Creating self-development

Fostering sustainable development in the two continents through collaboration between small and medium European and African enterprises, either already existing or still to be established: that’s the objective to which was dedicated the seminar “Europe embraces Africa”, promoted by the Committee of Catholics for a Civilization of Love (Italy), and held in Rome on Saturday 3 December, in the offices of the representation of the European Commission in the Italian capital. The meeting was opened by the message that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, on behalf of Benedict XVI, addressed to the participants, encouraging them “to promote collaboration between the two continents of Europe and Africa through a wide range of initiatives that support reciprocity in solidarity”.Collaboration with missionaries. “The programme of the seminar – emphasized Cardinal Robert Sarah, President of the Pontifical Council ‘Cor unum’ – invites us to consider in particular the objectives of creating sustainable development and employment in disadvantaged areas, so as to permit the African populations to attain a sufficient degree of self-development in terms of jobs, education, training and social organization”. “I consider close collaboration with missionaries fundamental in this regard – said the Cardinal -, in view of the fact that the role of the Church is aimed not only at proclaiming the Gospel, essential for the integral promotion of man, but also at promoting a human growth that defends the dignity of these populations”. That’s why the Committee that promoted the meeting, as explained by its secretary Giuseppe Rotunno, “works in collaboration with missionary congregations present in over 40 of the poorest nations in the world, with a view to the promotion of micro-projects, micro-enterprises and long-distance adoptions, through national media campaigns”.A common destiny. In particular, “in 2002 – Rotunnno pointed out – the Committee launched the ‘Micro-Enterprises Programme’, aimed at supporting the creation of a micro-entrepreneurial fabric in poor countries, through a programme of joint planning and training made possible by cooperation between funding agencies, the missionary world and small Italian enterprises”. Since 2007, furthermore, “the Committee has been collaborating closely with the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel instituted under the auspices of the Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’, a foundation whose aim it is to promote and realize programmes and projects of human, social and economic development in the countries of the Sahel belt”. A total of 25,267 micro-projects have been realized in the Committee’s 25 years of activity, from 1986 to the present day. According to European Commissioner and Vice-President of the Commission Antonio Tajani “Africa and Europe share common destinies”. “The Mediterranean – he explained – has represented for millennia a perfect ‘bridge’ between the economies, cultures and populations of the two continents”. And if “Europe needs concrete measures for growth, also to offset the rigour imposed by the imperatives of consolidating budgets”, “growth and development remain an indispensable tandem in relations between Europe and Africa”. “That’s why – added Tajani – Europe is looking with renewed and strong interest beyond the southern littoral of the Mediterranean, to areas where we can create new opportunities for industrial and entrepreneurial cooperation”. “A doubly winning situation is presented to us – he concluded – because Africa grows through a growing demand for the know-how and skills of the Europeans”.Professional training and micro-enterprises. The Committee’s proposal for “a real and constructive cooperation” between the two continents involves the provision of “appropriate professional training and the creation of micro-enterprises and production activities that start out from small experiences and expand to involve whole communities”. “Both continents – continues the Committee – are geographically and historically close and so can cooperate by overcoming together their respective difficulties that complement each other: Europe has developed a relative prosperity to be invested, while Africa has many fresh resources of every kind and a need for aid. The whole southern hemisphere, ever more determined to vanquish poverty and lack of jobs, is asking for aid from the northern hemisphere which is now in a crisis of richness and seeking a new style of development”. The initiative is aimed at “involving European enterprises through the creation of medium and long term partnerships with operators in Africa”: an objective that could, according to “Civilization of Love”, “contribute effectively to the reduction of poverty-induced emigration from Africa and unemployment in Europe, particularly grave in the current economic downturn”.