Belgian framework
Legislative framework:
Legislation relating to Development Cooperation, March 2013
Legislation containing various provisions with a bearing on administrative simplification including analyses of prior regulatory impacts, January 2014
Official decree on the establishment of an Advisory Council on policy coherence for development, April 2014
Official decree on the establishment of an inter-departmental commission on policy coherence for development, April 2014
Declaration of the Federal State, Regions and Communities of Belgium on policy coherence for development, May 2014
Belgian institutions:
The Belgian Ministry of Cooperation and Development
The Administrative Simplification Agency and regulatory impact analyses
European framework
The concept of policy coherence first emerged in Europe with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Article 208 of the Lisbon Treaty made Policy Coherence for Development a legal obligation. Subsequently, the European Union has implemented a series of mechanisms to promote policy coherence.
Since 2005, the EU assesses its progress and those of Member States concerning policy coherence in a number of areas where coherence of policy has crucial importance. These evaluations take the form of biennial reports on policy coherence.
Since 2010, a special rapporteur on policy coherence has been designated by the European Parliament. As of the European elections in May 2014, Cristian Dan Preda is the Special Rapporteur on Policy Coherence in the European Parliament.
Other initiatives to promote policy coherence at the level of the European Union, include: mandatory impact analyses, inter-service working groups with directors of the Commission, informal working groups with Member States, formal and informal mechanisms for more information on the impact of certain policies in developing countries affected by various European policies.
These various initiatives and mechanisms are unfortunately not sufficient to counter the adverse effects of certain European policies in developing countries. There are several civil society organisations that analyse the impact of European policies on developement, including the European NGO confederation for Relief and Development (Concord), the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) the Foundation Max van der Stoel . Various NGOs and academic studies have shown the lack of effectiveness of some of these mechanisms and lack of political will to promote policy coherence for development ¹.
Framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is to promote policy coherence in different Member countries of the organisation via working groups, as Peer Review and studies. In June 2008, the OECD ministerial members also adopted the Ministerial Declaration of the OECD on Policy Coherence for Development services.