Brussels, 20/11/08: From 15-17 November 2008, the European Development Days (EDDs) were held in Strasbourg, France, an annual event organised by the European Commission and the presiding Council presidency gathering both high-level and grass-root people from around the world. During the EDDs EEPA facilitated a seminar for SNV, Netherland's development organisation, entitled “Citizens as partners: Capacity building for ownership in local governance”

Due to the structure of development cooperation within the European Commission and the fact that France currently holds the presidency of the EU, this year’s edition had a strong focus on Africa and the different seminars and panel discussions brought together many West African heads of state and their francophone counterparts from the Caribbean.

Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development and Special Envoy to the Secretary-General of the UN for the Conference on Financing for Development and Morgan Tzvangarai, the Zimbabwe opposition leader and now Prime Minister, constituted a welcome and somewhat refreshing break to an otherwise very francophone event.

On the last day of the EDDs, EEPA facilitated an event organised by SNV, which gathered a number of high-level people such as Luisa Morgantini, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Koos Richelle, Director of EuropeAid at the European Commission, Simon Compaore, Mayor of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Rakesh Rajani, Executive Directer Twaweze East Africa Initiative, Tanzania and by video-message, Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, University of Columbia. The event presented SNV’s vision and different success stories of their projects on local governance around the world, hosted an interesting panel discussion and ended with a very energetic performance by Benin artist and anti-poverty activist Angélique Kidjo.