Inclusion, creative competitions, innovative practices and new, potential opportunities
Dear Friends,
Summer has started and we reached the second issue of our Regional Cooperation Online Mag.
The words here above, with which I would like to start, are the results of what my eyes saw when looking at our website: among the news related to our Projects’ activities, I also scrolled the recently published EEA and Norway Grants Status Report 2020. That report is summarising the great results achieved in 2020, and I am happy to see that some new activities can be considered the natural consequences of some already ongoing innovative processes.
It is in that regard that I would like to open this second round with three interesting initiatives organised by our Projects, since I am sure they are opening the doors to others and especially they can be considered as milestones for future reflections with respect to our changing societies.
I participated, while unfortunately online, to most of them and for each one I took long notes about how some topics have concrete and practical implications on our daily life. And younger generations are not only always there when we talk about consequences, they are there since they are protagonists If we think about possible solutions.
We have presented, with our first issue, the specific areas of interests covered by the Regional Cooperation Fund’s Projects: Innovation, Research, Education and Competitiveness; Social Inclusion, Youth Employment and Poverty Reduction; Environment, Energy, Climate Change and Low Carbon Economy; Culture, Civil Society, Good Governance and Fundamental Rights; Justice and Home Affairs. They are, of course, specific fields of interest and action through which the RC Projects are regrouped in terms of concrete actions and interventions; however, some concepts are universal, in the sense that the Fund itself is a unique Family, made of brothers and sisters that can talk about environment linking green economy to education, or about justice linking home affairs to good governance and human rights.
With this second issue, we would like to give you a first taste of what this means in practice.
As you will see while scrolling our Mag, the fields of interests to which we have dedicated the first pages are three (one can easily imagine which they are just having a look at the names of the Projects, or maybe at the colour we have put for each area to help you :)), but they easily became a unique part and source for thoughts. You will read about disability and sport (with a second part coming soon), corruption and transparency, the latter two being two separate initiatives that I decided to link when presenting the spirit behind. Why? Because for a corruption-free society, we do need a transparent system. And a system, to be transparent, needs qualified decision makers, able to “base their decisions on the major public issues on quality information, without prejudices, conscious or unconscious biases or undue influence”, directly quoting the words you will be able to read here below.
And for a better future society we strongly need inclusion, even towards children and youth with developmental disabilities. They did not decide to be called “disabled”, we have a duty not to make them feel as such. Because there are, and there must be, thousands of opportunities. Sport is one, a fundamental one: physical activities do promote equal opportunities.
And, last but not least, I may be repetitive: cooperation is an asset laying at the core of those efforts, which would exist for sure, but are more evident if we consider the greater strength they benefit from by combining potentials and abilities.
Therefore, the Regional Cooperation Mag wants to be the proof of this, of how combined efforts take to greater results. The three initiatives here presented are just an example, an important example. As the Regional Cooperation Fund itself wants, since the aim is to foster people, societies, economies while encouraging collaboration across sectors and countries.
In the next pages, you will find some interesting proofs. Disseminating them is one of the best ways we have to demonstrate that innovative solutions to common challenges are there.
Enjoy our Mag and, as always, we are looking forward for you to being part of us.
Gian Luca Bombarda
The Fund Director
