« Speaking about territory » : a day to meet and to learn

On Friday, April 21st, Cota organized a workshop about the territorial approach in development projects, based on a study realized at the end of 2016. About fifteen actors met in order to exchange around key questioning on the topic and to illustrate them by their own experiences.

Assuming the fact that a territory is firstly an actors’ network, Cota saw emerging concrete questionings from its study, which were illustrated by the testimonies of the participating organizations. How to « re – territorialize » in Belgium for a NGO historically active in the South ? How to lead the territory an organization is based and active on, like it’s done in Brussels by territorial organizers, within the framework of district contracts for instance ? How to consider a territory in its multiplicity (territory of project, of skill, administrative territory, thought territory, etc.), as try to make it some municipal elected representatives?

The proposed illustrations allowed to arouse the debate and to feed the collective dynamics, which should end in a process of research action on the territorial approaches in development projects, at both local and international level.