Opening the two-day meeting in Brussels, Belgium, out-going EI Deputy General Secretary, Jan Eastman, said: “I wish to underline the democratic victory in Ohio, USA, where citizens stopped an anti-union law and I am also very happy about the fact that EI’s Sixth World Congress endorsed a large number of resolutions, including the Development Cooperation Paper.”
EI coordinator, Nicolás Richards, added: “This is an exceptional meeting, not only due to the number of participants, but also because of the political times it is taking place in. These last months we have been confronted with huge difficulties where people involved in the financial sector have seemingly replaced political leaders.”
Richards then launched a discussion about the EI Development Cooperation Policy, stating: “At the end of the 2007 Development Cooperation meeting, we decided it was time to update the document, not because the policy was no longer the right one, but because the overall situation had changed. We did this by keeping the pillars of development cooperation: independence, capacity of unions to develop themselves, and development of peer relationships.”
He went on to emphasise: “It is a working document that must keep its flexibility to be adapted in the future. It is an open document which could be adapted at any time, according to relationships and pillars.”
The Swedish Lärarförbundet union representative, Martin Carlstedt, moderated the debate that followed, and noted: “This paper is the result of a success. For several years we wished to adopt a new policy. Taking into account diverse experiences and objectives was not an easy task but we managed to come up with a Development Cooperation Policy Paper, constituting a working document, a platform of principles and values on development cooperation.”
He added: “This paper is here to help us better understand our common goals and achieve lasting results, for teacher unions around the world to provide education for all. The true value of this document lays in the practice, in its use. It is therefore our responsibility, together with our partners, to put this paper into practice.”
Case studies were later debated in group discussions. Among the key issues that participants stressed were: avoiding duplication of activities through enhanced coordination, information flow and communication; the lead role to be played by EI and its regional offices in coordination; transparency, involving unions informing others about what they are doing and problems they may be facing in development cooperation activities; the need for a better understanding of the meaning of bilateral or multilateral cooperation, and consortium; and the efficiency and sustainability of development cooperation projects.
In his contribution, EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen reiterated EI’s priorities for 2012, among them the effects of the crisis on school systems, teachers, and students, the teacher status and training, and educational standards.
He went on to explain what organising means for EI: EI must help create a situation allowing affiliates to work properly, and enabling them to develop organising campaigns; EI needs to concentrate on the importance of capacity building programmes, with an organising component; EI needs to motivate its members to be part of its work – about 350 members are involved in EI’s work on a regular basis; and affiliates, as well as EI, need to organise in national and international contexts, to retain their members and get more members.
Van Leeuwen finished by explaining: “In years to come we need to muster a political strength to overcome bad decisions taken by too many governments. It is certain that if this organising work is done by EI it will help us gain political strength.”
To read the EI Development Cooperation Policy in full, please click here
