Tackling rural poverty, together

Philip Mikos

Head, Environment and Rural Development Unit, DG DEV, European Commission, Brussels

WTO-compatible EPAs “offer great opportunities to strengthen regional markets”

Nater: How has DG DEV managed to help shape EU trade policy?

Mikos: For example, we worked together well with the Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade to help developing countries adjust to the new EU sugar regime, which has been quite radically reformed and came into effect on July 1, 2006. There’s now a restructuring programme proposed by the Commission for sugar-producing ACP countries worth $40 million in 2006, rising to $178 million per year on average, over the next seven years. We’ve also been advocating on behalf of ACP countries on the future of the Economic Partnership Agreements, or EPAs. These are WTO-compatible agreements to replace the unilateral Preferential Trade Agreements in the EU-ACP Cotonou Treaty that expires in 2008. We’re convinced that EPAs offer great opportunities to strengthen regional markets and boost economic growth and investment.

ACP countries are afraid that free trade will swamp their markets with goods, including agricultural products, at prices that will smash local producers. We’re working with DG Trade to heighten understanding of these issues and permit either a slower phase-in of certain products or some protective measures for developing-country markets, At the same time we’re working to reinforce the supply-side capacity in ACP countries to ensure they can reap the benefits of greater trade.

Do you share the view that trade liberalisation means smaller developing countries will be the losers?
Who’s to say? How much of the new open markets will the big emerging nations like Brazil really be able to capture? Yes, trade agreements do have winners and losers and our job is to maximise the number of developing-country winners. On the other hand, agricultural trade patterns are changing so rapidly that it’s hard to get a clear picture of where this process is going. Supply chains, supermarkets, the growth of niche markets, more direct producer-buyer contact and person-to-person relationships, more trade liberalisation, less paperwork — there are a number of trends underway now that I think will encourage investment in many types of developing countries, including least developed countries that already have well-established, historical trade links with Europe. The key in a globalised market will be for developing countries to anticipate trends and have the capacity to adapt. This is what we are working for.

And the role of donors in this process?
The relative weight of rural development experts in a donor delegation or field office will grow only if they can work creatively together, both with each other and with colleagues from other sectors and disciplines. They must be helped to put out messages and a credible plan that not only get reflected in partner-government policy but also win them a seat in general budget support negotiations with government. Negotiating that sort of agreement in our sector needs not just economists but people specially versed in the particularities and specificity of agriculture and rural development, with the tools and training to influence the balance of power in their favour. The Global Donor Platform can help create the necessary culture of collaboration here: it has the means, the mandate and the focus.

The Platform also has a big role to play in advocacy upstream. We’re only rural development people and are talking mostly to each other. What we haven’t done yet is convince our bosses. The more often we say that agriculture and rural development are important, the better. Our bosses listen to one message out of ten, so the more messages we put out, the more likely we will be heard.

More on DG DEV, European Commission

Download EU Donor Atlas 2006

Photos: Timothy Nater

Want to respond to this interview?
Send your comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . We will do our best to publish your response here, but may edit it for reasons of clarity and space.

More interviews

IFAD head views food crisis
Lennart Båge, IFAD

Adapting to growth
Sonja Bartelt and Miriam Heidtmann, Platform Secretariat

Counting what counts
Nwanze Okidegbe, World Bank

Seeing donors from both sides
Mushtaq Ahmed, CIDA

The risk of donor ‘disconnect’
Jim Harvey, DFID

Listen to people in the field
Willi Graf, SDC

Towards a more flexible approach
Michael Wales, FAO

“A race against time”
Christoph Kohlmeyer, BMZ

“We have been part of the problem”
Kevin Cleaver, World Bank