Summaries of the debates on the forum

   Summary 11 (31 July - 6 August)

FOLLOWING IS A MACHINE TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL IN FRENCH. IT HAS BEEN EDITED FOR MISTRANSLATION ONLY. THE ORIGINAL IN FRENCH IS AVAILABLE ON THIS WEB SITE AT: <http://www.ue-acp.org/fr/forum/syntheses/synt11.html>

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KEY WORDS: PROGRESS OF THE DEBATE

* * Title: Summary 11 (31 July - 6 August) * *

by: Anne SIMON <anne.simon@skynet.be>
<http://www.ue-acp.org/fr/forum/presentations/simon.html>

°°° Abstract:
Cooperation should be a political and cultural project. Is the north able to accept to learn from the south?
A true partnership requires a dialogue among all, recipients, decision-makers and performers, to come out of alienating preconceptions. °°°

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1. Cooperation as political and cultural project

To the following of the discussion of last week, R. Segbenou comes back on what should be cooperation: " an intercultural exchange place on values ".

Is the north ready to learn from the south? To the north, the current news on the quality of food questions the model of "progress" based on "unbridled technologies" [animal foods with Bovine Encephalitis Spogiforme, Dioxyne, Genetically Modified Organisms - moderator's note]. If "north and south" began to think together about the progress, or for example about the common challenge of the food security of the planet, it would be perhaps possible to think otherwise about the management of the food resources of the planet than on quantitative bases without concern for quality and equity.

He also recalls that the political dimension of cooperation has been considered often under the angle of partisan politics. But he wonders how with the same actors it could become really "a political project".

2. For a true partnership

For Lucie Attipka, the intercultural exchanges by making possible to discover others, their differences and their realities, also makes possible to make prejudices fall.

She mentions the example of this cliche according to which Africa is "the" continent of the corruption and the diversion of funds. While recognizing the part of truth that this contains, she wanrs against tendencies to generalization that prevent to see to emerge new mentalities and new behaviors in the south as in the north.

The dialogue should involve all intervening parties of cooperation. She deplores for example that some decision-makers and performers of cooperation remain in their cliches without accepting to adjust to evolutions of mentalities.

This forum is also an intercultural exchange place but it is a pity that officers of the European Commission don't participate in this discussion.

She attracts in short the attention of participants in the forum in the fact that beyond the text contained in the future EU-ACP cooperation agreements, it is the implementation of "beautiful ideas" that will possibly allow the cooperation to improve.

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