Portuguese Presidency Project: EU-Africa Dialogue

The Presidency Project of the Portuguese NGDO Platform which is focused on the Europe-Africa Dialogue was officially launched with a public event in Lisbon on the 5th of July. During the event the main priorities and activities of the project were presented, as well as the methodology of coordination with other national and international initiatives. The event was attended by over 50 participants, including representatives from NGOs and national and international institutions, and got good media coverage.

Taking into account the Portuguese Presidency of the EU and the EU-Africa Summit, which will take place during the second semester of 2007, the Portuguese NGDO Platform has prepared a project focused on civil society participation in the dialogue between the European and African continents. The project will address three main interconnected themes: Governance, Migration, and Development Co-operation. Its main event will be a Civil Society Forum, gathering together representatives from European and African organisations.

For more information (incl. the first presidency project newsletter issue) please go to the website of the Portuguese NGDO platform at http://www.plataformaongd.pt/ and click on "Portuguese EU Presidency" in the left-hand menu.

Official presidency website: http://www.eu2007.pt/UE/vEN

Source: http://www.plataformaongd.pt

Europeans and Development Aid: EC publishes Eurobarometer Survey

On the eve of the symbolic mid-term date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a European Commission survey (published in June 2007) shows broad public support for the European Union's priorities in development co-operation. Most Europeans (66%) consider reducing extreme poverty and hunger in developing countries as a priority. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases is the second goal (46%). And across the EU, Sub-Saharan Africa stands out in most people's minds as being in greatest need of aid (64%).

The fieldwork of this study was conducted between 14 February and 18 March 2007 in the 27 Member States of the European Union.

Access the full EC survey results (64 pages) and look at the responses in your country at:
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/michel/speeches/docs/ip/2007/EurobaroEN.pdf

Source: CONCORD EU Monitoring Newsletter, July 11, 2007.

EP resolution: The Millennium Development Goals at the Midway Point

2007 marks the mid-point to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. On 20 June 2007 the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the MDGs' midway point. The document lists 108 points which refer to the state of the art in different areas and calls for further action.

Find the text adopted by the European Parliament at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2007-0274+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

CONCORD exhibition: Call for photos open until August 31

The European Union is the biggest economic actor and aid donor in the world. How do developing countries see Europe?

CONCORD, through its membership, has launched a call for photos on what is the impact of Europe in developing countries. By taking and sending their pictures to CONCORD, people from developing countries can demonstrate the influence of Europe on their life and their country. All photos will be displayed on the CONCORD website and everyone will be able to vote for their favourite photos. The fifty photos with the strongest messages will be presented as a photo exhibition which will travel within Europe for a couple of years starting in October 2007.

Communicate this initiative to your colleagues and partners of the Global South. The call for photos is open from now on until 31 August 2007. For more information, to participate in the call or to vote for your favorite photos, go to the CONCORD website http://www.concordeurope.org/.

Information provided by CONCORD.

DEEEP Development Education Summer School 2007

The 2007 Development Education Summer School, co-organised by DEEEP and the Slovak NGDO Platform was held near Bratislava, Slovakia, from June 26th to July 3rd. Around 100 participants from more than 36 countries (26 EU countries, and 10 from developing countries) met in Casta-Papiernicka for a week-long learning process during which they tackled the issue of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the role played by development education. Several experts, from international organisations as well as NGOs gave the participants the opportunity to broaden their knowledge on MDGs. The choice of MDGs was not casual: 2007 represents the mid-term point towards the achievement of the MDGs.

Participants were divided into 5 working groups - Group A: Politicians and decision makers; Group B: Media; Group C: teachers and youth movements; Group D: Migrants organisations and diasporas; Group E: Business and companies - each joined by a facilitator and another expert - called at the summer school the ‘devil's advocate’- who closely followed the participants’ learning process. During the last plenary session, participants presented the outcomes of their discussions and debates in order to share with everyone the work they carried out during the week. A lot of space was also given to the participants so that they could easily meet each other - in the open space sessions or the audiovisual market, just to name a few.

For more information on the 2007 Development Education Summer School (incl. the daily summer school newsletters), please visit the following websites: http://www.deeep.org/english/about_deeep/summer_school and http://summerschool.mvro.sk/
A final report will be available around mid September.

