afrol News / A Semana, 21 January - Cooperation ties between the two archipelagos Cape Verde and Spain's Canary Islands are steadily growing. A recent visit by a Canarian delegation of municipal council members and officials was termed a success by the organisations hosting them in Cape Verde. New cooperation accords were established.

Avelino Bonifácio Lopes, the president of Cape Verde's Non-Governmental Organisation Platform, qualified the visit of a delegation from the Canary Islands to the country as a success. Over the course of one week, the mission was able to get a first-hand look at how Cape Verdean associations operate and see how the two archipelagos can go about establishing cooperation accords.

A delegation of municipal council members and officials from Spain's autonomous Canary Islands region arrived in Cape Verde on January 14 on the invitation of the country's NGO Platform.

The visit, which comes following a trip made by Mr Lopes to the Canaries last year, is intended to help the participants get to know Cape Verde and look into areas of intervention for possible structuring projects in the future.

According to Mr Lopes, "the delegation came to get a first-hand look at the way our associations function, the areas in which our NGOs work and the hardships they face in order to transmit the information to the municipal governments on the island of Gran Canaria and decide how they can cooperate, something which can be done individually or concertedly."

Based on the contacts made with Cape Verdean NGOs, education, health, volunteer work, micro-credit, income-generating activities and information technology are expected to be the object of special attention of new cooperation accords.

The financing for the construction of the headquarters of the NGO Platform - which serves as a focal point for Cape Verde's associations - is another bit of good news expected to come out of the trip.

Over the course of a week, the delegation held work sessions with the directors of the Platform and met with Cape Verde's State Secretary for Decentralisation and Regional Development, as well as with the mayors of Praia, São Filipe, São Domingos and Santa Catarina.

Visits to the interior of the island of Santiago and to the island of Fogo, meetings with Praia-based NGOs and volunteer associations, and visits to a number of projects financed by the islands' NGOs were also part of the agenda.

The delegation from the Canary Islands is made up of the mayor of Teror (Gran Canaria), city council members from Ingenio and Vallesco (also on Gran Canaria), the director of the volunteer centre of the Tenerife island government, officials from the Santa Cruz de Tenerife municipal chamber and from the Africainfomarket project of the Canarian chambers of commerce.

By A Semana staff

© afrol News / A Semana

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