Green Liberty is proud to inform that Riga International Roundtable Financing
for Development: Role of EU Member States – one of the
significant activities of Media4Development has been concluded successfully!
Riga Roundtable conference was welcomed
by Green Liberty and organized
by
Green Liberty, Latvian Green Movement and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Latvia in Riga on June 11-12, 2015. Riga Roundtable conference gathered over
50 participants – policy
makers, media representatives, civil society and private sector activists,
academics and educators from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech
Republic, Finland and UK. During two days Riga
Roundtable conference provided a rich agenda of several interconnected sections:
Media Breakfast - an informal
meeting of Latvian media representatives with the conference organizers about
the conceptual foundation and the key arguments of the Riga Roundtable. It was moderated by Dāvis
Lansdorfs, freelance journalist from Latvia.
Welcoming
Address to the participants of Riga
Roundtable was shared by Mr. Viktors Makarovs, the Counselor to the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia on development
cooperation, Special Envoy for the post-2015 process.
Keynote Speeches: Introduction to global agenda of the financing
for development that were shared by:
- Mr. Viktors Makarovs, the Counselor to the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Republic of Latvia on development cooperation, Special Envoy for
the post-2015 process introduced the role
of policy and technical assistance: from MDGs to SDGs;
- Mr. Pekka Haavisto, the member of Finnish
Parliament, Minister for Development and State
Ownership 2013-2014, explored the policy issues in the global agenda, progress made in the financing for
development in terms of numbers, sources, cases;
- Xavier Sol, the director of Counter Balance (European NGO coalition) shared a civil society perspective on key
development issues highlighting ODA, taxes, role of private sector,
accountability and monitoring;
- Leida Rijnhout from European Environmental Bureau, Global Policies and Sustainability unit
revealed ecological
economics, the sustainable economy, sustainable consumption and production and
resource justice.
Roundtable
Discussion 1. Financing for Development: Alternative
solutions that gathered five participants who represented civil
society organizations (CSOs) and private sector:
- Agnese Alksne from Latvia
Corporate Social Responsibility platform,
- Anna Skowera from Polish Fair
Trade Association,
- Rimantas Žylius from managing director of Norway Registers Development AS, former Minister
of Economics the Republic of Lithuania,
- Ondrej Kopecny from deputy director of Glopolis, Czech Republic.
Roundtable
Discussion 2: Financing for development: Country positions
that gathered five participants who were policy makers from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania,
Slovakia, and Czech Republic:
- Anda Grinberga, the Head of Development Cooperation policy Division, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Republic of Latvia,
- Mr. Tõnis Saar, the Undersecretary General of Administrative Affairs, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Republic of Estonia, Member
of Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing
(ICESDF),
- Ms. Diana Sijkova from the Department
of Development and Humanitarian Assistance, Ministry
of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia and Ms. Kristina Mikulova from the Ministry of Finance of Slovakia,
- Ivan Jukl, the Director
General of Economic Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Czech Republic,
- Gediminas Danišas from the Department
of Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Republic of Lithuania.
Each of these sessions followed by questions and
answers moderated by Miks Muižarājs, the Lead Researcher at World Bank. At the end of the first day after concluding
remarks the participants were engaged in informal networking.
Case Study
Session: Successes and challenges of the financing for development that
implied three case studies:
The case
study session was followed by questions and
answers section moderated by Anna Karolin from the Estonian Roundtable for Development
Cooperation.
Summing up and closing of the Riga Roundtable was organized as personal reflection session about
observations and learnings of each participant during two days of the Riga
Roundtable international conference.
See the short information about Riga
Roundtable contributors - keynote
speakers, roundtable discussion and case study participants, and moderators.
See the picture
collage that integrates the most exciting moments of the Riga International
Roundtable.
Green Liberty is grateful to all co-organizers, supporters and participants
who have made this international conference to be a meaningful dialogic bridge between
development policy makers and representatives of civil society organizations. Paldies!
In May 30th – June 6th 2015, People in Need organized study trip for politicians.Two members of the Czech Parliament visited
development projects in Cambodia They
represented Foreign Affairs Committee (Pavel Šrámek) and ODA Sub – Committee (Karel
Rais). Their visit was accompanied by the Director of the Czech Development
Agency Michal Kaplan, partly also by the Czech Ambassador to Cambodia Vitězslav
Grepl and Czech chargé
d'affaire Ms Jana Gašparíková. Visit was coordinated
by People in Need HQ and People in Need Cambodia. Visitors got the chance
to see development project focused on health (Caritas Czech Republic),
education (Czech University of Life Sciences), livelihoods, agriculture and
human rights (People in Need and Magda- Children at Risk). Participants
had the opportunity to meet the representatives of the Cambodia Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and also local representatives of the communities. The visit
enabled decision makers to gain firsthand experience of Global South countries'
development problems, provide them invaluable insight into development
cooperation and its complexity as well as stimulate debate on national ODA
policy.
