China NGO connect: project preparation meeting in Paris

China NGO connect: project preparation meeting in Paris

July 16-20, 2010 the team of the China NGO connect project met in Paris at the Internews Europe office to engage in detailed preparation of the project. Camille Bondois, Programme Manager of Internews Europe, hosted the meeting. Mr. Huang Haoming, Executive Director of the China Association for NGO Cooperation, CANGO, Ms. Wang Xiangyi, Deputy Head of CANGO Project Management Department, Ms. Dagmar Woehlert, CANGO Senior International Advisor, Ms. Ding Li, Deputy Director of Non Profit Incubator Shanghai and Ms. Dai Xin, Project Manager of the International Center for Communication Development, ICCD took part in the discussions.

The 30 months project has received financial support from the European Union.

The objective of the project is to enhance communication and cooperation between the business sector and NGOs to further improve on both their social responsibility. Based on the outline of objectives the project team designed detailed trainings and other activities including the establishment of a related network and webpage. The team furthermore discussed each organization s potential, capability and advantages to be provided to the project as well as related responsibilities.

Against the background of the project focus the discussion also included an overview on recent CSR issues especially in China as well as related webpages and organizations working in this field.

Appropriate and efficient communication tools were introduced too.

In order to get a practical idea on how companies and NGOs can cooperate the team visited the French company Accenture. An introduction was given to the global CSR programme of the enterprise which is working in more than 150 countries in the world.

With a clear picture on the project design and activities each organization of the project team can start detailed preparation of its respective part. October 19, 2010 will see the official launching of the project in Shanghai.

First training activities are foreseen for December this year and January 2011.