Businesses for Development: Perspectives from the Cooperative World

On January 28th, the event ‘Business for Development: Perspectives from Cooperative World’ will take place at the European Parliament in Brussels. During the event, the new online development platform will be presented to the audience and there will be an open exchange with invited stakeholders about the role of cooperatives in development and their specific contribution to it.

The event is organised by Cooperatives Europe and Euro Coop – The European Community of Consumer Cooperatives, and is chaired by MEP Linda McAvan, Chair of the EP DEVE Committee. 

Programme

Moderated by Bruce Byiers, Policy Officer for European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) 

15.00 Opening by MEP Linda McAvan, Chair of the EP DEVE Committee 

15.15 CSO 2014-2020, Paul Renier, Deputy Head of Unit at DG DevCo, European Commission

15.30 Presentation and official launch of the CEDP Platform, and demonstration of the Online Platform, Klaus Niederländer, Director of Cooperatives Europe

15.45 Presentations:

• Cooperative programme in Africa in the agricultural and education sector, by Ms. Linda Shaw, Vice-Principal, Co-operative Education & Research, Co-operative College. 
• Cooperative programme in Latin America in the agricultural and finance sector, by Kurt Moors, BRS 
• Cooperative programme in Africa in the value-chain and retail sector, by Brian Sønderby Sundstrup, Senior CSR Advisor at Coop Denmark

16.30 Debate and Q&A session – Exchanges on cooperative development approach, which will build on the experience of the projects from the presentations and development policies.

17.15 Wrapping up and conclusions, Todor Ivanov, Secretary General of Euro Coop

17.30 Cocktail & Networking