A/HRC/7/15 page 15 awareness and disseminates information about the key challenges with regard to coordination between various stakeholders; and develops the capacity of European actors to support and develop community policy goals and strategies. 57. The Community Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion 2002-2006 was aimed at enabling the European Community and Member States to cooperate and increase the effectiveness of policies to combat social exclusion. It was accessible to all public and private actors involved in the struggle against social exclusion, including Member States, local and regional authorities such as social partners, social service providers, non-governmental organizations, universities and research bodies, national statistical bodies and the media. 58. A sum of 75 million euros was allocated to the implementation of the Programme for a period of five years, from 2002 to 2006. A committee comprising Government representatives from European Union Member States and other participating countries (EFTA/EEA countries) was constituted to provide political guidance to the Commission on the implementation of the Programme. 59. The Community Action Programme was also evaluated during the said period. The evaluation report found that the Programme had been making efficient use of the resources and funds available, although better capitalization of the results would increase efficiency. The Programme is relevant in the context of all European Union Member States, although some actions are more relevant to particular thematic areas. The relevance of programmes is further undermined by constraints at the national level and relative lack of engagement with key actors at the subnational level. The Programme has been effective in raising awareness, increasing understanding, implementing learning and helping in building capacity to address social exclusion and poverty questions. It has been successful in starting up the Open Method of Coordination process and has contributed added value to the European Union and helped develop practical strategies to address social exclusion and poverty.15 60. On a broader level, it was observed that the Programme had encouraged shared learning on almost all key issues. At the strategic level, the role of the Programme had been limited, as it was criticized for addressing the issues of poverty and social exclusion in a scattered and piecemeal manner on only a few thematic areas, and was not embedded in the European Union social inclusion process. VI. POVERTY REDUCTION AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 61. The concept of international cooperation through international development assistance has its origins in the theory of distributive justice, which deals with the fair allocation of scarce 15 Final synthesis main report of the evaluation of the European Union programme to promote Member State cooperation to combat social exclusion and poverty, December 2006, at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/docs/social_inclusion/evaluation_full_text_en.pdf.