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If current trends continue, the world will have 9.7 billion inhabitants in 2050, but population growth will be unevenly distributed. The 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development was a milestone that focused on the well-being of individuals, rather than numerical targets. There has been progress promoting human rights, education, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights, but rapid urbanisation and climate change represent new challenges. The ...

Nearly half of all people living in extreme poverty are aged 18 or under. Children and young people are particularly vulnerable to social exclusion, violence and abuse. In 2014 the European Parliament called on the High Representative of the Union to report back to Parliament every year on the results of the EU's child-focused external action. The Parliament had also previously underlined the urgent need for the Union to pay special attention to the most vulnerable and socially excluded girls and ...

Conflict and poverty have a circular relation: violence negatively affects development and vice versa – poverty is often one of the root causes of conflict. The EU has long recognised the need for conflict prevention, resolution and peace building, as well as for addressing the root causes of conflict, which include poverty, weak governance and human rights abuses. The EU increasingly works to better harmonise its security and development objectives, as well as to coordinate its external policy tools ...

The position and concerns of developing countries have only belatedly entered the discussion over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). While poor countries may gain much from the positive effects of the TTIP, their precarious positions means that they may be less able to react and adapt to negative consequences. The EU is required to assess the development effects of its policies, including trade policies, by the Lisbon Treaty. Although the shape and scope of the final TTIP ...

The seventh College-to-College meeting between the European Commission and the African Union Commission underscores the close cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Africa. Institutional and political relations have intensified in recent years, coinciding with a renewed international interest in an African continent whose economic growth in the past decade has been remarkably strong. The United States (US) and China have also recently strengthened their links with Africa. While these three ...

Access to quality education is essential for development: estimates suggest global poverty could drop by 12 % if all children in low income countries could read. The European Parliament has called for gender equality in education and for providing vulnerable groups special attention. The percentage of aid devoted to education has remained constant. While amounts increased between 2002 and 2010, they have begun to decline since. Global net enrolment for primary education grew from 83 % to 90 % between ...

The world has changed in recent years, in ways that have undermined the traditional development model. The new 'Sustainable Development Goals' (SDGs) – to be agreed in September 2015 by the UN – will need to reflect these new realities and emerging challenges. A majority of the world's poorest people live in developing countries, where aid represents only a small percentage of all development financing. Aid remains important: its exclusive goal is promoting development, and it composes a large share ...

The question of the form of post-2020 relations between the EU and ACP countries will soon acquire political visibility. The ACP group of states has established an Eminent Persons Group (EPG) to examine the options for the future of the ACP group and the post-Cotonou situation. The forthcoming EPG report aims to advance realistic, doable and reachable recommendations that will require political support from the highest level. The EU development Commissioner has noted the possibility of agreeing overarching ...

This compilation of briefings presents the most salient points and essential commitments made by the commissioners-designate during the hearings held in September/October 2014 before the parliamentary committees. These commitments concern the main on-going legislative procedures, the preparation of future legislative proposals as well as the scrutiny of the implementation of existing legislation. They also touch upon the crucial issue of inter-institutional cooperation.

Neven Mimica, the recently-confirmed European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, appeared before the European Parliament's Committee on Development (DEVE) on 29 September 2014 to answer MEPs' questions. In that hearing and in his answers to the questionnaire prepared for the meeting, Commissioner Mimica made a number of statements of interest to the European Parliament. This document provides a summary of his most salient points.