The objective of this report is to analyse the poverty focus of EU assistance to Middle-Income Countries (MICs), EU assistance being understood as comprising both bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the European Unions’ Member States and ODA from the European Community.

The report consists of cross-country statistical analysis, detailed literature review, and an analysis of donors’ country strategies for four MICs: Brazil, the Philippines, Morocco, and South Africa. Based on the research results, the report provides recommendations on how EU aid could be improved to better target the poor in MICs.

The report was commissioned under the European Community’s Poverty Reduction Effectiveness Programme (EC-PREP).

Edward Anderson, Sven Grimm and Carlos Montes