The European Development Fund’s efforts to combat poverty in East and West Africa by promoting regional economic integration is hampered by uncoordinated mandates, a lack of operational capacity and insufficient support from the European Commission, the EU Court of Auditors declared, on 22 February. The court blamed “lack of adequate reporting and monitoring” for its inability to quantify the extent of the EDF’s failings more accurately.

The court said there were “overlapping mandates and membership” of regional organisations, which led to duplication of results in some areas and gaps in others. Some of these organisations also “lacked institutional capacity […] in all aspects of the project cycle,” it continued.

The Commission’s national and regional strategies had “largely been designed and implemented independently of each other, with insufficient attention paid to the possibility of creating complementarity between them,” the analysis found. The Commission’s delegations were also under-staffed, uncoordinated and “have neither adequate guidelines nor sufficient capacity” to successfully manage the programmes.

The court bemoaned the “poorly defined objectives and the lack of adequate reporting and monitoring,” which meant it was unable to assess individual projects effectively. There was sufficient information, however, to come to the withering conclusion that “the results, or likely results, are, at best, only partially satisfactory”.

It recommended continuing the work for economic integration, which it recognised was “relevant […] to achieve higher economic growth as a means to fight poverty,” but with better coordinated management and more staff.

The report is available at www.europolitics.info > Search = 267010