about the Forum

The Second European Forum on Sustainable Rural Development will take place during the week of 18 June 2007 in Berlin. Following the successful first Rural Forum held in Montpellier in 2002, this event will bring together up to 400 participants, including policy makers and practitioners from the European Commission and EU Member States’ governments and development agencies, parliamentarians from EU and African countries, as well as expert speakers from developing countries governments, civil society organisations, research institutes and international organisations.

The overall theme of the forum will be “Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction in Rural Africa: How can Europe be a more effective partner?” The issue will be high on the international policy agenda next year with the release in September 2007 of the World Development Report 2008 on Agriculture and Development and the continuing G8 discussions on mobilising resources for African development.

partners: European Commission. Directorate General Development and Relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific States | Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations | Global Donor Platform for Rural Development | Department for International Development (DFID), UK | Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany | Irish Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland | Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France | Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Development Cooperation, The Netherlands | Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland | Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) | Deutsche Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, Germany | InWEnt Capacity - Building International, Germany