45 Poland “Poland is a large country. We are the 18th biggest economy in the world and the 6th biggest in the EU. If we have ambition to play an important role, we have to be a substantial donor.” Paweł Wojciechowski, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs In 2009, Poland provided 0.08% of its GNI as ODA, the same level as the previous year. With only one year to go, it is clear that Poland will fail to reach its target of 0.17% of GNI by 2010. Additionally, close to 9% of the country’s ODA was made up of student and refugee costs. When this is discounted, Poland’s genuine aid amounts to only 0.07% of the GNI. The failure to increase aid levels in the past year shows that Poland is failing to pull its weight as one of the biggest economies in Europe. • Aid quality Polish ODA is strongly driven by political interests. Most of the aid is allocated to four target countries of the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) – Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova – with the aim to foster their integration with the European Union. Poland’s priority countries for aid expenditure also include Afghanistan and Angola. Afghanistan, the only LDC among the priority countries, accounts for 30% of bilateral ODA and is managed mostly by the Army Provincial Reconstruction Team. Development assistance to Angola in 2009 was mostly made up of loans tied to domestic interests. The same happened with China, which despite not featuring as a priority country, has in fact been the largest recipient of bilateral aid since 2007. Aid to China is provided with the objective of promoting exports. The relationship between the Polish government and NGOs is getting worse. Consultation processes can be better described as a public relations exercise orchestrated by the government, rather than as a real effort to promote the principles of democratic ownership. The Polish government treats NGOs mainly as implementers of development projects. To date, the process of consultation feels completely artificial and NGO contributions are not usually taken into account. Moreover, NGO initiatives to discuss policy documents have been ignored. At present there are no mechanisms of consultation with partner countries whatsoever. The 2003 Polish Aid Strategy includes limited wording about gender equality, but this has not been translated into practice (no earmarked budget lines, priority sectors, indicators for evaluation or any detailed information on the ODA volumes allocated to gender). As the MFA stated in a recent letter: “the drafting of a gender strategy for Polish aid is not possible, among others, because of the cultural differences in the partners’ countries and the fact that the sustainable approach to development is per se mainstreaming gender equality and women’s empowerment into development practices”. This shows a total lack of understanding and recognition of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the context of development. Polish NGOs call on their government to: • Establish a binding timetable to reach its aid commitments. • Focus aid on poverty reduction and align development aid to universally agreed sets of standards on development cooperation, including the Paris Declaration and AAA. • Introduce a strategy on development cooperation requiring the MFA to put a greater focus on poverty, rights and democratic ownership. Poland should also introduce proper legislation in order to be able to implement this strategy. • Start mainstreaming gender equality and women’s empowerment in all development practices. • Align ODA with partner countries' priorities and improve dialogue with them. • Ensure transparency and cross-sector dialogue beyond the current promotion of aid programmes. • Join the OECD DAC. Will Poland achieve the 2010 target according to the budgeted aid levels? No Will Poland achieve the 2010 target without inflating its aid? No M a l t a / P o l a n d Organisations consulted: Grupa Zagranica (Polish platform), including: Polish Humanitarian Action, Polish Green Network and the Institute of Global Responsibility. Poland's genuine and inflated aid 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 € m 2 0 0 7 c o n s t a n t Genuine aid Student costs Refugee in donor country Total ODA