Save the date for next year’s Development Education Summer School, which will be held in the Netherlands, with once more a very topical issue: “Getting global poverty on the European political agenda through development education, campaigning, advocacy”. For more information visit http://www.deeep.org/ or contact DEEEP Information Officer Chiara Tripepi at: c.tripepi@deeep.org


Information provided by Chiara Tripepi, DEEEP

Moldovan and Latvian NGO summer cooperation

It is very difficult for individuals in societies in transition to believe that they can effect change. Building a strong civil society was one of Latvia’s greatest challenges during its transition from a command to a market economy. In June 2007 representatives of 5 Moldovan NGOs visited five active Latvian communities in which the non governmental sector plays a pivotal role. Together with the Latvian counterparts, they detailed a programme for the “Latvian Moldovan NGO Summer Academy” which will take place from 17 – 24th August, 2007, hosted by LAPAS, the Latvian NGDO platform.

15 Moldovan and 15 Latvian NGOs will take part in the August event to discuss such issues as:

• Work and activities of Community Foundations.
• Development of local partnership between NGOs and Public Authorities.
• Community centres as a tool for local development.
• Work with youth. Initiatives, programs and activities. Youth involvement and increasing of its activity in a community development.
• NGO associations and coalitions. NGO and civil society representation in the development, implementation and monitoring of legislation.

The Academy experience will give NGOs from both countries the opportunity to explore cooperation on future projects.

Information provided by Mara Simane, Latvian NGDO platform LAPAS
For further information please contact: simane@lapas.lv or info@lapas.lv

126 European Global Education multipliers trained by GLEN in 2007

The preparation phase of GLEN 2007 is finished! 126 young Europeans are now leaving in bi- or trinational teams for a three month-stay in Africa, Asia or South-Eastern Europe. They will work together with local organisations in the South on specific development projects.

GLEN, the Global Education Network of Young Europeans, founded in 2004, aims at raising awareness on global interdependencies and development issues. GLEN consists of 12 civic partner organisations from old and new member states of the European Union : Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. In 2007, 4 new partners joined the network (Austria, Slovenia, Malta and France).

In 2007, the preparation phase was split into three groups: French speaking Africa, with the preparation in French, English speaking Africa and Asia, with the preparation in English. The preparation of the participants of GLEN was carried out by former participants. Topics such as development politics, intercultural communication, European diversity and global interdependencies were covered. In a participatory way, the participants were encouraged to critically discuss and exchange on these topics. The main goal of the preparation was to let the participants reflect on the experience they will make and on how to make use of it back in Europe.

TRIALOG financed in 2007 the preparation costs and the scholarships of ten GLEN participants from the new member states. After their return to Europe, these young Europeans can act as multipliers on development issues in Europe. They will meet again, make common projects, actions, exhibitions and more, together with the GLEN organisations, and thereby contribute to a better understanding of global issues within Europe.

For more information on GLEN and the preparation of the new cycle in 2008, please go to http://www.glen-europe.org/

Information provided by Laure Heinrich, ASA/GLEN

Genderglokal - awarded with the EUREGIO innovation price 2007

"Genderglokal - Gender sensitive education for sustainability" - is an interregional project for raising awareness on ecology, gender and development issues carried out by Südwind Niederösterreich (project management: Gertrude Eigelsreiter Jashari) in cooperation with Austrian and Czech partner organisations and the regional government of Niederösterreich/Lower Austria (department of environment and department of gender issues). In June “Genderglokal” has been awarded with the EUREGIO innovation price 2007 in the category „human and culture “.

On the basis of the UN decade of education for sustainable development (2007 – 2013), the EU gender programme and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the Climate Alliance, Fair Trade and on the basis of the priorities of the environmental and development programme of the Lower Austrian government in regard to the MDGs, the project focuses on the following main themes: sustainability and development, gender and development as well as intercultural communication.

“Genderglokal” officially started on March 6th 2007. Until November 2007 a number of activities are planned. For further information please visit the project website http://www.genderglokal.at/

„Genderglokal “is co-financed by the government of Lower Austria and by the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRE) of the European Union.

Photo: The Genderglokal Team with Czech Partners and Johanna Mikl-Leitner, member of the provincial government of Lower Austria.

For further information please contact Südwind Entwicklungspolitik Niederösterreich at: suedwind.noewest@oneworld.at

Information provided by Andrea Pavlovec-Meixner, Genderglokal

Hot summer for Romanian NGDOs

The end of June and the month of July featured three events supported by TRIALOG:

28-29 June, Iasi: “Moldova in the context of the Romanian Development Cooperation Policy and of the European Neighbourhood Policy - opportunities and challenges for the civil society organizations”
The Moldova – Georgia working group of the Romanian NGDO platform FOND, through CSDF (C ivil Society Development Foundation) and Pro Women, organised a seminar on civil society and development co-operation that brought together 40 NGOs from Moldova and Romania to discuss financial assistance to Moldova provided through the Romanian bilateral programme and the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). The seminar had three main objectives: elaborating a common position of the civil society representatives from Romania and Moldova on the necessity to accelerate the programming of the Romanian development assistance for Moldova and to ensure that the process will involve civil society on both banks of the Prut river in the identification of the priorities and types of assistance; a general need assessment and exchange of information between NGOs in Romania and Moldova; discussion on ENPI programming and monitoring in Moldova.
“It is vital that the fight against poverty remains at the heart of any financial assistance. Poverty is at the centre of all our problems, which include migration of skilled workers, corruption, HIV/Aids...”, said Victor Munteanu from the Open Society Institute in Chisinau.

