by Sarah Hickey (EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies – Manuel Marín Promotion)
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said, “we will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights”. This statement still rings true today. Today’s world is confronted with interweaved global challenges which require collaborative solutions linking international development actions with those of security, climate change, migration, and much more. We are in a race against time to meet the ambitious agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the Paris Agreement on climate change is now three years old, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turned 70 this year, and the first ever Global Compact for Migration will shortly be adopted on 10th-11th December 2018. International development is a thread running through all of these initiatives, impacted by and contributing to them to varying extents. It continues to be an interesting, dynamic, and crucial domain.
DevCoE, or Development at the College of Europe, exists to bring together students at the College of Europe with an interest in the area of international development, sustainability, and human rights, as each of these issues intertwine. Established in the 2013-14 Voltaire Promotion, the last five years have seen DevCoE organise a variety of conferences, meet-and-greets with practitioners in Brussels, networking evenings, film screenings, and other projects such as a sustainability art project in collaboration with Belgian artist Frank Liefooghe to be shown at the European Parliament. DevCoE has organised a panel debate between the Greenpeace Brussels Director on climate change and the Deputy Head of Cabinet for Environment Commissioner, a lecture on democracy in the European neighbourhood with the Director of the European Endowment for Democracy, and a lecture on the impact of statistics on policy areas ranging from schooling to the environment by renowned Professor Lorenzo Fioramonti, and many other stimulating events.
Going forward this year, DevCoE aims to organise another conference for the second semester, experience exchanges between students, meet-and-greet events with practitioners based in Brussels and elsewhere, and trips to relevant events in Brussels. For example, DevCoE students Sarah Hickey and Katharina Schaake recently attended the S&D’s Africa Week at the European Parliament. Highlights included listening to the President of Burkina Faso Kaboré and Federica Mogherini discuss joint responses to saving lives in the Mediterranean and taking part in a roundtable on coherence across environmental and development policy.
Above all, DevCoE 2018-2019 aims to provide a space where students can exchange their ideas on international development and other related policy domains, grow their understanding together, and get involved in different opportunities both now and in the future.
Are you interested in international development? Would you like to take this interest further? If so, DevCoE would love to have you join us! You can like our Facebook page for the latest updates on activities we are organising and follow us on our newly created Twitter account where we will be sharing pertinent articles.
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