Leaving Geneva – A Hub for Global Governance

The city of Geneva has a long tradition of hosting international organisations, peace talks and global conferences. Although the United Nations headquarters is located in New York, UN bodies and agencies seated in Geneva have gained prominence in recent years. As my term at the Czech Mission is ending, allow me to look back and […]

A Farewell Reflection on CzechAid: What a Remarkable Transformation!

Although the Czech Republic has provided development cooperation since mid 1990s, the Czech Agency for International Development (CzechAid) was established only in 2008. I joined the agency five years later and since then, it has gone through a genuine transformation. Across the world, from the Caucasus to Gobi and from the Dead Sea to Zambezi, we have […]

CzechAid welcomes findings of the peer review by OECD

Peer reviews are a unique feature in international relations. OECD has mastered the art of peer pressure to perfection. Other organizations have followed such as the African Peer Review Mechanism. There is no perfect model of development cooperation. OECD respects and benefits from the diversity of its members. Peer reviews are a mutual learning exercise. […]

How Agenda 2030 Impacts on New Donors?

The presented text is an excerpt from the Director of the Czech Development Agency Mr. Michal Kaplan’s speech at a High-level Workshop for New and Emerging Donors from Central and Eastern Europe hosted by the Regional United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Office in Istanbul in December 2015. UNDP has long supported the building of capacities of […]

A Strategic Puzzle – Ten Challenges for EU Foreign Policy

Does the EU need a new global strategy? Would regional or sectoral strategies not offer a more targeted way? Instead of discussing the rationale for a new strategy, this note describes the main foreign policy challenges in the years to come. There is no need to redefine EU’s external goals as they have already been set […]