Theme: Good Practice: A Compendium to the Africa Europe Platform AEP Conference in Paris Nov 2012 Part 1 By Shey Tatah D.L Sevidzem

The second phase of the African Europe Platform AEP conference took place in Paris- France at Forest Hill Hotel La villette from the 6th to the 11th November 2012 combined with Forim thrilling the delegates with resourceful talks, workshops, and presentations. This conference has participants from all over the globe 27 EU countries with Norway and Switzerland and at the same time 5 Piloting countries from Africa with Cameroon representing Central Africa, Senegal fo the West, Morocco for the North, Angola for the South and Ethiopia for the East. These pilot countries stormed the conference with these presentations each per country, one being from an NGO and the other representing the Government.

The session was of course launched and declared open by the Directors of African policy Centre Mr Mohammed and Forim President Dr Jean- Charles Ahomadegbe

welcoming all the particpants and giving a run down of the events that led to the successful organsisation of the conference. Mr Mohammed in his welcome speech had the same message like Dr Charles adding that special respect was given to the Organisers for the marvelous jobs done to bring people together and the part played by the delegates to abandon their work and family from all over the globe to join and talk about the development of Africa. This he was very thankful.

The director of African Policy centre reiterated the importance of the conference as it was the building process of what was started some 6 months back in Frankfurt- Germany, adding that the 2nd meeting was a continuation as well and not the end...he was moved by the feedback from the previous conference which motivated other countries to work on a more global network quoting the example of Finland and asking others to emulate. He expressed the need for such a platform built as it gives room for more coordination and sharing while at the same time reducing the number of duplications which can retard development in some areas. He also highlighted his experiences from some of the countries he visited as a follow up including Sweden and some African countries. He stated that recognizing experts could be a nice way to get specific expertise especially when need be. He used Morocco as an example longing that more Sahara countries will take the lead. For more watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxlzb3n-eVE&feature=plcp While Forim president also thanked the pilot countries present including the 27 Eu states present. He expressed his joy despite the visas issues encountered during the process but hailed them for their contributions and zeal for the development of Africa.

Dr Charles went further to thank the main sponsor the EU and co sponsors like the swiss, Dutch, German Goverments etc at the same time extending another hand of appreciation to the various partners that work hand in glove for the success of this initiative. He gave a brief history of the Forim stating that it was created in 2002 elaborating on the objectives of the association. Watch details here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfAr2kFVPdY Other presentations at the 2nd AEP expert meeting came from the African Diaspora Organizations themselves which of course were spiced by courses and reflections from some of the initiators and project officers. A challenging reflection on Good practice came from Mr Paul Paul Asquith from AFFORD UK. Before his presentation, Dr Djibrill Faal director of AFFORD UK encouraged the listeners to take a close look of Good practice from the scientific approach, looking at beautiful things, how they are within their characteristics and those not. Therefore a simple scientific approach will be looking at "What is in it and what is not in it". Faal Went further to state that Good Practice could be aprroached through commissions, ie things we commit and omission ie things we omit from doing. According to him a meriticratic approach was one of the ways to achieve this research on Good practice after which one can then make a judgement as to what Good Practice is.

But this met with controversies as other opinions held that a more democratic approach was more convincing than a scientific approach. Therefore in reality according to Faal, it is not only the actuality that matters but also the perceptions that plays an important role. Paul now took the microphone to expantiate on the collection of data from the excercise carried out. This led him to elucidating on the progress of the project requesting specific examples of Good practices and at the same time conducting research on the preception. He later presented the results of the quality and findings of the research which of course were very encouraging coupled with the target group that was a huge challenged. Details of the presentation can be watch on you tube following this link below... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO6JWwcabZQ&feature=plcp Other speakers that gave exposés were Yera Dembele who gave a review from the Frankfurt conference and at the same time a preview of the 2nd, the benefits and expectations. He expressed the satisfaction of work done so far with the various partners and delegates and other visits made.

All these were linked to the Theme and reflection of the day "Good Practice". Watch Yera Dembele on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gURV2nvmpqs&feature=plcp He was immediately followed by AbdouRahime Diallo and Merkez. Rahime who has a great sense of humor started with one stating that he would prefer his presentation in English because English was faster/quicker than French in terms of presentation. A joke that was understood by the delegates which will later be used by Paul as well. He presented the state of affairs of the research on Good practice. His aim was to provide a new understanding of African diaspora as the former always gave same data. Now he wanted to bring positive stories on how Good practices can build good partnership between Africa and Europe. He highlighted on the aspects of diversity while insisting that it was an on-going process.

The research recognized countries into 4 different clusters, namely West Europe, with Long historical relations with Africa, North with sttrong economic ties with Africa, South European countries and East European with almost no ties. Watch details of Rahime & Merkez presentation here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6hfG6UVThY&feature=plcp as merkez takes her point of departure from the example of Cameroon then spreading to other countries. Written and compiled by Shey Tatah Sevidzem (Wo Scandy) To Be continued... Watch out also for the exclusive Interview between Shey Tatah and Abdourahime Diallo in the subsequent reports