In 1995, the Barcelona process addressed the challenges and objectives that Mediterranean regions they had ahead of them. Now, 30 years later, the situation in this area of the planet is experiencing a very difficult context, posing an infinite number of challenges that are increasingly difficult to face. Challenges like migratory movements o to war in palestine are still present, and others like climate change or the rise of extremismforce institutions and civil society to take a new step forward.
Under this scenario, the European Mediterranean Institute (IEMed) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UpM), together with the Generalitat of Catalonia and the European Commission for the Mediterranean, have organized this Thursday a meeting of actors from this civil society with a very clear objective: give civil society a leading role in decision-making. This conference, held at the Palau Macaya in Barcelona, saw the participation of nearly a hundred academic organizations, professionals and economic actors from the Mediterranean area. All of them from more than thirty countries of the 45 that make up the UfM.
A relevant actor
The meeting has served, according to Ana Dorangricchiaresponsible for the Gender Equality Program in the Division of Social and Civil Affairs of the UfM, to confirm that the same actors who 30 years ago “were committed to working in a governance system”, are still willing to do so jointly to implement solutions to the challenges of the past and those of the future. However, the idea on which much of the conversation has revolved has been the role that civil society should takewhich, as the vast majority of participants have agreed, must take a step forward and claim your position as a relevant actor beyond mere consultation.
In his opinion, governments and other decision-making entities must opt for “collective design” of strategiestaking into account these organizations that usually work closer to real citizenship problems, and integrating them into all processes. Taking them, according Gemma Aubarelldirector of the Department of Culture, Gender and Civil Society of the IEMed, not only as “a space for consultation”, but as an actor that participates “actively” in the decision processes and in the subsequent control of governments.
Trust and transparency
The problem, however, is that civil society must first build a trust relationship with administrations. “If we want civil society to be at the decision-making table, we must trust each other, and for that, something fundamental is transparency“he claimed Jeremy Fosseco-founder and president of EcoUnion. It would be about knowing not only the data that is used to make one decision or another, but also where that data comes from. “We need more transparency to be able to make civil society a control of governments“, he added.
To this end, they demand the need to launch a “shared responsibility system“that allows civil society, local communities and other knowledge actors, such as think tanks, to work together to make proposals that are viable. “Here civil society must have the courage to criticize yourself. Our role does not have to be only to protest, but also to be seated at the table to make decisions. We have to find a balance between these two perspectives,” says Dorangricchia.
Along these lines, and among the conclusions reached at this meeting, Aubarell highlights another great challenge: that of governancenot seen as administration or politics, but “how to work better through alliances and collaboration,” especially within the framework of North-South collaboration “without censorship or limitations”. Because, although in the South “it is evident that the situation is not easy, in the North it is not easy either for these institutions that want to cooperate.” Especially in an increasingly volatile context marked by the rise of “the extreme right and radicalism.”
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