14-15 July, Bucharest: Work meeting of FOND board on strategic planning and strengthening platform coordination and effectiveness
Members of the FOND board, with the help of Angela Haynes - BOND Policy Officer and Joachim Lindau – former Chairmain of the Liaison Committee of NGDOs to the EU and former Executive Secretary of Bread for the World, Germany -, worked on the consolidation of FOND’s internal rules of conduct and strategic papers for 2007-2008. Among other things the focus was put on two things: FOND’s policy and advocacy strategy and the creation of a common vision on development cooperation and common objectives for the member organizations - strictly connected to the Romanian context and to the member organizations’ capacity to implement projects.

24 July, Bucharest: Seminar on „EU Funding and Partnership Opportunities for Romanian NGOs”
On the 24th of July representatives from 12 FOND member organizations took part in a one day seminar organized by FOND and CSDF with the participation of TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Petra Kreinecker and Julien Vaissier from the GCAP Europe Secretariat (Global Call to Action Against Poverty). The main purpose of the seminar was to give updates on EU funding opportunities for NMS NGOs, discuss on the eligibility criteria and how they can apply to the context of Romanian NGOs and raise the question of partners and associates. The end of the day was dedicated to a presentation on GCAP and a discussion on potential involvement of FOND members in GCAP activities in 2007-2008. The discussion continued on the 25th of July in a small workshop where FOND member organizations evaluated their capacities and their needs in establishing contact with GCAP.

Information provided by Claudia Iatan, National Platform Coordinator, FOND, Romania
Email: claudia.iatan@fond-romania.ro
Web: www.fondromania.wordpress.com

The Baltic Platform Meeting in June

The first ever Baltic NGDO platform meeting took place on June 4th and 5th in Jurmala, Latvia. Participants from AKU, the Estonian platform legally estabished in late 2006, the Latvian platform LAPAS and the newly established Lithuanian platform exchanged information on issues of importance in each of the Baltic States and agreed on areas in which cooperation is valuable and in which areas cooperation is not necessary. Following a tour de table on national strategies for development cooperation in the three Baltic States and platform evolution, TRIALOG Policy Officer Annika Kool described similarities and differences regarding the NGDO platforms in the three Baltic States that she observed while preparing Baltic country reports for TRIALOG.

The Baltic representatives concluded that there is room for cooperation in activities in countries of national priority such as Georgia and Moldova. They also discussed the differing approaches in addressing development needs in the Global South and the role of the platforms in influencing politicians' opinions on the European development policy. Finally, all meeting members decided to meet with Nordic platforms representatives to discuss cooperation in the East and South and expressed a common concern about the interface between security policy and development policy in their nations. The meeting was supported by the Presidency Fund.

Information provided by Mara Simane, Latvian NGDO platform LAPAS.
For further information on the Baltic meeting please contact her at: simane@lapas.lv

Relation between TRIALOG and CONCORD

“Perceptions of TRIALOG’s relationship with CONCORD vary widely” was one of the main messages of the external evaluation of TRIALOG which was finalised in September last year. On the basis of interviews with the project's target group and key partners, the evaluator made a number of recommendations, one of them asking for clarity and transparency regarding the relationship between CONCORD and TRIALOG.

This was the starting point for joint discussions which led to a concrete definition of the cooperation between TRIALOG and CONCORD and their specific roles towards the new EU member states. As a result of this process, the document at the following link was agreed upon: http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/relation_concord_trialog.pdf

It gives an answer to all points raised in the evaluation and we hope that it not only clarifies the mutual relationship but further fosters our cooperation.

For a summary of the evaluation results go to:
http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/executivesummary_evaluation.pdf

For further information please contact Christine Bedoya, TRIALOG Director, at c.bedoya@trialog.or.at

New TRIALOG information folder

Those of you who are not yet that much familar with the work of TRIALOG can now download our new information folder which summarizes TRIALOG's main objective, target groups and countries, activities and priorities. It is directed to NGOs which are interested to get involved in development cooperation or education and want to get in touch with us. Find the information folder at the following link: http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/trialogiii_folder_final.pdf

If you would like to obtain hardcopies (e.g. for distribution at events which you organise) , please write to office@trialog.or.at

September 25-26, 2007: Added Value of FDR for new member states

The TRIALOG seminar “Added Value for NMS organizations” in preparation of the next FDR meeting (Funding for Development and Relief) will take place in Brussels from 25th – 26th of September.

