New joint project of the Greek, Cypriot and Maltese platforms

The Greek, Maltese and Cypriot national NGDO platforms together with leading member NGOs, local authorities (LA) and migrants’ organisations have designed a project in order to enhance cooperation in the three countries, build their capacity to become efficient agents of development and to participate in the planning of and the debate over EU development policy. Further objectives are to establish a strong partnership with migrants’ organisations and local authorities in the 3 countries and to increase the dialogue between development actors in the 3 countries and in Africa as well as enhance interaction with the relevant EU institutions.

The project will tackle the following problems:
- Insufficient coordination among NGDOs at the national, regional and European level
- Lack of cooperation between NGDOs, LAs and migration organisations in the field of development cooperation
- Lack of available information, given the distance of the 3 Mediterranean Platforms from the European centre (Brussels)
- Lack of efficient South – North dialogue
- Lack of sufficient and efficient participation from this part of the EU NGDOs in the formulation of the EU development policies

The activities of the project which will probably start in December 2009 include: a field survey on the partners’ experience and knowledge on issues of development, national trainings for networking, lobbying and advocacy, a series of interactive structured dialogue workshops in Greece, Cyprus and Malta with representatives from all partners to develop a concrete strategy of cooperation, a peer to peer mentoring program, study visits of representatives of the 3 platforms to Brussels institutions (e.g. EU Commission, ECOSOC, EU Parliament and CONCORD), the organisation of an international panel discussion and partnership fair in Greece and the establishment of a web-based forum to facilitate the exchange of expertise and best practices.

For more information on the project please contact Eugenia Vathakou, Planning and Networking Director, Development and Education Centre European Perspective (DECEP) at: evathakou@europers.gr

Information provided by Eugenia Vathakou, European Perspective