Together for a World-Wise Europe at the CONCORD PCD Seminar

The Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) annual seminar of CONCORD took place on 30-31 January 2013 in Brussels and gathered many representatives of national development NGO platforms from Western and Eastern Europe.

The basis for the PCD concept is the obligation of the EU, that all European policies must be in support of developing countries’ development needs, or at least not contradict the aim of poverty eradication, which is defined in Lisbon Treaty article 208.

The most important goal of the meeting was the presentation and discussion on the capacity-building and advocacy strategy of CONCORD for the period 2013-2014 and this year's Spotlight PCD report. The priorities for common international work are:
(-) promoting PCD in the EU institutions and Member States,
(-) exposing and adressing the incoherencies of European policies and
(-) promoting PCD beyond the EU.

During the meeting, also various tools for increasing the knowledge and skills of CONCORD members in the field of PCD were presented, as capacity-building is recognized as crucial for CONCORD. One of the tools is a very transparent ”Good practice guide on PCD for CONCORD members”, which explains how to run successful advocacy campaigns on the national and international level, based on the experience of the most advanced in PCD work CONCORD members.

As many representatives of platforms from New Member States were participating, there was the context of their work discussed as well. The common experience is the substantial lack of knowledge both of CSO's and policy-makers on policy coherence and development issues, therefore there is an urgent need for raising awareness activities. A good response to this challenge would be the common 3-year project “World – wise Europe” of seven national platforms, which has just already started.

More information:
- CONCORD Secretariat / PCD working group: Blandine Bouniol, Policy Coordinator blandine.bouniol@concordeurope.org  
- Polish Platform Zagranica Group: Emilia Ślimko, Polish Green Network, emilia@zielonasiec.pl

Information provided by Emilia Ślimko, Polish Green Network