The Region of Champagne-Ardenne (France) has long been active in international development cooperation, forging a long-lasting partnership with the region of L’Oriental (Morocco). More than ten years of cooperation have allowed the two Mediterranean partners to address key development challenges and build a sustainable cooperation in areas such as youth employment, LED —with a specific focus on tourism and agriculture— and cultural and research exchanges between universities. For instance, a regional Observatory of agriculture was recently inaugurated in L’Oriental, and over 290,000 euro have been mobilized by Champagne-Ardenne to document and appraise the cultural heritage of L’Oriental.
Champagne-Ardenne has also been a key partner of the Morocco ART FP, supporting and promoting LRGs in achieving a more effective development cooperation.
In the framework of the partnership between the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through DAECT) and UNDP ART, the two regions will further their cooperation by developing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-based applications to appraise the natural and cultural tourism assets, ultimately promoting sustainable tourism in the region and reinforcing LED processes through improved coordination and harmonization among DC partners.
Moreover, this partnership is not limited to Champagne-Ardenne and L’Oriental; it is in fact promoting articulation at the local level between numerous European cities. One such example is the case of Malaga (Spain) and Como (Italy), which were previously intervening in the same location, on the same thematic area, but with different approaches and modalities. Thanks to the Initiative’s framework, these development cooperation partners are now coordinating their activities, therefore achieving a higher impact and a more efficient use of available technical and financial resources.
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Articulation of Territorial Networks
for Sustainable Human
Development