As development cooperation is being reshaped along geostrategic lines, this event brings together the people who study it with the people who fund, design and deliver it. It is built around the conviction that a stronger European role in the world and a more genuine partnership with the Global South depend on tighter connections between research, policy-making and practice - the same logic that underpins the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs' "diamond" model of collaboration between government, knowledge institutions, civil society and the private sector.

The event doubles as a moment of celebration and reflection: it marks ECDPM's 40th anniversary and unites a coalition of Maastricht-based and European knowledge institutions - ECDPM, the European Think Tank Group (ETTG), the Maastricht University, including the Maastricht School of Management (MSM), and UNU-MERIT - to take stock of what their complementary expertise has contributed to Europe's global engagement, and where it needs to go next.

The afternoon's discussions move from substance to the strategy: assessing Dutch and European engagement with the Global South, examining the resources, instruments and institutional muscle the EU can mobilise to back its global ambitions, and closing with senior policymakers from the Netherlands, the European Commission and EU member states debating how to reinvent development cooperation for a world in crisis. Threaded throughout is the same emphasis on partnership: between disciplines, between institutions and between the Netherlands and the EU.

Agenda

Master of ceremonies: Virginia Mucchi: Associate Director of Outreach and Impact, ECDPM

14:45-15:00  Registration
 
15:00-15:10  ECDPM 40th anniversary video
 
15:10-15:30. Welcome remarks 
Dr San Bilal, Executive Director, ECDPM
Professor Dr Pamela Habibović, University President of the Executive Board (a.i), Maastricht University
 
15:30-16:45  Reflecting on Dutch and European engagement with the Global South
Professor Diederik de Boer, Director ad interim, MSM
Professor Fiona Tregenna, Director, UNU-Merit
Dr Melody Musoni, Senior Policy Analyst, ECDPM
Natalie den Breugom de Haas, Deputy Director Sustainable Economic Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands
Moderator: Andrew Sherriff, Associate Director, ECDPM
 
16:45-17:15  Coffee break
                                    
17:15-17:30  Remarks
Representative of the City of Maastricht

17:30-18:45  Reinventing development cooperation in a world of crises
Steven Collet, Deputy Director-General, International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands 
Marjeta Jager, Deputy Director-General, International Partnerships, European Commission
Professor Sophie Vanhoonacker, Chair in Administrative Governance and Jean Monnet Professor, Maastricht University
Dr San Bilal, Director, ECDPM
Moderator: Professor Iliana Olivié, Director, ETTG

18:45-19:30  Reception