Background Note on Regional Consultations on ‘Principles on Trade Union Development Effectiveness’

Development effectiveness is nowadays one of the major themes to be addressed by Trade Unions. It is linked to the strategy of the ITUC itself which, since its Congress in 2006, ranks development cooperation and capacity building among the political priorities, calling for‘new trade union internationalism’. This approach aims at promoting a coherent global framework and shared ownership1 of development cooperation initiatives, both at bilateral and multilateral level within the trade union players.

This objective has been subsequently strengthen with the establishment of the ‘Trade Union Development Cooperation Network’ – TUDCN in 2008, grouping relevant organisations active in development both in the North and in the South such as, national TU centres, Solidarity Support Organisations, Regional Organisations of the ITUC and Global Union Federations. The aim of the Network is indeed to improve coordination of TU actors in development and to support empowerment of TU organisations in the South.

On the light of these settings, it seems therefore necessary to tackle the challenge to define and to strengthen our working mechanisms and methodologies, which have indeed direct implications and consequences on the effectiveness of our development cooperation initiatives.

Background Note