Newsletter – n°12 – June 2012

Initiative worth following

The European Commission showed great enthusiasm to work with local and regional authorities (LRAs) in a domain where the results of international action are not conclusive. The year 2011 marks a turn in the way conflict prevention, crisis management and reconstruction in fragile states are envisaged. The EU and its partners, such as the UN and the OECD ambition to bring faster and more targeted response, specific to each country and to implement a truly multi-actor dialogue on these issues, as opposed to one limited to international donors. DEVCO would like to continue this dialogue with European actors and to organize similar consultations at the level of partner regions.

Pierre Schapira reminded the audience that local authorities are permanent intermediaries in times of conflict or catastrophe in order to channel humanitarian aid to the affected area and that, for European cities and regions, such partnerships are a chance and an integrating force for the often very dynamic migrant communities living on their territories. Sandra Ceciarini underlined the importance of strong local democracy as a defence against different forms of fragility and the need to reconstruct from the basis, supporting or encouraging the decentralisation processes. She also reminded the role of European local authorities in raising awareness actions on international crises and presented various initiatives implemented by PLATFORMA partners in this field. Both speakers underlined the complementarity between LRAs and NGOs in crisis intervention.