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First Workshop Meeting: non-governmental diplomacy exercise on Inequalities

On November 18 was held in Brussels the first working session on the exercise of nongovernmental diplomacy "Fight against social exclusion and inequalities”, during the Assembly of CONCORD. MESA of National Associations and NGO networks in Latin America and the Caribbean and Chilean Association of NGOs ACCION are in charge of this exercise.

For ACCION and MESA, addressing the discussion about inequality dimension means to add a political component into the discussion about poverty and included issues such as tax justice, innovative mechanisms for development financing, financial crisis and the Millennium Development Objectives, among others aspects.

The meeting was the first instance to open a dialogue on these issues between NGOs from North and South and involve new platforms of networks.

The objectives of this workshop were:
  To introduce the document about non-governmental diplomacy "Action against inequalities and exclusion”. Actively involve organizations from different regions of the world which are interested in develop advocacy strategies together on this issue
  To agree a joint working agenda around the Inequalities

Álvaro Ramis, ACCION, presented the main elements of the first document prepared by MESA last year, "Democratic Alternatives Against Inequalities and Injustices in Times of Global Crisis." Alicia Sanchez, ACCION, explained the methodology of the meeting and informed that the first part of the meeting sought to know the perspectives about inequality that had the platforms and then interexchange agenda items.

From the Latin American perspective, Ruben Fernandez, CCNGO-Colombia and member of the MESA, said: "The inequality should be a subject of cooperation. Is not that we are against the problems of poverty erradication, but we must go further. Is the whole issue about upper-middle income countries”.

Momar Talla, REPAOC and CONGAD president expressed his satisfaction with "the work that ACCION and MESA have done, but it is important to work with an international perspective and not only from Latin America. The fight against poverty should be at the heart of the struggle against inequities”.

Participants proposed to focus the debate on inequality, considering some of the following topics: decent work, gender equality, rights of children.

Camilo Tovar, from ALOP, says "It is important to take into account in this discussion, how development is being measured and how it is consider the concept of welfare from Europe. There is a concept that comes from Latin America, which is the good life. In September it was launched in Europe a report on new indicators for development ".

Eduardo Sanchez, president of the CONGDE-Spain, said that his country does not work on the paradigm of inequality, but on concrete issues such as work focused on human rights, decent work. "We compromise to spread this document to our associated in CONGDE. Some of these issues have been in the Euro-Latin American Summit, and so on. In the EU presidency will be a major effort to taxation. We pledge to follow and observe this process. "

For participants it is important to identify in which areas we can move and how to act, for example, beyond the Millennium Development Objectives; to exchange more information between the north and south and demanding civil society participation in the spaces where these issues are debated.

It was proposed to link the debate on inequality with other processes where civil society is thinking about aid effectiveness in the process of the Global Forum and the Open Forum.

In this meeting included the participation of: Eduardo Sánchez Jacob, Eduard Soler y Carlos Cabo (CONGDE-España), Caroline Kroeker (World Vision); Priti Pratapati (CONCORD), Ria Hubman (Hibos / Eurostep), Momar Talla ( Congad, Repoac, Africa), Alexandre Tiphagne (Coordination SUD-Francia) Tete Benissan (Repaoc, Africa), Björn Lindh (Concord Suecia), Cinzia Squarcia (Solidar), Camilo Tovar (ALOP), Ruben Fernandez ( CCNGO Colombia-MESA), Maria Eugenia Rojas and Ana Maria Encina (Acobol-Bolivia), Alvaro Ramis and Alicia Sanchez (ACCION,Chile).

The document "Democratic Alternatives Against Inequalities and Injustices in Times of Global Crisis" is available online in the followig websites:

In French

In Spanish

In Portuguese

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