11328/J XXIV. GP

Eingelangt am 10.04.2012
Dieser Text ist elektronisch textinterpretiert. Abweichungen vom Original sind möglich.

Anfrage

der Abgeordneten Petra Bayr und GenossInnen

an den Bundesminister für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten betreffend

Umsetzung der Empfehlungen für eine kohärente österreichische Entwicklungspolitik.

Gerade in Zeiten der finanziellen Kürzung der Österreichischen Entwicklungs­zusammenarbeit (OEZA) ist es wichtig, alle österreichischen Programme und Initiativen in den so genannten Entwicklungsländern im Sinne einer Politikkohärenz für Entwicklung (Policy Coherence for Development - PCD) durchzuführen. Österreich hat sich an mehreren Stellen zu PCD bekannt.

PCD ist allerdings nur dann zielführend, wenn nicht nur alle ODA (Official Development Assistance) fähigen Aktivitäten in Linie mit dieser Politik agieren, sondern kein österreichischer Politikbereich (Aussenhandel, Migration, Umwelt, etc.) entwicklungspolitische Ziele unterminiert. Ein erster Schritt dazu sind die Programme und Projekte Ihres Ministeriums und jene der ADA, also die Aktivitäten der OEZA.

Um die österreichische Politikkohärenz für Entwicklung zu verbessern, kann die OEZA auf eine Vielzahl von Empfehlungen von renommierten Institutionen zurückgreifen. Im Folgenden sind die Empfehlungen des OECD/DAC Peer Reviews von 2009 und jene der Evaluierung von B. Wenger aus dem Jahr 2010 angeführt.

I) 2009 hat das OECD/DAC in einem Peer Review nützliche Empfehlungen ausgesprochen, die von Ihrem Ministerium schon teilweise umgesetzt wurden bzw. werden.

Promoting policy coherence for development

The DAC notes efforts made by Austria to give Strategie direction to its development co- operation and to make aid policy more coherent. To build on this, Austria should:

1.    Prepare a medium-term development policy such as a "white paper", which addresses all ODA activities and is endorsed at the political level. This should commit all Austrian aid at the strategic level to the primary objectives of Austrian development co-operation, including Austria's commitment to implementing the Paris Declaration principles. Such a medium-term development policy, prepared under the leadership of the MFA, could be an effective Instrument for increasing coherence in Austria's aid system and bringing all aid-spending ministries in line with, and accountable to, the objectives of the Development Co-operation Act.

 

2.    Strengthen efforts to win political and public support for development cooperation, and in particular for achieving international aid targets and the MDGs. The MFA should take the lead on developing, in consultation with the MoF, ADA and other government stakeholders, a comprehensive and well-targeted communication and advocacy strategy that promotes public and political debate about development in Austria. Austria is encouraged to build on its good practice in global education and share this experience with other donors.

3.    Deepen commitment to  and move forward on policy coherence for development. Austria needs to  publish clearly-prioritised and time-bound action agendas;  to  clarify  mandates  and  responsibilities  for  policy  coherence  for development;  and to build a system for analysis, monitoring and reporting which includes perspectives and experiences from the field. Austria should look to the experiences of other DAC members.

Aid volume, Channels and allocations

In light of Austria's restated commitment to meet EU aid targets by 2015 and its plans to increase programmable aid, Austria should:

4.       Continue to make progress towards meeting the ODA/GNI target of 0.7% in 2015. Reaching its interim target of 0.51% in 2010 is essential even in an environment of financial crisis. This would send a strong, positive signal to the development Community.

5.       Develop a specific plan containing annual targets for reaching these commitments. This is necessary to give credibility to Austria's aid promises and will make aid volumes more predictable for partner countries and other development partners. Any increase in Austrian aid should prioritise existing country and multilateral programmes. Austria should not rely on debt relief as a significant component for meeting its ODA commitments.

6.       Implement Paris Club debt relief decisions without delay to ensure that recipients receive the benefit of relief promptly, and that Austria's ODA figures are fully comparable with those of other donors. It is important for the Ministry of Finance to communicate Paris Club decisions in a timely manner to the MFA.

7.    Concentrate the aid Programme to improve efficiency and effectiveness, as previously recommended in the 2004 DAC peer review. Austria should step up efforts to diminish the fragmentation of total ODA and of the aid programme managed by ADA. The MFA should use ex ante aid allocations by all ministries to help achieve greater coherence in the aid policy, and build the transparency and predictability of total ODA.

