Interview

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Denis Schultz
Director of the Regional Institute of Cooperation for Development-IRCOD Alsace

Q: You are the Director of IRCOD. Could you briefly present your Institute to us?

R: The Regional Institute of Cooperation for Development-IRCOD Alsace is an association founded in 1986. The main activities of the Institute are:

• joining cooperation initiatives of the Alsatian local authorities,
• organizing an exchange of experience to support local development mechanisms in the developing countries
• promoting decentralized cooperation practice in Alsace

Today, IRCOD brings together the Region of Alsace, the two department councils and municipalities or EPCI (Public Organization for Cooperation between Municipalities), in other words over 80 Alsatian local districts participate with other institutions and Alsatian associations in operations of technical cooperation for developing countries, especially in Africa. IRCOD also implements cooperation projects that mobilize a network of partners and competence in Alsace in order to reinforce development initiatives of participants in the developing countries. IRCOD’s work is based on the principle of exchanging experience and practice organized in specific cooperation and development programs contracted with the local partners.

Q: From 15 to 17 November the third edition of European Development Days will be held and you are one of the participants. Can you tell as what this gathering will be all about?

R: It is the third annual meeting of this type, the European Development Days are held this year in Strasbourg, the European capital symbolizing the founding values of Europe. The days are organized on the European Commission‘s initiative. It is a meeting opportunity for decision-makers and participants in the area of development who meet to discus development policies. This year the major topic will be local governance in relation to the Millennium Development Goals. IRCOD with its members is in a good position to talk about on these issues because they represent the foundation of its activities with the local actors, the local authorities, the devolved state structures, local institutions and the civil society with whom IRCOD works in different developing countries.

Q: How this type of event helps to advance the dialogue between the European Commission and regional structures like yours?

R: It is a moment of encounter between the decision-makers and participants at different levels. The central issue of the debates will concern above all local governance, an issue which preoccupies today different level of actors: operators, decision-makers and European and developing countries local authorities active in this field…The particular encounters discussing these questions of which IRCOD is sometimes also part of, allow to reposition the key issues of local development, local democracy and decentralization in the developing countries. I hope that the Days will be a crucial moment for the European Union to revise in depth the terms of partnership with the local institutional actors and actors of the civil society in order to elaborate a supporting policy for local economic development in the developing countries. The current questions linked to food security and the financial crisis with its consequences in the developing countries are also part of the agenda and certainly deserve to be asked when it comes to action on local level as well as the implementation of coherence on local, national, sub-regional and on international level in general.

Q: What is your relation with the European Union within decentralized cooperation with developing countries?

R: Our strongest cooperation with The European Union these days is in relation to a project for which we benefit from co financing for a system of water usage since 2007.IRCOD set out a project to establish a system of water management in Mbam and Inoubou with an association of community districts in Cameroon. The project’s aim is to organize the consultation of all drinking water actors in that department. It must result in partnership with the districts into a cooperation structure between the districts of Cameroon in this department. This project mobilizes experienced actors in water handling of our region (the department’s union of water purification of Bas-Rhin, The National School for water and environment engineering, World Engineers) as well as ERA Cameroon, an NGO specialized in water purification in Cameroon.

Q: What are the next challenges for IRCOD to take up given the financial crisis context?

R: IRCOD is not at least for the time being seriously concerned by the crisis. It will be undoubtedly confronted to that question in those countries where it operates. The developing countries are already affected by the consequences of the crisis and the limited resources of the districts that we are working with have been already weakened by it. This only encourages us to be more present in the process of strengthening local economic development and it demonstrates how urgent our action is. By the way, IRCOD’s action is bind to the voluntary initiative of Alsatian municipalities that are involved in international solidarity. Fortunately, until today none of these municipalities has expressed to the Institute its attention to break the engagement. IRCOD benefits also from other supplementary means from the French state, The French Agency for Development or the European Union. The Institute’s action could be damaged if certain of its financial partners would have to reduce their participation.