At the Spring General Assembly, EU-CORD’s CEOs met in Brussels, Belgium, to reaffirm the network’s collaborative vision.
The CEOs reiterated that in order to deepen collaboration approaches, partnerships (a word repeatedly found in our 2022+ strategy) needed to move beyond relationship building in Europe to deepening partnerships between EU-CORD members and their national implementing partners at the country level.
To this end, the 26 CEOs have agreed to sign a Letter of Intent, designed to be shared within member organisations, to help turn the intention into action.
The substantive parts of the letter affirm:
In order to make this [partnership] a reality, we recognise that relationships need to be developed at all levels of our organisations and in all locations. These relationships need to be based on trust and confidence and on the shared values that we as Christian faith-based organisations hold and as are outlined in this letter.
The approach we are committing to means pro-actively seeking out EU-CORD member organisations wherever we are and pro-actively looking at ways that we work together in a range of areas.
Our aspiration is that within our organisations, there is a culture where the EU-CORD network is prioritised and invested into such that there is clear mutual benefit for all in the network. At times that can mean contributing our knowledge, skills and experience whilst at other times that could be benefitting from other organisations’ strengths.
We recognise that there is a risk that collaboration is restricted mostly at a European level and that this does not enable the full benefit of the network. In light of that, we will actively promote country-level engagement with EU-CORD members within our own organisations and explore ways to formalise this approach.
EU-CORD Letter of Intent
Since the General Assembly, we have developed a framework for in-country collaboration and support in-country EU-CORD forums in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Eastern Africa and Ethiopia.
