Trade Union Focus on Development - Issue 15

BETWEEN OLD AND NEW “CONTINUING THE CHALLENGE”

TUDCN: The End of the First Journey

Following the resolutions of the 1st ITUC Congress in Vienna, trade union development cooperation was put high on the agenda of the new international organisation.

Through an exploratory phase in 2007 and 2008, the idea of a Trade Union Development Cooperation Network took shape, bringing together the different actors in the trade union world to both discuss practices in cooperation and partnerships and ensure representation of the trade union views on development.

A grant from the EU Non State Actors programme allowed the TUDCN to consolidate and to broaden its capacity to deepen a number of questions related to trade union cooperation practices and to take up responsibilities within the development world and more explicitly within the major CSO platforms.

During this first journey that terminates with the EU project support 2009-2010 coming to an end, we did manage to bring the trade union actors around the table, in its diversity and richness. The inclusiveness allowed us to gather not only with ITUC affiliates active in cooperation, but also bring the ITUC regions in the picture and invite the Global Union Federation to participate actively in the Network. The outline of the second phase of our Network is clearly focussed from this inclusive and participatory angle.