Non profit
December 2009
A Vita Europe selection of civil society events around Europe.
1 December 2009, Brussels, Belgium
European Biodiversity: The Private Offer
This conference is organized by European Landowner’s Organization (ELO). The ELO’s national constituent organizations in the enlarged European Union and in the Candidate Countries represent millions of landowners throughout Europe. The ELO seeks to develop European solutions to the challenges which will face European decision-makers in the years to come, in particular now that the European Union has welcomed ten new Member States.
The impacts on Biodiversity and climate change are not limited by national or international political boundaries and it follows therefore that nature preservation is best co-ordinated at the EU and international level. Conventions and obligations such as CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) and a range of EU Directives – through to major conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity – have had very positive effects, notwithstanding some inadequacies and shortfalls particularly in the area of enforcement.
Achieving the aims of EU and international regulation requires action at national but most importantly at local level. Stakeholders such as rural managers, farmers, landowners, foresters and national park rangers have a key role to play. Farmers and landowners are the custodians of our natural heritage – their know- how, experience and knowledge make them essential partners in the implementation of EU directives on biodiversity.
http://www.europeanagenda.eu/events/27300.php
2 December 2009, Brussels, Belgium
Tackling Child Labour and Exploitation in the European Union
This special International Symposium, hosted by the Centre for Parliamentary Studies, offers an invaluable opportunity forlocal, regional and national authorities to gather comparative knowledge, discuss the latest challenges and share examples of cross-border best practices. Tackling child
labour and other forms of exploitation in new and innovative ways requires action on several levels:
• An appraisal of current policy initiatives and priorities of the EU
• Delineation of existing co-operation and multi-agency frameworks at local, national and trans-national levels
• Identify gaps and explore solutions to improve co-ordination and information exchange
• Analyse and learn from tangible examples of best practices in different member states to establish recommendations for future actions
http://www.eesc.europa.eu/index_en.asp
2 December 2009, Brussels, Belgium
Assises of Decentralised Cooperation for Development?
The first “Assises of Decentralised Cooperation” is co-organised by the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions. The event represents a unique opportunity to bring together representatives of local and regional authorities from the EU and developing countries to hold a political dialogue with the European institutions on cooperation for development. In other words, the “Assises of Decentralised Cooperation” will be a chance to promote the exchange among local and regional authorities from the EU and developing countries, as well as between these authorities and others levels of public authorities. Therefore, national authorities and European institutions will also be welcomed to participate. The ultimate aim is to raise awareness on the effectiveness of development aid when local and regional authorities are fully integrated into the development and cooperation process.
3 December 2009, Rome, Italy
1st International Forum on Food and Nutrition
This Forum is organized by Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition, a centre of thought and change with the objective to gather worldwide knowledges, to analize them and to propose solutions to tackle next future’s food challenges
The Forum, addressed to a select audience of opinion leaders, will focus on the presentation of the results of a challenging study carried out by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition.
The Forum will be divided into four sessions: Food for All, Food for Health, Food for Sustainable Growth, and Food for Culture.
The Center’s Advisory Board will share and discuss the recommendations that surfaced during its first year of activity with institutional representatives and international experts from the scientific, economic and cultural arenas.
3-4 December 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark
Waste and Climate Conference
This conference is organized by Danish Waste Management Association (DAKOFA) and by the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA ), an international, independent and non-profit making association, working in the public interest to promote and develop sustainable waste management worldwide.
The intention of the conference is to present the main messages on how intelligent waste management plays an important role in the efforts to reduce the climate change. ISWA is organising a ’side event’ at the COP15, which intends to bring forward the main conclusions of the conference and thereby help to put waste management on the international climate agenda.
The conference will seek a common understanding on the potential reductions and the various boundaries for accounting on various levels: company, local, regional, national and international. Main themes will be the IPCC report on waste management, principles of greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting, global warming impacts in life-cycle-assessment modeling, international trading systems and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The conference therefore aims at bringing the sector together to form a common understanding between industry and scientists and thereby strengthening the role of the sector in future climate solutions.
http://www.wasteandclimate.org/web/guest/home
3-6 December 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Copenhagen Climate Exchange 2009
The Copenhagen Climate Exchange takes place the week before COP15, the official UN climate summit, in Copenhagen.
The exchange is hosted by The Danish Society for Nature Conservation and will be one of the biggest climate events in Copenhagen besides the UN conference.
