Working together for Development – NGOs and Local Authorities’ Associations

TRIALOG was present at the conference “Working Together for Development – A Role for Citizens and Civil Society in Development Cooperation” in Budapest on 8 July bringing together about 40 participants form 15 countries. TRIALOG shared the experience of working with national development CSO platforms in Eastern and Central Europe at the time when these countries joined the EU and become donors instead of recipients of official development assistance (ODA). The role of civil society organisations in development cooperation was presented and discussed.

The conference was exceptional because it brought together representatives of local authorities’ associations and NGOs working on local community development. One of the aims of the conference was to further the participants’ thinking about development cooperation as many of them were not necessarily involved in international development cooperation on a daily basis. Participants discussed and reflected on a number of issues, including the evolution of the concept of aid which was facilitated by a presentation of Dr Andras Tetenyi form Corvinus University. The paradigm of local-global in development cooperation was presented by Mr Valery Pandzharov, the chair of the CONCORD working group on Enlargement, Pre-accession and Neighbourhood (EPAN). The conference was organised by Central and Eastern European Citizens Network (CEECN) – a network providing opportunities for grassroots citizens’ initiatives from CEE region to learn, exchange experiences and ideas.

CEECN is a partner in the Working Together for Development project (WTD) which is implemented by the Association of Local Democracy Agencies (ALDA). WTD aims at improving the capacities of associations of local authorities and NGO networks in order to act as development agents in and outside Europe. The project is based on the method of multilateral decentralised cooperation and multi-stakeholder approach.

Read more about the WTD project form www.wtd-alda.eu
Read more about the Central and Eastern European Citizens Network from www.ceecn.net


In the photo: participants of the conference.

Information provided by Mirjam Sutrop, TRIALOG