Case: Policy coherence in general

10-11-2010 MEP Nirj Deva on GDP and beyond

Following a Communication of the  European Commission, which aimed to complement the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to provide more comprehensive information to support policy decisions, the European Parliament (EP) has been discussing how to measure growth and moreover development this last fall. This is a discussion which Fair Politics welcomes and recognises. Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) enhances development and makes development cooperation work better, but it remains difficult to prove that a change in European policy improves the situation in a developing country. To measure development and all the different indicators that are influencing this, there is need for a comprehensive measurement system.

For a long time the key indicator to determine the welfare of a country was the GDP. Yet this indicator is far from comprehensive, because it focuses on economic factors only. There is no space for indicators which have an impact on the wellbeing of people. That is the reason why the European Commission (EC) has been working on an own system to measure countries growth and development.

In an opinion for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, MEP Nirj Deva (ECR) wrote on behalf of the Development Committee what the most important issues are with regard to development. First of all Deva mentions that development is the improvement of living conditions, and this should not be confused with growth. Also an increase of the GDP does not always automatically means an increase in welfare. Deva continues by mentioning that there should be environmental and social indicators in the Commission proposal, and it should be compatible and consistent with existing global initiatives, like the UN Human Development Index.  

Fair Politics believes that this Communication of the Commission could be a real chance for PCD. In the last couple of months a debate has started on how to measure PCD. It has become clear that it is very hard to find hard evidence that a particular European policy affects the situation in developing countries. This is mainly because there is a lack of research providing hard data. Now with this proposal there is a chance for the EU to create a system that could provide more and better data. When more facts and figures become available, development programs but also development policy and policies having an impact on development could be improved. This could potentially save many lives. Fair Politics urges the EU to take this chance with both hands.

For his concerns expressed on the measurements of development, we recognise MEP Nirj Deva (ECR) as Fair Politician. He will earn two points in our monitoring system for writing this opinion. 

Monitoring fair: ECR(2)