VENRO EU Presidency Project „Prospects for Africa – Europe’s Policies”

Information provided by Marc Baxmann, VENRO (Association of German Development NGOs)

With a wide range of NGO events on the main topics of the EU Presidency Project “Prospects for Africa – Europe’s Policies”, VENRO, the Association of German Development NGOs, accompanied the official German EU Council Presidency in the last months. The main events were:

• Conference "Prospects for Africa – Europe’s Policies”, ahead of the Informal Development Ministers Meeting in March in Bonn
• Panel debate: Women – Agents of Change: Gender, Development and Millennium Goals in April in Hamburg
• International Forum: Civilian Conflict Transformation and Peace-Building – a Challenge for Africa-Europe’s Policies in late April in Berlin
• Conference on Civil Society and the Joint EU-Africa Strategy, organised by the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in cooperation with VENRO in April
• International Conference in May on Responsibilities of Governments & Civil Society in the Fight Against HIV and AIDS in Africa – The Way Forward to 2015
• International Civil Society Workshop on Building a strategic partnership between Southern and Northern NGOs, organised by VENRO and Coordination Sud in early June in Bonn.

Given the rapidly changing economic, political and social processes in Africa and Europe, close co-operation between Southern and Northern NGOs is more urgent and necessary than ever. Also with a view to the common EU-Africa Strategy that is to be adopted at the planned EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon towards the end of this year, intensifying co-operation appears to be imperative to influence the political processes and follow the implementation of the strategy in the coming years. Leading up to the Summit, AU and EU institutions are organising a broad-based public debate (See: http://www.europafrica.org/ / http://www.europafrique.org/).

Read a 2-page summary on the main VENRO activities at: http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/venro_presidency.pdf

Check out the website http://www.prospects-for-africa.de/ (Events/Archive) for the full documentation of the VENRO presidency events and for up-to-date information. Register online for the project newsletter.

Read the key demands that African and German NGOs have addressed to the German government in their Development Policy Manifesto: http://www.prospects-for-africa.de/publikationen.html?&L=1

For further information contact Anke Kurat, Coordinator of the VENRO EU Presidency Project: a.kurat@venro.org