Documentation of the TRIALOG Central Training online

The Central Training is the annual TRIALOG seminar for NGDO platforms from new EU member states (NMS) and accession/ candidate countries (AC). This year, the Central Training took place in Brno (Czech Republic) on February 19 and 20, 2008.

More than 60 participants from all 12 NMS and from Macedonia gathered together to exchange expertise and to learn more about Public Awareness Raising, Development Education and Campaigning - the main focus of this year's event.

The event started with country presentations from all participating NMS platforms. This first information sharing session laid the ground for a lot of bilateral talks and further discussions during the training and in the coffee breaks. For the frist time, three Macedonian NGOs participated in the TRIALOG Central Training, the presentation on the situation in Macedonia and its NGO sector was met with particular interest.

A presentation of the GCAP campaign - the Global Call to Action against Poverty - presented by Julien Vaissier, was followed by theoretical input on Public Awareness Raising, Development Education and Campaigning provided by Tobias Troll from DEEEP (Development Education Exchange in Europe Project). An update on the European Consensus on Development was given by the Chair of the CONCORD Development Education Forum and Director of the Finish NGDO platform KEHYS, Rilli Lappalainen.

In 4 working groups, the participants had the opportunity to discuss campaigning topics and to eleborate possible development education campaigns.

Also on the agenda was a presentation by Nathalie Ewing about the most important news from the European NGO confederation for Relief and Development CONCORD and the priorities for 2008. Last but not least, Nicoletta Pusterla and Martine van Wassenhove from EuropeAid informed the audience about development education and awareness raising activities supported by the European Commission (EC). They presented the statistical results of the Calls for Proposals in 2006 and 2007 as well as the challenges related to the 2008 call.

The accompanying programme gave participants the possiblity to watch some short development education films, to look at development education material from various countries and campaigns and/or to visit the Brno Fair Trade Shop.

The Central Training was two days full of deepening knowledge on the training topics, improving campaigning skills and using the many possibilities for networking.

Find further information incl. all presentations and photos from the event at: http://www.trialog.or.at/start.asp?ID=145

Joint UNDP-EC call for media on development

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) together with the European Commission announces a call for media to organize a study visit to a developing country and prepare a reportage from it covering development cooperation projects and the Millennium Development Goals.

Only nationwide media from the European Union 12 new Member States are eligible, however partnerships with other media and organizations (incl. NGOs) are possible. UNDP and EC will choose at least five best projects to be awarded out of all applications from all 12 EU new Member States.

Within this call UNDP and EC will cover up to 75 % of the media project, the rest could be in-kind contribution of the media company. This is an opportunity to involve national media from these 12 countries in covering development cooperation and to further raise public awareness on reasons and results of development work.

The deadline for applications is 19 March 2008.

All details/call documents are available at: http://europeandcis.undp.org/public/tenders/ (go to: “RFP: organization of media projects on MDGs and development cooperation” or http://europeandcis.undp.org/public/?event=public.tenderShow&height=550&width=800&tid=211).

Information provided by Jan Szczycinski, UNDP in Poland, jan.szczycinski@undp.org.pl, www.undp.org.pl

Joint Finnish-Swedish-Estonian seminar on Policy Coherence for Development

An international seminar regarding policy coherence on development (PCD) with the participation of Finnish, Swedish and Estonian delegations took place 14-15 February 2008 in Finland. It was organized by the FEST project (find more information at: http://www.fest-project.org/) that aims at strengthening in the three above-mentioned countries the development NGOs awareness raising, advocacy work and international networking in the context of EU development policy. The goal of this concrete seminar was to raise the participants’ awareness of policy coherence for development and to share with each other PCD related experience.

The seminar gave a good overview about the essence of PCD and why it is an issue of utmost importance. Detailed presentations were made on the PCD situation at the EU level, as well as in the three countries under consideration.

Most of the work took place in three working groups analyzing PCD in the field of arms trade, biofuels and migration respectively. Participants noted that in addition to more profound knowledge in policy coherence, they gained further insights regarding disastrous side effects of biofuels, need to completely ban cluster munitions and how sending and receiving countries could benefit from migration. The group work resulted in formulating a short campaign plan on how these policy objectives could be achieved through campaigning and lobby actions.

At the end of the seminar, the Estonian participants took a decision to form the Estonian Task Force for PCD. First, an e-mail list of participants is created where the discussions and debates are expected to take place. All Estonian representatives were asked to analyze how in their everyday work they can use the knowledge of the PCD and what could be the activities to carry out in the Estonian context. Second, in the upcoming weeks, a meeting will be organized where already more concretely Estonian PCD strategy will be discussed.

Information provided by Veronika Talviste, Estonian Roundtable for Development Cooperation, AKÜ, veronika@terveilm.net