Welcome back! A new year … a new decade… And of course New Year’s resolutions – because, unlike many of my (perhaps more realistic) colleagues, I did make a couple this year. Better work-life balance, more sport (ask me in February if I’m still climbing the stairs to our fourth floor office!), the usual kind of thing. But making resolutions require only words. Results require action.
In the wake of the European Commission’s newly launched Reflection Paper on Sustainable Development, CONCORD asks current and future EU leaders to adopt an overarching SDG strategy.
Romania, Finland and Croatia recently published the Trio Programme for their upcoming EU Council Presidencies. The Trio Programme sets the joint political priorities for the presidencies and does not suggest radical changes, but puts emphasis on jobs and growth meaning business as in EU politics. European NGOs would like to see human rights based policies aiming at well-being within planetary boundaries.
CONCORD members gathered in Prague on 26 and 28 November to explore possibilities of a Cultural Shift in NGOs sector. In the current environment where Civil Society Organisations are challenged, criminalised and losing support from their governments and the citizens, the aim of Learning and Exchange Forum 2018 was to explore how and to what extent CSOs need to change their culture and sharpen their values to remain relevant and true to themselves.