Biodiversity loss, climate change and environmental degradation have been identified by the European Commission as some of the most pressing issues and challenges we face today. On top of that, the coronavirus pandemic revealed the interlinkages between human health and a healthy planet. These problems are not faced by Europe alone but by the world in general. Hence, more coordinated and incisive international efforts are needed in order to tackle these issues and come up with effective solutions.
The European Development Days (EDD), first held in 2006, is a participatory programme that brings the development community together to share ideas and experiences in ways that inspire innovative solutions and new partnerships for the world’s most pressing challenges. Due to the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, the 14th edition of the forum was postponed to 2021 and the agenda was designed to be framed by two major themes emerging as key priorities in today’s current context: A Green Economy for Nature and People and Protecting Biodiversity and People.
The EDD Global Village
An interesting aspect of the EDD is the Global Village which is a digital stand that allows everyone to explore innovative projects and ground-breaking reports from around the world. The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is participating in the village by putting the spotlight on Supporting decentralized cooperation in the European neighbourhood and globally. Specifically, the Nicosia Initiative aimed at helping Libyan municipalities strengthen their administrative capacity and improve public services delivery, will be put in focus.
The Nicosia Initiative continues to demonstrate its commitment through a number of new projects created to reinforce and strengthen the relations established within the region. Co-funded by the EU, an example of these projects is Towards A new Multilevel Shared Approach for Libya Local governance― TAMSALL. The project aims at improving the quality of services that local authorities provide to their citizens. This is done by promoting the multilevel governance approach for strengthening the institutional and administrative capacity of National and Local Public Institutions in Libya. The CoR’s digital stand will open on the first day of the EDD and will provide further information on the Nicosia Initiative and the TAMSALL project
The EDD Agenda
As mentioned earlier, two major themes will be tackled during the EDD. Under the theme of A Green Economy for Nature and People, topics such as green finance to rural transformation and food systems will be discussed. For instance, ICLEI (a global network of more than 2500 local and regional governments) and the UN Habitat have organised a session about Facilitating access to climate finance through effective multilevel governance. The session will explore solutions for bridging the climate action finance gap via more effective multi-level governance, peer-learning and sustainable development and financing strategies developed by cities from Africa, Asia and Europe. Meanwhile, topics such as transboundary watersheds and indigenous peoples and local communities will be discussed under the theme of Protecting Biodiversity and People. Zabala Innovation and partners for example will hold a session to discuss Partnering with indigenous communities to respect Human Rights in business as part of the topic of indigenous peoples and local communities. The session will open the debate on the instruments and processes to safeguard Indigenous Peoples (IP) Rights in the development of business activities in their lands. All topics under A Green Economy for Nature and People will be discussed on the 15th of June while all topics about Protecting Biodiversity and People will be discussed the following day.
More information:
Read more about the European Development Days programme here.
View the European Development Days agenda here.