At COP15 a new global agreement to replace the Kyoto-agreement must be reached. But whatever happens at COP15, The Copenhagen Climate Exchange will demonstrate that addressing global warming is much more than complex political agreements. Everybody can do something themselves. At the Exchange cities, organisations and innovative enterprises from across the World will meet to share their local solutions to the global climate problems.
http://www.dn.dk/Default.aspx?ID=4971
7-8 December 2009, The Hague, Netherlands
Private International Regulation and Public Supervision
This conference is organized by World Legal Forum (WLF), which is founded to stimulate the effectiveness of international law through organising public-private interaction, debates between stakeholders, and the development of new instruments and services.
The opening day of the Conference will focus on the discourse between public and private actors regarding the questions when, where and what kind of public supervision on private international regulation is desirable.
The parallel seminar on Corporate Social Responsibility will cover the issue of international regulation of private business conduct in the fields of human rights and environment. Participants will try to come to a conclusion whether corporate social responsibility can be ‘hardened’ into concrete international standards that will establish criteria for responsibility of private companies. Furthermore, this seminar will discuss the prospects of an international dispute resolution mechanism for business and human rights.
http://www.worldlegalforum.org/cms/
7-18 December 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark
United Nations Climate Change Conference
World leaders have called for a comprehensive, ambitious and fair international climate change deal to be clinched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen, 7-18 December 2009.
The process leading to Copenhagen was launched in Bali, December 2007, when all Parties agreed on the Bali Action Plan – a two-year process leading to an agreed outcome on climate change action in Copenhagen.
With the current global climate change agreement – the Kyoto Protocol – expiring after 2012, there is a pressing need for a new binding agreement. This is what countries attending the conference hope to achieve.
The Danish Government, which is hosting the conference, hopes to have as broad a range of countries as possible and include a reduction in man-made greenhouse gases. It is also striving to include respect for the environment, living standards and long-term security of energy supply.
Climate changes in themselves are nothing new. What is new is that man-made emissions have led to the volume of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere being increased massively, and that global warming is happening significantly faster than previously. The Danish Government therefore believes that 2009 could be the final year to reach agreement on the Post-Kyoto era.
8 December 2009, Brussels, Belgium
A New Era in the Balkans
This annual high-level European Policy Summit is co-organised by Friends of Europe, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Constantinos Karamanlis Institute and the OECD Investment Compact for South East Europe.Friends of Europe provides an open forum for debate among EU and national policymakers, NGOs, business leaders, the media and civil society. More than a traditional think-tank, Friends of Europe aims to stimulate debate beyond the Brussels elite by linking up with major think-tanks and media from across Europe’s national capitals. This Summit will bring together senior officials from Balkan national governments, the Commission’s DG Enlargement, the European Parliament and civil society to discuss pressing issues in the arenas of Balkan accession and economic reality.
The one-day summit will discuss the steps needed to overcome political hurdles to EU membership and continue reform in the Balkans, how the national governments are cooperating to take ownership of the stabilisation process and how they may more strongly encourage involvement and decision-making on the local level.
The plenary sessions in the morning will be followed by an economic roundtable in the afternoon which will explore what the future will hold for Balkan economies as they face the effects of the crisis, tackle the shadow economy and explore avenues to cooperation on infrastructure development.
8-9 December 2009, Malmö, Sweden
The Road to Copenhagen 2009
The Road to Copenhagen is an interactive initiative which aims at broadening the climate change negotiations from the traditional and often closed, government-to-government negotiations to give a voice to business, legislators, academics and civil society organizations, all of whom have a critical role in delivering a low carbon society.
It is a joint initiative of the Club of Madrid (The Club of Madrid responds to the demand for leader-to-leader support to confront today’s global, regional and national democratic leadership challenges. It is an independent organization dedicated to strengthening democratic values and leadership around the world by drawing on the unique experience and resources of its Members –more than 70 democratic former Heads of State and Government from 50 countries who contribute their time, experience and knowledge to this mission), GLOBE Europe and Respect Table, co-chaired by Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission and former Environment Commissioner; Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, UN Special Envoy on Climate Change; and Member of the Club of Madrid’s Global Leadership for Climate Action (GLCA) initiative; and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, Vice-President of the Club of Madrid and Member of the GLCA.
