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The FIIAPP and the ICMPD organized an important meeting onSeptember 11th and 12th in Dakar, as part of the project “Supporting the third phase of the Rabat Process: the Dakar Strategy,” financed by the European Union.
High-level civil servants, key actors and experts shared their experiences and presented best practices for “strengthening political decision-making based on proven migratory data.” This topic, which is extremely important at this time, is directly related to the horizontal 10 objective of the Dakar Strategy: “basing policy coherence and coordination on the acquisition and exchange of information,” approved in the Third Euro-African Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development.
The meeting included plenary sessions, participatory work groups and the presentation of practical cases and examples. This format provided the participants with various tools for compiling reliable data, highlighting the importance of regional and international cooperation in this field.
This meeting was also an excellent occasion to present the new Rabat Process Support Project initiatives, in collaboration with the FIIAPP.
First of all, the project offers short-term technical assistance throughthe deployment of international and local expertsin order to improve national capacity building on both a human and institutional level.Secondly, it provides better access to migratory data for greater understanding of the migratory situation in participating countries, and consequently, better coordination.
Accordingly, the consortium has developed various tools to favour the exchange of information, such as the interactive “iMap” platform, which offers a dynamic, visual presentation of different migratory data collected throughout the project, and the possibility of participating in discussion forums on the project’s website (www.processusderabat.net).
The meeting’s high attendance (nearly 60 representatives from Africa, Europe and international organisations) reaffirms the importance of these issues and a renewed interest in the migration and development dialogue.
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How is organised crime changing? What type of response can we expect on a regional level? How can local authorities connect with civil society?
Last May, a conference on “Improving the response to organised crime and drug trafficking along a cocaine route” took place, as part of the “CORMS – cocaine route monitoring system” project. This conference was intended to provide answers to questions such as: How is organised crime changing? What type of response can we expect on a regional level? How can local authorities connect with civil society? What are the key aspects of the European Commission’s future Cocaine Route Programmes?
Many interesting responses were given to these questions, which are summarised below:
According to Ernesto Savona, Director of Transcrime and Professor of Criminology, we must undertake a careful, detailed analysis so as not to repeat the same policies from 10 years ago. The situation in Mexico could have been prevented if we had looked into its weaknesses through a macro-analysis of the State’s corruption and organisation.
Paula Miraglia, a specialist in the Public Sector in Brazil, claims that the use of mass incarceration is not appropriate as a means for fighting against drug trafficking. Young people who are incarcerated join criminal gangs in prison, thereby creating a sort of army. The poor get imprisoned and the others get money. There is nothing naïve about wanting to regulate the market. At least it would stop poor people from being arrested and the others from getting richer. Drugs affect social justice, making it an ideological problem.
According to the President of the Western African Drug Commission and former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, institutions in Western Africa are fragile and the budget for the fight against drugs is much lower than the resources managed by criminal organisations. The difference between the investment in prevention and the cost of handling the drug problem is huge – the cost is seven times greater than the investment. We cannot expect Western Africa to fight against drugs alone when consumers and producers are located in other geographic areas.
Janice McClean, Head of the Project Team Against Money Laundering in Western Africa (directed by the FIIAPP), believes that drugs are a business. Although it is an illegal business, if we start to treat it as a business, we’ll be on the right track. As a business, our first objective should be to confiscate illegal money. If you take the money off the streets, the drug traffickers will be forced to swallow their pride. It is more effective to take away their money than to imprison them, and anything that cannot be justified should be taken away.
Más información de la reunión en el PDF adjunto
Miguel de Domingo
Area Director in FIIAPP -
At the “Configuration of the Spanish position in the post-2015 agenda” debate forum held in Madrid on the 16th of September, organised by the General Secretary of International Development Cooperation (SGCID), a document was presented that establishes Spain’s post-2015 position.
Our country shares the United Nations’ and the European Union’s focus on defining a new agenda that accounts for lessons learned from the MDGs, including priority topics such as sustainability, climate change, the middle class, and poverty.