8.    Provide co-financing for multi-annual results-oriented programmes of NGOs with sufficient demonstrated capacity in programme management. This will help reduce transaction costs and give NGOs more flexibility and predictability.

 

Organisation and management

To continue the organisational reform started in 2004, Austria should:

9.    Fine-tune the organisation of Austria's aid system to deal with capacity pressures and to clarify roles and responsibilities between the MFA and ADA. Austria should ensure that the MFA has the required resources to meet its responsibilities to set policy, give strategic direction, monitor and evaluate, and report on results.

10.   Develop a eulture of managing for results in Austria's aid system by placing results at the centre of planning, implementation, disbursement reporting, monitoring and evaluation and staff performance objectives. Country programmes should have specific results frameworks, which should align with partner countries' own objectives.

11.   Bring Austria's evaluation system in line with DAC guidelines on evaluation. An

independent evaluation unit with sufficient staff and budget needs to be established within the MFA.

Priority topics

To build on its commitment to make aid more effective and to focus on preserving the environment, Austria should:

12.   Complement the Aid Effectiveness Action Plan with a binding, system-wide operational plan for taking forward the lessons from Austria's aid effectiveness review. These include increasing the emphasis on results; clarifying the division of labour between ADA and the MFA in their relations with the field; making aid more predictable; using partners' monitoring, evaluation and reporting procedures and Systems; and identifying appropriate niche sectors as it improves division of labour and increases country programmable aid.

13.   Develop guidance on practical approaches to capacity development jointly with other donors and partners, including for situations of fragility. Austria should assess the capacity needs of partner countries together with partner govemments and donors and establish Systems for ensuring that technical co operation remains demand-driven.

14.   Continue to reform the scholarship programme as a matter of priority. This should involve providing a coherent and holistic approach to ensure that scholarships are an efficient and cost-effective way of contributing to building sustainable capacity in   partner   countries.   They   should  also contribute  substantially to Austria's geographical and thematic development priorities.

Humanitarian action

As it increases funding for humanitarian assistance, Austria should:

15.  Bolster Support to  UN agencies  and Red Cross organisations with un­earmarked core funding, as recommended in the Good Humanitarian Donorship Initiative, and in line with its position within the international Community, as well as to establish an annual budget allocation for the Foreign Disaster Relief Fund. The recent pledge to increase significantly Austrian humanitarian assistance is very encouraging.

16.Consider more streamlined approaches for support channeled through multilateral partners, including (but not limited to) multi-annual framework agreements. As the budget increases, efficiency dividends could also be gained by

establishing humanitarian partnership agreements with accredited NGOs, such as those that already exist in the development sector.

17. Strengthen evaluation and learning functions within the humanitarian sector in

line with the greater scrutiny likely to emanate from increased financial flows to the sector.

II) 2010 hat der externe Gutachter Bernhard Wenger im Auftrag der OEZA eine exzellente Evaluierung der Implementierung der Pariser Deklaration in Österreich erstellt. In dieser spricht er die Knackpunkte an und gibt konstruktive Vorschläge die großteils an Ihr Ministerium und an die ADA gerichtet sind:

General Recommendations

1.   Repositioning Austrian development policy. The extemal evaluator recommends to the  Austrian  Government:  to  carefully  prepare  the repositioning  of  Austrian development policy not only for a post PD period but much more so also for the next government Programme.

2.       Designing new regional programmes according to PD principles: The external evaluator recommends to the Austrian Government: sharpening the focus of future regional programmes (e.g. the Black Sea Region) according to the five PD principles.

3.       Step-by-step approach for restructuring Austrian ODA: The external evaluator recommends to BMeiA: developing a step-by-step approach for restructuring Austrian ODA with the objective to create a legally binding, multiannual financial framework for the overall ODA, setting deliberate priorities in Strategie partnerships with other ministries.

4.       Streamlining strategies: The external evaluator highly recommends to BMeiA and ADA: continuing  the  streamlining  process  that  has  resulted  in  some  good achievements so far such as the two action plans 06-11 and 09-11, the new format of the country strategies, and the baseline for aid modalities despite the presumable difficult financial Situation.

5.    Simplifying procedures: The external evaluator recommends to BMeiA and ADA: creating transparency on strengths and shortcomings of the present ADC in a pragmatic approach, analysing the basic choices for the specific profiles in the concentration/fragmentation consequently, simplifying procedures, shifting more to a hands-on work style in the international development cooperation.

