European partnership for democracy, EPD

Democracy & Development at the European Development Days: the Report

Democracy & Development

Report on the plenary session, held Friday 24 October

As part of the 2009 European Development Days theme of democracy and development, a plenary debate involving nine top-level panellists was held in the Victoria Hall of Stockholm's exhibition centre.

The panel consisted of Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Karel de Gucht, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and now Administrator of the UN Development Programme, Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Peter Ackermann, Chair of the International Centre on Non-Violent Conflict, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Director of the UN Population Fund, Kumi Nadoo, President of CIVICUS and Gunilla Carlsson, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation.

Under the moderation of Victor Helgesen of International IDEA, the panellists agreed not to make pre-prepared speeches but to launch directly into open debate. There followed one-and-a-half hours of open and often frank exchanges of opinion on how best to support democracy as a catalyst for a country's development.

Underpinning much of the discussion was the question of whether infrastructure or democracy was more important for a country's development. The example of the Chinese approach, which at present favours the former, was given by way of a contrast to the European approach, which has tended to favour the latter. President Johnson-Sirleaf made it clear that, from an African perspective, both were necessary, and many of the panellists agreed that this juxtaposition presented a false choice - without one there could not be the other. Gunilla Carlsson made the point that democracy was necessary in order to ensure the infrastructure was built according to the needs of the recipient country's people, rather than to benefit the donor nation. Commissioner Karol de Gucht stated the necessity to work with partners, such as the Chinese, to ensure certain rules and principles were followed in international development aid.

Attention during the debate also focussed on the state of Europe's own democracy. Jerzy Buzek stressed that falling participation in European elections should be of major concern to all, since it undermined the core principle of democracy, that is ‘the participation of people'. He called for a stronger role for parliaments in all democracies. Amr Moussa stressed that democracy, for all its apparent weaknesses, was by far the best system of governance, and Peter Ackermann presented statistical evidence that suggested a much higher rate of success for transitions to democracy when these occur in a non-violent manner.

Kumi Naidoo was particularly concerned with making sure the voice of people from the developing world was heard and called for better representation of developing countries on international trade and banking organisations and for the western media to focus more on developing countries' stories. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid meanwhile highlighted the need for greater support to be given to community-based civil society organisations, since mobilising these was ‘the key to good democracy'. Ms Ahmed Obaid called on everyone to re-examine not the principles but the practices of democracy. There was widespread agreement that elections alone were not a guarantor of democracy in a country.

The question of whether the need for security might sometimes justifiably outweigh the right to democracy was also raised in the light of the Iraq war and the present conflict in Afghanistan. The panellists made it clear that they understood the term ‘security' to refer to ‘human security', of which an essential constituent part was the right to self-determination and freedom founded on a democratic basis.  Amr Moussa highlighted what he saw as the ‘double standards' being imposed by western powers in this respect, and Kumi Nadoo highlighted examples in certain EU member states, where he felt civil liberties have been eroded as a result of security priorities.

The debate concluded with a frank exchange of views on the relevance of the current economic crisis to development aid. Kumi Nadoo called on western countries to meet their commitment to spending 0.7% of GDP on development assistance and pointed to the large sums of money used to bail out banks threatened with collapse as proof that these countries could mobilise money when it was necessary to do so. Helen Clark and Karel de Gucht both pointed out that such sums had been necessary to support institutions upon which developing countries also relied.

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East Meets South

A fringe meeting chaired by Simon Panek, Executive Director of People in Need, Czech Republic, and EPD Board member

Friday morning also provided the occasion for an eagerly awaited fringe seminar in which panellists from Eastern European countries could share their experience of democratic transition with representatives from the African and South American continents. Under the moderation of People in Need Director and EPD Board member Simon Panek, the panel, consisting of Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, Olga Algayerová, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Slovakia, Joze Mencinger, former finance Economy Minister of Slovakia, Brigita Schmögnerová, Vice-President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Roberto Bissio, Executive Director of Third World Insitute and Coordinator of Social Watch in Uruguay and Gasana Ndoba, former President of the National Human Rights Commission in Rwanda, was able to share a number of experiences on both the social, societal and economic consequences of such transitions.

The session was organised by the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenian Global Action and the European Commission (DG Development & Relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific States).