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EU surpasses US as Top Donor in Population Assistance

DSW and EPF remind European policy-makers of their commitments to Family Planning and Reproductive Health

Brussels, 1 September 2009. The collective efforts of the European Union (EU) have made it  the single greatest donor of population assistance worldwide, as a joint study of the German Foundation for World Population (DSW) and the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development (EPF) shows. According to the Euromapping 2009 report, in 2006 the EU spent nearly US$ 3 billion on population programmes and activities, increasing its aid by US$ 600 million. The US decreased its aid by nearly the same amount. To meet international commitments to provide universal access to reproductive health by 2015, donors must triple their financial support for population activities over the next four years.

At the Euromapping Press Conference, DSW Vice-Executive Director Karen Hoehn, welcomed this increasing trend in EU spending, but called on European governments to live up to their commitments to family planning and reproductive health made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD): “The financial crisis will impact developing countries most severely; sustaining European support for ODA and population assistance is therefore imperative”. There are already worrying signs of dramatic cuts in official development assistance in 2009, noted Neil Datta, Secretary of EPF: “Given the leading position of the EU in the world, with 63% of the total ODA contributions, a failure to meet its targets will deliver a worrying message to the donor community in the run-up to 2015″.

At the same time, the Euromapping report finds that EU spending towards the health sector on the whole has decreased. “There is a direct link between maternal mortality rates and the lack of well-functioning health systems,” argued Susanne Weber-Mosdorf, Head of the EU office of the WHO, at the Euromapping press conference. “With this reduction, European donors save money at the very wrong end—and miss out on sustainable solutions”.

Despite the positive efforts of other international actors, the EU’s reduction marked a drop in global health spending, jeopardising international efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals. With the Committee on Development of the European Parliament discussing the 2010 budget this week, MEP Ms. Sophie in’t Veld called on her colleagues to live up to the commitments made on reproductive health and population issues: “We have to step up our political and financial support for the fifth Millennium Development Goal on maternal health,” said Ms. in’t Veld. “Let’s not abandon those who are dying needlessly in childbirth every day, but show them our continuing support especially in times of crisis”.

More information, graphic material and the Euromapping study report in English, French and German are available online at:
http://www.euroresources.org/euromapping