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European Conference on Public Awareness and Development Education for North-South Solidarity
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 Participants of international training at the National Centre for Professional Development in Education in Tampere Finland 2006. |
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A. As part of an ongoing debate, participants from national, European and international administrations, non-governmental organisations and other actors of civil society, together with members of different media, took part in a conference on public awareness and development education for North-South solidarity in Brussels on 19/20 May 2005.
B. The participants, meeting in both plenary and specific working group sessions, have drawn up the following recommendations. Further specific proposals and suggestions from different participants are outlined in the conference papers. 1. The renewed commitment by the European Union and the member states to increase ODA levels adequately for 2010 and the achievement by 2015 of the level of 0.7% by most, as advanced by the United Nations in 1970, should be welcomed and propagated as widely as possible throughout the Union. Effective development education and awareness raising are essential conditions to mobilise support to reach these targets. 2. Noting that the assistance provided is a question of finance, effectiveness and quality, as well as sustainable development, the Millennium Development Goals should be included as a major facet of public awareness and development education activities throughout the Union. 3. Comprehensive and coherent development education and awareness raising strategies should be designed or reviewed at both national and European levels. The relevant authorities should ensure that these strategies are fully integrated into their development and education policies. This will require close cooperation with NGOs and other relevant civil society organisations. 4. Awareness-raising and development education should be integrated into the curricula of the formal and informal educational systems throughout the current and future members of the Union. Such programmes, aimed at all levels and ages of society, are necessary to foster the greatest possible North-South solidarity. 5. National and European authorities should ensure there is adequate funding for development education and awareness-raising in their planning. It is proposed that the European Commission and Member states move towards or beyond a figure of 3% of ODA, as proposed in a U N DP Report. This increase in funding implies the necessary quality, efficiency and effectiveness of development education and awareness raising activities. 6. As part of the overall need to raise both quality and efficiency, best practices should be actively encouraged and supported, particularly between Member states but also internationally Ongoing coordination and cooperation, learning from past experiences at the widest possible level, are therefore essential to ensure coherence and maximise effectiveness. 7. It should be stressed that both awareness-raising and development education are distinct from publicity and fundraising. Equally development education and awareness raising activities should be rooted in the realities of Northern societies and take into account the interdependency between North and South as well as the need for policy coherence in the North. 8. Assistance towards achieving effective development education and awareness raising in new Member States should be provided. In order to enable new and future Member States to access EU funding for development education and awareness raising, current thresholds on financial capacity requirements and eligibility criteria should be adapted in their favour. 9. Recognising that international development cooperation issues were not properly discussed in the course of the last accession rounds, further rounds should address it in a much more proactive way. In the case of the new Member States and acceding countries ,ad hoc development education and awareness-raising activities should partly make up for the lost opportunities. 10. The contribution of national and local authorities, parliamentarians, NGOs and other civil society actors in North-South cooperation should be strengthened with a view to boosting capacity, awareness and commitment in the current and future Union, as well as outside. 11. Emphasis should be given to how, following natural or man-made catastrophes, there is a process of linking relief to provide initial stability, rehabilitation and development which should be on a sustainable and environmentally friendly basis. 12. A comprehensive press strategy for North-South solidarity should cover the broad range of existing media but focus on channels with the widest coverage where resources are limited. Development and humanitarian actors should make more efforts to provide useful, clear and appealing material and opportunities to journalists to enable them to offer independent and accurate information on North-South issues. The press has a fundamental role in preventing crises becoming forgotten both by governments and European civil society and should be recognised as a development actor. 13. Images and articles are best if they respect the dignity, beliefs and traditions of the peoples of the "South" in their presentation. 14. Monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian and development programmes must therefore cover not only the effect in the field but also the evolution of public perception in the North and the South of the progress accomplished. Building on existing experiences, increased efforts have to be made to improve monitoring and evaluation of development education and awareness raising activities in order to systematically enhance their overall relevance, efficiency and effectiveness. 15. It is proposed that the recommendations of this Conference, particularly those pertaining to the role and place of development education and awareness raising, be integrated into the new EU Development Policy Statement before its adoption and coherently translated in other relevant policy processes and instruments. 16. A group of representative stakeholders be established, following this conference, in order to ensure the follow-up of the outcomes of this Conference throughout the current and future Union. This representative group should also be aware of the need for accountability - in the widest sense - and appropriate evaluation of what is a long term process of improving North-South solidarity. It would then organise further meetings and discussions as appropriate. In this context, it particularly welcomes the offer of the Chairman of the Development Committee of the European Parliament to draw up a report on the matter. C. While these recommendations are addressed above all to the representatives of the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Commission, as well as the national authorities at the conference, they are also directed to all members of society, individuals and organisations who are able to increase awareness of and strengthen North-South solidarity in all its aspects. D. The participants note with pleasure that certain authorities are already actively pursuing these goals. The recent communication of the Commission to the Council and the organisation of this conference by the European Commission and the Belgian authorities are recent positive examples. |
| 03/05/07 - Ilpo Halonen |
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