In an increasingly globalised and interdependent world, EU member states recognise the need for greater coherence between the policies that affect, directly or indirectly, the developing countries.
Aid alone cannot end poverty and generate growth. Policy areas such as agriculture, trade, migration and security, among others, have a profound impact on development issues.
Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) ensures that development objectives are not undermined by other external policies and that they all contribute to the same cause, if possible. This requires a multilateral approach and coherence of the issues in order to analyse existing interconnections in order to resolve and mitigate any existing conflicts of interest.
European political commitment to PCD has gradually increased since the 1990s. The legal basis was introduced under the terms of the Maastricht Treaty (1992) and later complemented by the Amsterdam Treaty (1997) and the Nice Treaty (2001) and later reinforced by the Lisbon Treaty (2009).
In addition to the context of the EU in various multilateral fora in which it participates, Portugal has endorsed the need to proceed in seeking greater coherence in order to increase the effectiveness of aid, the fight against poverty and to reach the Millennium Development Goals.
To implement international commitments on a national level, Portugal adopted the Council of Ministers Resolution no. 82/2010, which was published in the Official Journal on the 4th of November 2010 with the aim of ensuring the coherence of national policies affecting developing countries with development co-operation policy as a means of increasing the visible effectiveness of Portugal’s foreign and national aid in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals. This objective should be achieved through the formal mechanisms of monitoring and co-ordination and by increasing inter-ministerial dialogue effectively and systematically throughout the decision-making processes of governance on matters that have an impact on developing countries.