http://www.roadtocopenhag en.org/
8-9 December 2009, Koblenz, Germany
International Workshop on Water and Health: a European Perspective
This workshop will aim to present current water and health issues in Europe and identify policy needs based on scientific analysis of the status quo. It will focus on key topics of the current Seventh Phase of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme, particularly Theme 4 on ”Water and Life Support Systems,” and the work under the UNECE/WHO–Europe Protocol on Water and Health. It is addressed to researchers as well as members of operational hydrological services and water managers.
http://www.iisd.ca/upcoming/linkagesmeetings.asp?id=10
9 December 2009, Manchester, England
Implementing Effective Governance through Good Leadership
This course will enable you to feel more confident and knowledgeable about good charity governance and how to achieve it. It will enable you to carry out an assessment of where your board is in relation to best practice and empower you to overcome barriers and improve matters for your board and beneficiaries.
The following topics will be covered:
– The key principals of good governance
– The important relationship between the CEO and the Board
– Understanding your stakeholders
– ACEVO’s Governance Review Service
– Trends and future challenges
To find out about Acevo’s conferences, workshops and training sessions visit:
https://www.acevo.org.uk/index.cfm/display_page/ProfDev_Events
9-12 December 2009, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Business & Poverty Leadership Program
The Programme examines the complex inter-relationship of business and poverty. It enables leaders from business, NGOs, unions, and government to develop an advanced understanding of how, through their mainstream activities, businesses can improve the quality of life of the world’s poorest communities.
http://www.justmeans.com/events/cambridge-program-for-industry/180.html
10-11 December 2009, Kiruna, Sweden
Cohesion Policy: Conference
The purpose of the conference is to spread knowledge about and experience of conditions for regional growth. Discussions will be held about how structural funds and sectoral policy can contribute to the optimal use of these conditions and how to respond to future territorial challenges, such as climate and demographic change.
Cohesion policy gives the regions of Europe opportunities to develop on the basis of their own conditions and to make use of their territorial potential. On 10–11 December 2009 Sweden will hold a high-level conference with the purpose of spreading knowledge and experience about the conditions for regional growth.
Some 150 participants, from EU Member States, the European Commission, the European Parliament and a range of organisations, will discuss the ability of cohesion policy and its links to new challenges such as climate change, globalisation and demographic change.
11 December 2009, Paris, France
What’s success for us? A comparison between Governance and accountability, and the performance and impact this has in the British and French third sector
In France it is called ‘governance’ and ‘performance’ while the UK refers to ‘accountability’ and ‘leadership’. The third sector has developed different models in France and the UK, and uses different concepts in the two countries, but they are the pillars of success in both.
Euclid Network (EN) and CJDES invite you to attend a workshop that will gather leaders again in Paris, hosted by Credit Mutuel, to explore differences and communalities of these interlinked concepts starting with a comparison between the British and French models.
13-15 December 2009, Istanbul, Turkey
Ecocity World Summit 2009 – Urban Ecological Foundations for Climate
This conference is organized by Ecocity Builders, a non-profit organization dedicated to reshaping cities, towns and villages for long-term health of human and natural systems. Its goals include returning healthy biodiversity to the heart of cities, agriculture to gardens and the streets, and convenience and pleasure to walking, bicycling and transit.
The conference will cover such themes as: the Ecocity Future of Cities, Towns and Villages, Land Use, Architecture and Design, Standards, Metrics and Measures, Transportation, Energy, Nature, Food, Consumption and Population, Business, Government.
http://www.ecocity2009.com/index.html
21-22 December 2009, Geneva, Switzerland
Intergovernmental Meeting for the High-Level Taskforce on the Global Framework for Climate Services
This meeting is organized by The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is the UN system’s authoritative voice on the state and behaviour of the Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the oceans, the climate it produces and the resulting distribution of water resources.
This meeting is being organized following a decision of the World Climate Conference 3 (WCC-3), which convened in Geneva from 31 August-4 September 2009, calling for the establishment of the High Level Taskforce on the Global Framework for Climate Services.
http://www.wmo.int/hlt-gfcs/index_en.html
Cosa fa VITA?
Da 30 anni VITA è la testata di riferimento dell’innovazione sociale, dell’attivismo civico e del Terzo settore. Siamo un’impresa sociale senza scopo di lucro: raccontiamo storie, promuoviamo campagne, interpelliamo le imprese, la politica e le istituzioni per promuovere i valori dell’interesse generale e del bene comune. Se riusciamo a farlo è grazie a chi decide di sostenerci.