International Co-operation scheme Colombia - Germany
As
a part of the EXPO-project I had the opportunity to participate actively in
two of the Global Dialogue conferences. The EXPO-team offered me to host two
Colombian AIESECers and to work with them during these events.
In terms of content both events were very interesting: Personally, I did not
know what to expect from the Dialogue about Development in Rural Areas, but
the conference turned out to be a fruitful exchange of various opinions from
decision-makers and scientists coming from all over the planet. At the last
one of the ten Global Dialogues, it was up to the decision-makers of tomorrow
to discuss the results of the previous nine events. Young people from 35 different
countries came together at this occasion and it was especially interesting to
see how difficult it is - even for this highly ambitious group of people - to
agree on common guidelines for future development. In the previous discussions,
the decision-makers were asked again and again not only to talk but to act.
However, not even the Declaration of Hannover - the final proclamation of the
events - could come up with concrete possibilities to act.
My task during the two Dialogues was to collect opinions of participants in
order to give input to parallel events of the Global Dialogues taking place
in Colombia - together with some Colombians. Therefore we took notes of each
event, which were translated into Spanish each night and published in the internet.
We also did interviews with the participants. All this information was provided
to a network of Colombian universities where the topics were further discussed
and prepared for their "own" Global Dialogue.
Apart from these interesting activities living and working together with the
Colombians was a special experience. Twice during the Global Dialogues Colombians
stayed at my place, giving me various opportunities to talk to them. All the
time the Colombians were thankful and modest guests and we had a lot of fun
together. Moreover they were wholehearted hosts in their pavilion at the EXPO:
The highlights were the reception of the Colombian Vice-President during Global
Dialogue 10, where I was one of just a few German guests at the final - non
public - party at their pavilion. Though the Colombians' preferred working habit
seemed to be the "creative chaos", in the end all worked out fine, because they
just kept their coolness and didn't panic. A big thank you to the AIESEC-EXPO-Team
and to all participating Colombians for letting me work at the Global Dialogue.
Markus Richter
Member, AIESEC in Germany