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Development Policy
coming
soon
Trade
coming soon
CONCORD
(link to website)
A short note about CONCORD
CONCORD is the European NGOs Confederation for Relief and Development. Its
16 international networks and 18 national associations from the European
Member States and the candidate countries represent about 1400 European
NGOs vis-à-vis the European Institutions.
The aims of the Confederation
The main objective of the Confederation is to enhance the impact of
European development NGOs vis-à-vis the European Institutions by combining
expertise and representation.
The added value of CONCORD
The Confederation’s main quality is its ability to adopt common positions
representative of member NGOs and the sharing of knowledge and capacities
to deal with major issues relating to European development policy.
The Confederation’s strength also lies in its ability to anticipate the
evolution of North-South relations to ensure that Northern and Southern
NGOs are able to react to current events as well as participate in shaping
the future agenda of European development co-operation.
www.concordeurope.org
CONCORD Working groups
description
Policy working
group:
The main objective of the Group is
to define, implement and evaluate advocacy actions at European and
national level, to provide strategic advice and to advice and co-ordinate
with the Board on policy issues, in order to increase the importance and
the quality of European development policy and dialogue with civil
society. The Working Group develops its work through the policy continuum,
from research and policy setting to implementation. The policy working
group has set up several task-forces or sub-groups: Financial
perspectives, Gender & Development, Review of the Development Policy
statement and the role of NGOs (together with the FDR working group). In
2005, the group has also worked on the MDG review process and on the
question of development and security.
The work carried out in 2003-2004 by the “Future of Europe” ad hoc group
on the Convention and on the Constitution has been integrated under the
remit of the Policy group.
Development Education
Forum:
The DE Forum brings together
practitioners and experts of Development Education and Awareness from the
different EU member states who meet annually to establish common
strategies to increase the impact of Development Education and Public
Awareness Raising activities in Europe. The Forum has a steering group and
comprises the working groups of the DEEEP project: Summer School; Council
Resolution; and Information.
Funding for Development and
Relief (FDR) Working Group:
The policy work of the FDR Group
focuses on European Union-NGO funding policies and priorities, on the
allocation of funds to these priorities and on the European funding
process and organisation. The scope of the work ranges from the EU
horizontal (or thematic) financing instruments to which NGOs have access,
to general issues relating to food security and humanitarian aid, to the
main processes influencing EU-NGO funding. It has several specialised
sub-groups such as the 21 02 03 budget line – Follow up of Palermo (ex B7
6000); Deconcentration; Programming / Rationalisation of thematic budget
lines; Financial Regulation; Micro credit.
Presidency Working Group:
The Presidency Group
identifies issues of common interest and draws up a plan of action to be
implemented by CONCORD members during the successive Presidencies of the
European Council. Every 5 years, the Presidency Group will also act as an
informal forum for exchanging ideas and experiences regarding the
elections to the European Parliament and to set up a common plan of
action.
Enlargement Working Group:
The Enlargement Group
analyses the impact of enlargement on development cooperation policy and
advocates at the level of the European institutions in favour of the needs
and experiences of accession countries and at the level of the national
governments for the support of NGOs and speedy integration into all areas
of European Union development co-operation and policy.
Trade Working Group:
The Trade Group is designed
to be a forum where European development NGOs work together to influence
and promote an EU trade agenda that is coherent with the overall
objectives of EU development policy (sustainable development and poverty
eradication) and contributes to the achievement of the UN Development
Goals.
Cotonou Working Group:
The group works on the
implementation of the Cotonou agreement, the EU-ACP trade (negotiations of
the Economic Partnership Agreements) and the civil society participation
in ACP-EU co-operation. It has 2 thematic sub-groups on Trade and Aid.
Food Security Working
Group: The aims of the Food
Security Group are designed in particular to feed political advocacy with
practices. The group offers a representative forum of European NGOs
involved in issues related to food security, and acts as a reference group
in promoting a structured and regular dialogue between NGOs and the
European Commission. It intends to demonstrate the impact of NGO
programmes and expertise, in particular vis-à-vis the most vulnerable
groups. The group also aims at providing updated information on food
security to be integrated, wherever relevant, in common CONCORD policy and
lobbying activities.
Financing for Development
Working Group: The
Financing for Development Group works on the follow-up of the Monterrey
Summit and the EU Barcelona Commitments, particularly related to debt, the
quality and quantity of Official Development Assistance, and the question
of global governance.
The Humanitarian group:
The Humanitarian group was
created in 2005. It is a joint group convening members from CONCORD
and members from VOICE. More information to follow.
Trialog
(link to website)
Trialog
is a project to
raise awareness of development issues in the
enlarged EU and to strengthen dialogue and partnerships
between development NGOs in accession countries,
EU countries and developing countries.
TRIALOG - development NGOs
in the enlarged EU
With the enlargement of the European Union 10 new member states contribute
strategically and financially to the European Union’s development
co-operation policy. The new priorities, policies and methodologies of the
new EU member states and further accession countries will complement and
enrich the present EU approach. However, a sound integration of national
policies into European policies is clearly needed. The involvement of
development NGOs in this process is decisive in order to live up to the
EU’s commitment to eradicate world poverty.
TRIALOG is a
project:
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to raise awareness of development policies in the enlarged EU;
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to integrate development NGOs in the new member states and
accession countries into the EU NGDO-community by strengthening
“trialogue” and partnerships with the global South.
Note: This information was taken from the Trialog website.
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