Spain has proposed a comprehensive agenda that includes the principles of aid efficiency and coherence, with the main goal of eradicating extreme poverty.
Amina Mohamed, advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, whoattended the event, reiterated the importance of public opinion in building these new objectives to guarantee the planet’s development. Society, Mohamed says, must be part of the process and must feel implicated in the agenda. One million people from 144 countries have already participated in these consultations.
Amina Mohamed established the primary goal to eradicate poverty. “We are the first generation that can achieve this,” she commented, and she mentioned various ways in which we are already working towards this goal, including universality, sustainable development, economic transformation, good governance and a new global partnership that recognises common interests.
The International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP) is very interested in the post-2015 debate and hopes that the new MDGs will serve to improve the situation of all societies and activate the planet’s development.
#somoscooperacion
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Our 1st Forum will place the emphasis on the important role played by Spanish civil servants in strengthening Spain's image abroad.
In recent days, two events have taken place which are very important for a public foundation like the FIIAPP: the approval of the reform of public administrations and the presentation of our first annual forum, which will emphasise the important role played by Spanish civil servants in strengthening Spain’s image abroad.
Even though I am aware of the great differences between these two initiatives, it seems to me to be particularly relevant that, in both cases, a significant role is played by the internationalisation of administrations. The vast majority of the world’s citizens are completely unaware of that role, but it is nonetheless of considerable political and economic importance (which, unfortunately, is never measured).
The internationalisation of the public administrations differs to a great extent from that of the private sector. Companies venture abroad mainly to sell more products or services. Though there are isolated cases (I have just remembered a border post which, due to the high level of corruption of the customs administration of the country of origin, the decision was taken to hand over its management to foreign public bodies, and I don’t think it’s an isolated case) or public companies that attend to the needs of foreign citizens, the purpose of public administrations is to provide services to people in their own countries. The fundamental aim of internationalisation is the exchange of knowledge between equals.
The Commission for the Reform of Public Administrations (CORA) in Spain has demonstrated that it is very much aware of the value of this exchange of knowledge. Evidence of this is the way in which the experience of Canada, France and the United Kingdom in the modernisation of their respective administrations has been taken as a fundamental reference and a vital asset to guarantee the success of its proposal.
The 1st FIIAPP Forum of Expertswill also have that exchange of knowledge at its heart. But in this case for projects in which the information flows in a different way. For cases in which the Spanish administration provides its knowledge to other administrations which want to follow a similar route. In this regard, it will come as no surprise if, as currently occurs in the spheres of Justice, the Environment, Organ Donation or the Safety of railway networks,within a few years it is Spanish civil servants of worldwide prestige who go to other countries to explain the recently-approved reform of the public administrations.
Allow me, in conclusion, to move away from the theme slightly, to tell you just how important it is for us that we were mentioned in the text of the CORA report on two occasions. One to highlight how important it is that institutions like the FIIAPP should generate revenue abroad, favouring economic growth and the fight against the public deficit. And the other to stress the need to improve the coordination of the Spanish public entities that work abroad. We are committed to both objectives and we hope to continue to respond successfully to the challenges they represent.
P.S.: Naturally, you are all invited to the Forum on the 26th of November. For all of us who form part of the FIIAPP, it will be an honour to welcome you.
Javier Quintana
Director of the FIIAPP -
For many, Cotonou is and will continue to be known as the city where the latest trade agreements were made between the EU and the group of ACP countries in 2000. Nevertheless, for the FIIAPP, and particularly the MME Project (Migration, Mobility and Employment), it is another brick in the construction of the Africa-EU Dialogue.
On July 4-5, the meeting “Promotion of cross-border mobility of people and goods” took place in the economic capital of Benin. What better city than Cotonou to discuss the free circulation of people and goods – a clear nod to Euro-African relations – which also emphasizes the role of the baseline trade port in West Africa, particularly in the area of the Gulf of Guinea.
