supporting peace, resilience, crisis response and principled humanitarian leadership by continuing to emphasise the value of development co-operation to prevent crises and maintain peace through the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus, including in more stable contexts, and apply its toolbox to ensure its investment approach is tailored to fragility.