Rencontres Internationales
Fair cooperation full impact

The aim of the Rencontres is to provide a forum for critical reflection on international cooperation, and to present initiatives that can bring about change. More specifically, participants will consider how development communication, project knowledge management and other participatory processes can contribute concretely to changing mentalities and co-constructing more equitable partnerships between Europe and the Global South.

The dynamics of international cooperation between Europe and Africa, in particular, have long been under scrutiny. Development policies and practices are often criticized for perpetuating postcolonial forms of domination. The specificities of local contexts remain insufficiently taken into account, and asymmetries persist.

As a result, ownership of solutions by those they target is often low, and cooperative projects struggle to achieve the expected long-term results. Faced with the repetition of projects that do not fully address the problems they aim to solve, the financing and effectiveness of cooperation are being called into question.

In response, cooperation players seeking to increase the impact of their initiatives are exploring new ways of working together. Participatory approaches involving various stakeholders to co-construct solutions on an equal footing are gaining ground.

Within this trend, communication for development (C4D) – a process that empowers communities to take charge of their own development – and knowledge management (KM) – which facilitates the equitable sharing of knowledge and experience – offer avenues for renewing international cooperation relations.