Over the course of these two days, with the help of the Ministry of the Interior of Benin and particularly its Permanent Secretary Marcel Baglo, the Head of the EU Delegation, the FIIAPP and its ICMPD and UN-IDEP partners, we had the opportunity to bring together new civil servants, representatives of African and European countries, and representatives of regional African international organizations, in a forum for dialogue. Among the experts invited by the EU, we would like to mention the experts sent by the French andSpanish Ministries of the Interior, as well as the representative of the European Agency FRONTEX. Among the participants from Africa, we would like to mention the experts from ECOWAS, TradeMark Southern Africa and Kenya, among others.
Throughout this meeting, the various parties shared their experiences and their opinions regarding specific problems inherent in facilitating the movement of people and goods and what this implies for effective, controlled management of these flows. True freedom can only be achieved if it is supported by a system that can ensures freedom for all, both people and governments. There cannot be a paradigm of freedom without legal and physical security. Therefore, the integrated management of borders, i.e. which facilitates and accelerates procedures for greater mobility of people and goods, must be one of the main elements that the administrations involved must consider when developing border policies, as concluded in the recommendations from the meeting debates.
Regarding a topic as sensitive and relevant as border management to promote greater mobility, the MME Project once again maintained a spirit of open collaboration and cooperation arising from the creation of the Africa-EU Partnership on Migration, Mobility and Employment (MME). This meeting in Cotonou marked the renewal of the mutual legitimate interests of the EU and the AU, as well as the various member states and regional organisations, regarding the need to base border policies on concepts that are shared by everyone involved. These concepts must enable the strengthening of government operations while favouring greater degrees of freedom for the activities of citizens.
Javier Vega Barral
Project Technician. Migration and Development Program -
Latin America´s development policies are going through crucial times. In a context of deterioration of the world economy, the region continues along the road of growth, employment and the reduction of poverty. However, there are major challenges. The crisis in the euro zone and the slowdown in the USA and China are affecting the growth of Latin America, which will fall to 3.5% in 2013. As a recent study by the World Bank highlighted, growth will increasingly depend on each country’s policies rather than external factors.
While the affirmation by the Mexican author Carlos Fuentes that “the pretexts to justify poverty in Latin America have ended” is true, 3 out of 10 Latin Americans are still poor and 1 in 10 suffers from extreme poverty. Inclusive growth is the last important challenge pending in a region with the highest concentration of wealth on the planet and the largest informal economy compared to GDP.
More efficient public policies are needed and greater tax revenue must be generated. The tax burden – 19.2% of GDP – is still a long way behind the average of 33.8% in the countries of the OECD and there are still high levels of corruption. According to the data from Latinobarómetro, half of all citizens do not pay the taxes they should and just 47% consider taxes to be an essential aspect of the exercise of citizenship. Tax fraud is justified on the pretext that the State does not fulfil their side of the social contract, and at the same time the services cannot be improved because the revenue is insufficient.
It is vital to promote a new tax culture. In addition to warning taxpayers of the risk of being punished, the tax administrations in Latin America are increasingly aware that education is required from an early age so that citizens internalise the notion that they must pay their taxes. Thus, fiscal education is one of the strategic lines of almost all the tax administrations in Latin America. The oldest programmes are those of Brazil (1996) and Argentina (1997), and the most recent one is that of Bolivia (2011).
The current scenario, however, invites optimism. After years of disagreements, the Education Ministries are starting to see the benefits of collaboration with the tax agencies for fiscal education in the classroom, related to values and citizenship. But talking to young people about taxes is quite a challenge. That is why the non-formal fiscal education strategies include spaces for leisure, festivals, theatre, videogames, TV series, music or competitions.
Fiscal education is a process which brings results in the medium and long term. The short-term goal is that fiscal education should be considered an important part of social transformation.
We at the FIIAPP, through EUROsociAL II, support the strengthening of Fiscal Education Programmes in Latin America through an initiative in the area of Public Finances.
Version of the article published in the Brazilian Newspaper O Povo
Borja Díaz Rivillas
Senior Technician of the FIIAPP / EUROsociAL II
