Conference in the Basque Country: “A local and regional vision in the face of global challenge”

10 December 2019

Bilbao will host the European Decentralised Development Cooperation Conference “A local and regional vision in the face of global challenges” on 19 and 20 February 2020. This conference is organised by “Euskadi – Basque Country” Consortium, partner of PLATFORMA. This consortium includes the Basque Agency for Development Cooperation (Basque Government) and Euskal Fondoa (Basque Local Authorities Cooperation Fund).

Organised by the Basque consortium, with the support of the partners from PLATFORMA and the Town Hall of Bilbao, the purpose of this conference is to highlight decentralised cooperation and reflect on its contrasting contribution to the challenges we face. It also aims to boost joint collaborations, to capitalise the potential of local and regional authorities form Europe and other continents through cooperation, collaboration, solidarity and challenges that set local, regional and global agendas. Thanks to a space for meeting, debate and learning for all agents involved, and a choral dialog dynamic with panel members and participants, sessions and responses to shared challenges, agents in decentralised cooperation will be at the heart of the debate.

Invited guest speakers already confirmed include those responsible for reports on decentralised cooperation: Agustí Fernández de Losada (CPMR), Aziza Akhmouch (OECD), Aitor Pérez (Real Instituto Elcano), amongst others, as well as Marlène Siméon, Director of PLATFORMA. The framework speech will be given by Professor José Antonio Alonso, from the Complutense University of Madrid and member of the Committee for Development Policy (ECOSOC, UN). The session inauguration will be held 19 February at 5.00pm, under the Lehendakari (President) of the Basque Government, Iñigo Urkullu. The conference ends at 2.00pm on 20 February.

Along with the PLATFORMA partners who will be joining the Session, there will also be representatives from European Union institutions and international bodies, public authorities and civil society, Cooperation and Solidarity Funds, coordinators and federations of non-governmental development organisations (NGOs), members of the Basque Council for Cooperation for Development, Autonomous Communities, Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID), International and Latin American Foundation for Public Administration and Policies (FIAPP), and specialists and experts from different regions.

We predict a maximum of 150 participants from different collectives, and seek to guarantee dialogue, drive collaborations, contribute new visions, partnerships and solutions and debate the Coherency of Policies for Development, alliances between agents, knowledge and learning management, and more.

(In principle, the working language is expected to be Spanish, although English could be considered).

Check the programme.

For more information: +34 945 016403 / agencia@elankidetza.eus

(Photo by Neil Martin on Unsplash)

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