This is how we cooperate

Support to civil society

The strength of all change lies in the citizens who come together to work on common goals, for this reason we place the valorisation of local civil society’s resources at the centre of all cooperation actions. Worldwide, including in non-democratic countries and in particularly difficult socio-economic contexts, we meet and chose to support social movements, grass roots organisations, business organisations, as well as activists who share our commitment for change and who, on a daily basis, are on the front line to defend and obtain fundamental rights, for the construction of a new model of development.

Sharing experiences and long-term perspective

To cooperate means to share experiences and ideas in the belief that by doing so it is possible to broaden the outlook from local to global, connecting people, territories and practices for change. Furthermore supranational and global politics risk to undermine local change practices: it is therefore fundamental to maintain both dimensions (local and global) strongly connected so as to have an impact. We do not operate in emergencies – apart from in the case of natural disasters or conflicts which affect the areas where we work already – and we take action with a long-term approach. To us cooperation means to elaborate programmes together with our partners which aim to remove the structural reasons for inequality, imbalance and the lack of and the full enjoyment of fundamental rights. This therefore also reduces peoples vulnerability to disasters and wars, and needs to be both an integrated and shared approach.

Fundamental rights at the centre of our work

The World Bank has finally chosen not to use the wording “Developing countries” when referring to geographic areas of the world, who each have their own imbalances. COSPE dropped this terminology a long time ago, not only because it views the distinction as  anachronistic and stigmatizing, but also because we should consider the world as one, in which progress is measured by the level that populations are able to benefit of fundamental rights. COSPE places at the centre of its work individual and collective rights given that it knows that not only do all initiatives need to be sustainable and beneficial to the quality of life, they also need to contribute to guaranteeing fundamental rights, if we are to create lasting change.