All NMS platforms are warmly welcomed and encouraged to participate in the FDR working group meetings which take place regularly in March, June and October. At the last meetings, only one or two NMS platforms were represented. Therefore it was decided to organize this seminar to lower the obstacles for NMS platforms to participate in these FDR meetings.

FDR - Funding for Development and Relief is one of the four CONCORD core working groups to which all CONCORD members are supposed to send one representative.

The September seminar is targeted to representatives of NMS NGOs which are part of their national development NGO-platform. They should be selected by their national NGDO platform and represent their country platform in the FDR-meetings in Brussels. The participants should be motivated and able to bring the news from the FDR working group meetings back to their national platforms.

The seminar will make the work of the FDR group (and of the EC) more accessible and better understandable to FDR-"newcomers" explaining the actual work of FDR. The agenda will focus on the needs of NMS and will highlight the possibilities for NMS to play an active role within the European NGO-scene and to influence European policies.

The deadline for registration (via your platform) has been extended to Wednesday, August 8, 2007.

For further information please contact TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Petra Kreinecker at: p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at

September 12-15, 2007: Uniting Humanity. Toward a World Citizenship

In the framework of the "Uniting Humanity. Learning Advocacy for a World Citizenship."- GRUNDTVIG Project realized by 12 partners from the European Union, the Open Education centre in Bulgaria in co-operation with the Scarman Trust (UK) organizes a dissemination seminar in which the Uniting Humanity - materials will be presented.

The Seminar will take place in the Black sea resort of Primorsko, Bulgaria, from September 12th to September 15th. The convener of the seminar will be Rumen Valchev from the Open Education Centre. Guest lectures will be given by Andy Harvey, administrator of the Uniting Humanity - project and freelance consultant (UK) and by Kiril Temkov, professor at the University of Skopje, Macedonia.

Accomodation will be covered by the organizers. Participants from Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Greece, Poland and South Africa are expected to attend the seminar.

For more information on the topics to be discussed download the programme at http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/uniting_humanity.pdf or contact oec@mbox.contact.bg

Information sent by Virginia Valova, Executive director, Open Education Centre

September 10-12, 2007: CONCORD event for NGDO Platforms

CONCORD is inviting all its affiliates to Brussels to discuss two issues which have been high on the list of priorities of many members:
- Financial sustainability of Platforms / Networks
- Inter-regional Civil Society Dialogue

During the first day of the event, CONCORD members are invited to share their experience, identify pros and cons of the different funding options and develop new approaches on financial aspects of NGO Platforms/Networks. This first day is part of CONCORD’s initiative to strengthen the capacities of its members (in line with the seminars of August 2006 and April 2007).

On the second day and the morning of the third day, CONCORD members will meet with national NGDO platforms from Latin America (gathered in the regional network “Mesa de Articulacion”) to exchange on experiences and to discuss potential common interests.

Participants to this meeting:
Representatives of National NGDO Platforms and Networks (preferably elected/board members) wanting to engage at a strategic and prospective level on questions linked to financial strategy and on the relation of Europe with other regions of the world.

Accommodation will be provided by CONCORD. TRIALOG will reimburse travel costs of the 5 representatives of NMS platforms which are not yet CONCORD members (LT, EE, CY, RO, BG). Participants who want TRIALOG support for their participation in this event (all days or either 1st or 2nd/3rd day) and are nominated by the platform should send their application (http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/application_for_events_2007.doc) to TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Petra Kreinecker before August 15. Email to: p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at

For more information on this CONCORD capacity building event please contact: Andreas Vogt, CONCORD Membership and Networking Officer, at: Andreas.VOGT@concordeurope.org

September 6-7, 2007: Sustainable Agriculture, Bio-Diversity Protection and Fair Trade

A seminar on “Sustainable Agriculture, Bio-Diversity Protection and Fair Trade – together against Poverty" will take place in Warsaw from September 6-7, 2007.

It is organised by the Italian NGO CEFA (European Commitee for training and agriculture) together with the Slow Food Foundation and Fair-Trade in the context of their development education project (financed by the EC under the budget line 21-02-03). A broad spectrum of topics - from fish to honey.. - and participants from the “global South”, the “East”and the "North" will guarantee an interesting discussion around traditions and innovations in agriculture with the aim of poverty eradication.

Find more on the seminar at: http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/sustainable_agriculture_poland.pdf

For further information on the seminar or the project, please contact Aloys Rutakamize: a.rutakamize@cefaonlus.it