Mind the GAP: Addressing the “delivery challenge” in European Commission Development Cooperation

This papers seeks to analize the quality of the delivery process of the EU with regard to three major policy innovations, recently introduced by the EU: the new strategic partnership with africa; the growing support for governance as a key priority of EU Development Cooperation; the adoption of the participatory development agenda and related changes in cooperation approaches towards civil society.
In each of the three cases, the EU undertook a wide range of initiatives to translate the new policy commitments into practice. These effortshave led to positive new dynamics in the relationship with africa as well as in EU approaches towards governance and civil society. Yet in each of the three policy areas, the papers also identified critical implementation gaps, which tend to reduce the relevance, impact and credibility of EC DEvelopment Cooperation. The conclusion is that EU policy-makers should seriously " mind the gap" between stated policy objectives and actual implementation.