Within CCIVS it has been noted that there is a large interest from the member organisations, and the voluntary youth exchange sector in general, to increase the cooperation with the Latin American continent. After several successful activities run by some of our international member organisations (EFIL, YAP, SCI) over the last years, and a first seminar organised in France in July 2003, we decided to organise a seminar in Peru from 9th to 15th May 2005. This seminar aimed at bringing together the various networks.
The main idea of the
seminar was to allow European-based and Latin American organisations to
strengthen existing partnerships and to develop new ones
in the framework of the Youth Programme and beyond.
More specific
objectives were:
- to raise awareness of the YOUTH programme and its possibilities in
Latin America, and to develop concrete projects in its framework;
- to increase the quality and the quantity of concrete youth and voluntary
exchanges between the two regions, both within the framework of the YOUTH
programme, and outside of it, and thus to increase Euro-Latino cooperation;
- to identify strategies for further cooperation beyond the end of the
YOUTH programme in 2006, including the use of the results/conclusions
of the programme;
- to develop recommendations for and objectives of partnership between
the two regions, based on the results of the first phase;
- to identify the existing partnerships between the two regions and develop
a typology of organisations involved in order to render the scope and
potential of partnership clearer;
- to set up a Euro-Latin American network.
The title of the seminar was "Seminar on EU-LA co-operation in the field of youth voluntary service". The seminar was hosted by the Brigada de los Voluntarios Bolivarianos del Peru (BVBP), who invested an incredible amount of energy into the succesful organisation of the event. About 50 Peruvian volunteers assisted with the organisation of the event and one joint session was organised in order to better understand the reality of Peruvian youth and voluntary service work and to identify potential future links with the European organisations present. Thanks to the BVBP the seminar received a lot of attention on the National level through the involvement of the Peruvian Centre for Volunteering as well as the City of Lima.
The seminar
focussed on the identification of a strategy for Euro-Latin American
co-operation starting by allowing the organisations to get to know
each others activities better and the focussing on common needs and potential
common answers. During the last session (before the evaluation), a joint
Plan of Action was drawn up. Several information sessions were conducted
by experts about the current YOUTH Programme, the perspectives for the
programme beyond 2006 as well as European and Latin American Youth Policy.
An excursion to different social projects in Lima open for co-operation
with the organisations was also organised.
Several documents of reference concerning the information given
as well as the quality standards applied in the various organisations
were distributed and are available.
Report of the Seminar 2003
Report of the Seminar 2005
A new questionnaire
was developed in April 2006 in order to
identify the necessities and realities of each organisation in its respective
country. It includes new proposals and suggestions sent by the
members of the network. The collected information is fundamental to
develop global initiatives, as a solid knowledge of realities will
make it easier to define where the network wants to go and the way to
do it, and the basis for future cooperation will help develop the international
voluntary service movement in the Ibero Panamerican region.
