Addressing inequalities at EDD

The Hague Academy was present the European Development Days 2019 (EDD19) in Brussels, Belgium. The two-day event, organised by the European Commission took place on the 18th and 19th of June and gathered more than 8,000 speakers, heads of state or government, experts, key influencers and young leaders from all over the world. During this Large international forum, the most important actors of international cooperation and Development shared their ideas and experiences to find innovative solutions to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.

This year’s overarching tittle was ‘Addressing inequalities: building a world which leaves no one behind’. The Hague Academy had the opportunity to be part of the discussion and share its know-how, thoughts and practice by participating in two sessions of the conference programme.

United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA) and its African Local Governments Academy (ALGA) hosted a joint Lab Debate in partnership with The Hague academy, The City Council of Ifrane and EDD Young Leaders. The session ‘Addressing inequalities and building a local Africa leaving no one behind’ discussed how to create an enabling environment for local and regional governments in Africa to redress inequalities and to move towards a positive, inclusive and sustainable transformation that leaves no one behind. Our Programme Manager Gerald Kweri was one of the speakers of the session. His presentation ‘’Local government approaches to address inequalities of urban youth’’ described the challenges of young people living in the slums of Nairobi and illustrated how local authorities have tried to address inequalities through a negotiated urban planning approach.

Care Netherlands and the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law organised the session ‘Every voice counts (EVC): Fighting inequalities by working on inclusive governance’. During the session, the speakers shared their contributions on the cases of Afghanistan, Burundi and Somalia, around the tools and approaches for fighting inequalities as a precondition for peaceful and resilient societies. Gerald Kweri represented The Hague Academy and referred to our approach on Inclusive Governance in Fragile Settings, and our role within the EVC programme, in the training of CSOs and Local Authorities on Gender-Sensitive Inclusive Governance

“In the Every Voice Counts programme we train women and youth to express their voice, and local authorities to become more responsive to citizen’s needs. Then, through work on joint action plans they engage in constructive dialogue.”

We are happy to have participated in this forum that brought the development community together to ‘Build a world which leaves no one behind!’

See the pictures of The Hague Academy’s participation in EDD19:

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