Newsletter – n°37 – October 2015

Initiative worth following

How to raise European citizens’ awareness of development issues? This was the main topic of the EU Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) programme fair on 23 and 24 October in Brussels. Over the last four years the EU provided approximately 143 million EUR for the DEAR Programme.

Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) is one of the main priorities of the thematic programme “Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities” (CSO-LA).  Its aims include mobilising greater public support for action against poverty, inequalities, and discriminations as well as providing the European public with tools to engage critically with global developments and support the emergence of new ideas on development issues.

Why does the DEAR programme matter to local and regional governments?

Experience has shown that DEAR projects have more impact and longer effects when they are implemented at the local level. Indeed, local and regional governments can reach people of all ages such as young people via local youth structures.

Moreover, local and regional governments are calling for more coordination through networks on development education issues in order to pool efforts and implement joint programmes. For instance, between 2007 and 2012, DEAR reached an estimated 15,000 local authorities.

In this framework, PLATFORMA’s role isto facilitate the networking among local authorities, enable them toexchange experience and good practices, and encourage the creation of new partnerships with their counterparts.

For more information, please contact Marine Gaudron at PLATFORMA.