On the 18th of September last, at the Cidade de Lisboa Foundation, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Luís Brites Pereira, attended a meeting promoted by the IMVF with the municipalities that integrate the project “Networking for Development: from town twinning to a more efficient cooperation”.
In his speech, Luís Brites Pereira, stated: “The state should not resign from their role in the area of cooperation, and it t sshouldn’t consider themselves itself as a single element, we must make room for other actors, the municipalities, NGOs, universities, so that they can create new synergies. Municipalities have an important role beyond the traditional role of cooperation, they have a role to bring new actors for development”.
At the meeting, the IMVF had the opportunity to present the work it has done carried out with the municipalities and addressed the importance of the development process. On behalf of the municipalities that have joined the project, Alcides Bizarro, of Grândola municipality City Council presented the work of the Networking for Development project and the future Inter-municipal Network of Cooperation for for Development Cooperation, one of the IMVF project’s results. The participants also had the opportunity to present theirask questions to the Secretary of State who agreed to analysze them calmly and to reassume talks in the future.
Besides the technical memberstechnicians of the 15 municipalities that accompany the project, Sonia Paixão also attended, a the councilwomanor who oversees housing and social action in Loures City Council, and Paulo Ramalho, a councilor councilman responsible for international relations of at the Municipality of Maia, also Corália Loureiro, councilwomanor in charge of human resources, administrative moderniszation and Social Action of the Municipality of Seixal and Viviana Nunes, councilwomanor of education and socio-cultural action of the City Council of Moita.
This meeting was held as part of a promotion meeting for networking and sharing information and best practices between the municipalities, the projectan activity of project “Networking for Development: from Town Twinning to a more Efficient Cooperation”. Besides the meeting with the secretary of state, also discussed were the statutes of the future Inter-municipal Network of for Cooperation for Development Cooperation, and recalled and evaluated the actions taken during the second year were analysed and evaluated and scheduled activities to be undertaken during the third year of the project were scheduled.
The project ‘Networking for Development: from Town Twinning to a more Efficient Cooperation’ aims to promote synergies between cooperation actors and strengthen the role of local authorities as active agents of cooperation for development cooperation. It is coordinated by the IMVF in partnership with the City Council of Loures, the City Council of Marinha Grande, the Fine+p and the Fondo Galego of Cooperación and Solidaritye Solidaridad. It is funded by the European Commission and the Portuguese Institute of Support for Development Support beyond the and has the institutional support backing of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities.
See photos of the event here.
See the project website here (portuguese).