CONCORD

CONCORD (European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development) is an European Union confederation (2001) that coordinates analysis and debate, organizes political action campaigns, and regularly engages in dialogue with the European Institutions and civil society organizations. Its 22 national associations and 18 international networks represent more than 1.600 NGOs, which are in turn supported by millions of people across the European Union and its candidate countries.Fact|date=July 2008

The main objective of the Confederation is to enhance the impact of European development NGOs vis-à-vis the European Institutions by combining expertise and accountability.

CONCORD is a platform for common action at European level, based on the values of respect for the diversity of its membership, the complementarity of expertise, mutual confidence, participation, accountability and transparency.By uniting, European development NGOs commit themselves to keep development co-operation high on the political agenda of advanced countries and the European Institutions in particular. European NGOs will continue to make institutions aware of how their economic and political choices impact on the most deprived countries.

CONCORD's unique structure allows it to play two major roles: - The presenting of joint positions representative of its Members organisation to reinforce ability to advocate at European level.- The co-ordination of NGO activities through combining expertise, competencies and capacities in order to promote information sharing and to encourage reflection.

CONCORD plan of action is as follows:

- To intensify Working Group activities in order to influence political debate and policy formulation on development and humanitarian issues.

- To improve representation mechanisms and transparency in order to guarantee CONCORD legitimacy as the representative of NGOs.

- To establish a continuous and quality dialogue with the European Institutions to firmly promote European development NGOs as strategic partners to the European Institutions.

- To promote the quality of the work of development NGOs, particularly regarding relations with Civil Society in the South.

- To contribute to capacity building at NGO level.

CONCORD works to ensure that:

- The EU and member states are fully committed to and implement comprehensive and coherent policies towards the developing world that are based on the principles of solidarity, human rights, justice and democracy, and which aim to address the causes of poverty and conflict and promote sustainable economic and social development.- The European NGDO movement is active and fully engaged in promoting EU policies that have a positive impact on developing countries and have the capacity to influence the direction of these policies.- The role of the NGDOs is valued and protected as an authentic voice of European civil society that is engaged in issues of development and global justice.

External links

* [http://www.concordeurope.org Official site]