Sharing experiences in order to advance

The First Annual Forum of the FIIAPP’s EUROsociAL programme, which brought together over 150 participants from Europe and Latin America, was brought to a close on Friday with the presence of Carolina Trivelli, the Minister for Development and Social Inclusion, and Vittorio Tonutti, Head of Regional Programmes in Latin America of the European Commission.

The Peruvian Minister for Development and Social Inclusion highlighted the deep meaning of the presentations and the how much had been learnt during the forum. “These spaces for debate enable us to share experiences from other countries, identify problems and find practical solutions. It is not a question of copying a social programme from another country, but rather of finding the tools that can generate value in order to obtain a better result.” The Forum was closed by Carolina Trivelli, after words of thanks to all the participants. She also highlighted the opportunity to find points in common among the different institutions in order to improve the effectiveness and the achievement of the national policies.

For his part, Vittorio Tonutti gave an overview of the history of European cooperation since it opened its first Delegation in Venezuela at the start of the 1980s. In addition,he reminded us that EUROsociAL is a programme aimed at the demand in the countries. “This forum enables us to share experiences to strengthen dialogue”, concluded the Head of Regional Programmes in Latin America of the European Commission.

Inma Zamora, director of the EUROsociAL programme, focussed on the need to continue working on the most common problems in the countries of Latin America, such as informality and exclusion, inequality, and consolidating the negotiating processes among states. “We must understand that social cohesion is consolidated when there is a higher level of crisis, but when the bases and the social policies are solid.”