 

Specific Recommendation to BMeiA

6.    Interministerial task group: The external evaluator recommends to BMeiA to mandate its division VII with establishing an interministerial working group at division level including  representatives  of  the  Ministries  of  Finance,  Science  and Research, Environment, ADA, and optionally others, with the objective of defining a step by step approach for restructuring Austrian ODA.

Tasks of the group should include:

6.1.  Assessing options such as an amendment of the law on development cooperation, a redesign of the 3YP, a clarification of the thematic priorities, the bundling of existing strategic instruments, a redesign of ODA financing mechanisms, shifts in attribution of responsibilities among the Ministries,

6.2.  Prioritizing the options

6.3.     Listing the necessary measures for implementing options with the highest priorities

6.4.  Setting a proposal for implementation including a time-frame

6.5.  Informing  the  Ministries involved in the task group with parallel notes on the proposal.

The first step above should at least include the adjustment of the 3YP to the requirements of the PD, namely by:

a.     Formulating objeetives and related results with quantitative indicators

b.     Making reference to objeetives and results achieved in the prior programme period

c.     Making clear-cut reference to international agreements and Austrian commitments

d.     Distributing responsibilities for results among the involved Ministries

Specific Recommendation to BMeiA division VII

7.   Focus on strategies: The extemal evaluator recommends to BMeiA division VII to concentrate on timely delivery of concise Strategie guidelines that include clear-cut distribution of responsibilities, planned results, planned financial inputs and to reduce operational programming.

Specific Recommendation to ADA

8.   Reduce  and simplify strategies, coneepts and programmes: The external evaluator recommends to ADA to reduce duplications of documents (e.g. company statute / company concept, working programme / sectoral working programme) and overlaps (e.g. 3YP - working programme); to reduce own policy considerations in all documents, but to refer to policy documents of Austrian or partner governments where necessary; and to include in all documents review-outlook comparisons and results backed by indicators.

 

Die unterzeichneten Abgeordneten stellen daher an den Bundesminister für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten folgende

Anfrage:

1.       Welche der oben gelisteten Empfehlungen hat Ihr Ministerium bzw. andere relevante Stellen wie zB die ADA bereits umgesetzt?

2.       Was sind die Resultate und wer ist/war in welche Aktivitäten involviert?

3.       Welche der oben gelisteten Empfehlungen ist Ihr Ministerium bzw. andere relevante Stellen wie zB die ADA gerade dabei, weiter zu verfolgen und in welcher Form?

4.       Welche der Empfehlungen aus den oben genannten Berichten hat Ihr Ministerium bzw. andere relevante Stellen wie zB die ADA verworfen und warum?

5.       Ist Ihr Ministerium in Kontakt mit der EU oder OECD, um den Richtlinien zu PCD zu entsprechen?

a.   Wenn ja, mit welchen Abteilungen der EU/OECD?

b.   Wenn ja, wer ist im BMeiA für den Kontakt mit der EU/OECD verantwortlich?

c.   Wenn nein, warum nicht?

6.       Mit welchen Ministerien/privaten Akteurinnen und Akteuren/ NGOs ist Ihr Ministerium in Kontakt, um PCD voranzutreiben und mit welchem Ergebnis?

7.       Wie unterscheiden sich die Aktivitäten/Akteurinnen und Akteure Ihres Ministeriums in der Umsetzung von PCD in der bilateralen und in der multilateralen EZA?

8.       Da die ursprüngliche Empfehlung des OECD/DAC Peer Reviews unter dem Punkt Priority Topics

"Approve without delay the inter-ministerial strategy on environment and development making it binding on all relevant governmental bodies. The DAC

welcomes Austria's initiative in this area and asks Austria to ensure that human and financial resources dedicated to environment and climate change at headquarters and in the field match the Strategie importance these issues are given in policy."

bereits teilweise umgesetzt wird, bitten wir bezüglich dieser Empfehlung statt dessen um Beantwortung folgender Frage:

Betreffend den im September 2009 vom Ministerrat zur Kenntnis genommenen Leitfaden zum Thema "Umwelt und Entwicklung" wird um eine Mitteilung des konkreten Stands der Umsetzung hinsichtlich der darin dargestellten Arbeitsbereiche ersucht. Insbesondere ist von Interesse, welche dieser Inhalte mittlerweile in welcher Form in die Landes-, Regional- und Themenstrategien der OEZA Eingang gefunden haben oder in Zukunft berücksichtigt werden.