Working Groups: a fresh new start

An intense week of events, conferences and debates marked the second half of June 2021. Thus, ALDA, in the occasion of its General Assembly week, launched its seven Working Groups (WGs) on:

1. Democracy and Local Development;
2. Environment;
3. Digitalisation;
4. Cooperation between CSOs and the Private Sector;
5. Eastern Partnership/Russia and Central Asia Cooperation;
6. South-Eastern Europe Cooperation and
7. Middle-East, Africa and Turkey Cooperation

Thus, members’ participation and active engagement has always been a pillar within ALDA’s mission. With the creation of these seven clusters of interests, the idea is to foster dialogue and knowledge sharing among experts and professionals. Serving as a platform to develop ideas and valuable content, while starting from local experiences and  perceptions; WGs are more far-reaching. Thus, the latter are intended to have an impact at European level, such as: by supporting the digitalisation process within Europe; raising awareness as far as the environment concerns; and promoting exchange of good practices related to local governance.

The importance not only of the thematic themselves, but also the necessity to start at local level to then tackle the European one

Besides, thanks to its long experiences, ALDA has also defined three WGs on specific geographic areas in which it has great expertise on – be they Eastern Partnership, Russia and Central Asia cooperation; South-Eastern Europe Cooperation (SEE) and Middle-East, Africa and Turkey Cooperation (MEA). Hence, within ALDA there are three specific departments working on the above-mentioned areas; therefore the association is very much pleased to exchange on that, always looking at mutual sharing and growth.

Last but not least, considering the role of ALDA both as part of the Civil Society Convention; and as an interlocutor with the private sectors (especially within some projects such as SMELT )the association has considered the creation of a specific Working Group in order to empower cooperation between Civil Society Organisations and profit entities, while promoting fair and inclusive economic activities.

Considering the relevance of these Working Groups, their meetings are also visible on the Conference on the Future of Europe platform, so that to stress, once again, the importance not only of the thematic themselves, but also the necessity to start at local level to then tackle the European one.