Carmen Stadelhofer, member of the DCSF board
Emiliya Velikova, PhD, University of Ruse “Angel Kanchev”, Ruse, Bulgaria and DANET e.V.
Abstract: The Danube Participation Day gathers representatives from civil society organizations, local, regional and national public authorities, university and research from the 14 EUSDR partner countries, representatives from the EUSDR governance as well as from European and international organizations. The goal is to foster cooperation and participation for better development in the Danube Region.
The 4th Danube Participation Day took place on the 17th October 2018 in Andrássy University Budapest, Hungary. This was one day before the opening of the 6th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region scheduled on 18-19 October 2017 in Budapest, Hungary.
The Danube Participation Days serves as a platform for exchanging views and perceptions among each other, discussing good-practices of participatory governance and project implementations as well as for getting involved with decision-makers. It was funded by the European Strategy for the Danube Region – Priority Area 10 “Institutional Capacity and Cooperation”, the Danube Civil Society Forum and the Baden-Württemberg Foundation.
In 2017, Priority Area 10 “Institutional Capacity and Cooperation” and the DCSF drafted in cooperation with further partners the “Agenda for Participation in the Macro-regional Strategies”.
The Agenda of the 4th DPD aimed at strengthening participatory governance and the cooperation between public and private stakeholders in the macro-regional strategies. The participants presented and discussed the targets of the Agenda for Participation. During the working group sessions, the participants explored existing initiatives, synergies and potentials for future cooperation in order to promote the aims of the Agenda.
The defined actions were coordinated among interested stakeholders in so-called “Participation Partnerships” that deal with the following topics:
A research perspective – presenting theories, research and good practices promoting participatory governance in order to enhance capacities for multi-level governance in the macro- regions, developing measures and actions for the strategy.
Building MRS on local governance and multi-level governance – developing, based on the new guidelines for Participation developed by the Council of Europe, concrete measures for the implementation of Participation at the local level.
A key factor of social innovation and sustainable development – identifying innovative, co-creative and trans-sectoral approaches in order to sustain long term top-down (thinking) and bottom-up (acting) processes (developments).
Designing 2020+ with Local Actors and Macro-regional Strategies – looking at participatory structures that integrate Civil Society and Local Actors regional development and EU funding instruments (Partnership Principle) in regard to challenges, good practices and opportunities within the ongoing discussion on EU Cohesion Policy 2020+.
Empowering Roma – dealing with participatory approaches to empower vulnerable groups in the macro-regions in order to enable their participation in the shaping of their social and political capital
The Programme and more information about the Danube Participation Day of the EUSDR in Budapest, Hungary, is on the website:
Remarks:
Some of this information was posted by Jaroslava Szüdi, 10th October 2017 on the Website:
https://www.danubeknowledgesociety.eu/news/danube-participation-day-17-october-2017-budapest
Information:
Date: 17th October, 2017
Time: 9:30 – 19:00
Place: Andrássy University Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
Web site: https://www.danubeknowledgesociety.eu/news/danube-participation-day-17-october-2017-budapest