NIMD Knowledge Development Advisor Jerome Scheltens was invited to take part in the EU Partnership Forum 2017. Jerome spoke as a panellist in the session on “Adding political societies’ weight and voices for the promotion and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” on 7 July.

This session, facilitated by the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP), explored how political education programmes can stimulate pro-development views among the wider public and decision makers, and link civil society with political parties and the political party system. The panellists discussed how to better involve local authorities in the development discourse and engage them in mainstreaming development awareness.

Representing NIMD in the debate, Jerome stressed that our political party training on manifesto development could be an interesting tool for promoting the SDGs. Indeed, he argued, the SDG topics actually read like the thematic structure or contents page of a manifesto.

Jerome Scheltens was joined on the panel by Jean-Louis Ville, Director f.f. for People and Peace at the European Commission; Pekka Haavisto,  Member of the Finish Parliament and former Minister for Development Cooperation (2013-2014); Jernej Pikalo of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, and former Minister of Education; and Anna Sundströmm, Secretary General of the Olof Palme International Centre, Sweden. The debate was moderated by ENoP Coordinator Uwe Optenhögel.

About the EU Partnership Forum

The EU Partnership Forum 2017 took place on 6-7 July 2017 in Brussels, Belgium, as an interactive platform to generate constructive dialogue. The forum aimed to gather feedback on best practices to help the EU further develop its partnerships and the joint responses they bring to complex and evolving challenges in the field.

This event brought together CSOs from both the international development and Human Rights constituencies with European Institutions and Member States. All the European Institutions were also represented, as well as several EU Member States.