This full report on the second round of NGO exchange “Twinning: partnerships between Chinese and European NGOs – Investment Monitoring – Sustainable Farming – Waste Management – Emission Trading – Social Innovation” displays the results, synergies, and lessons learned of the second round of EU-China NGO Twinning. It presents the backgrounds and future perspectives of Sino-European civil society exchange and cooperation, and presents the on-site experiences of the Chinese and European NGO staff working on the above mentioned topics.
On 22nd of October, the seminar “Tackling common issues: Chinese and European NGOs working on bank monitoring, zero-waste, agriculture, chemical safety, climate change, and NGO-training” was organized by the Stiftung Asienhaus in cooperation with Bread for the World in Berlin.
During this workshop the Chinese and European participants of this year’s second round of NGO Twinning exchange introduced their organizations and common work focus. They also presented the results of their cooperation and reflected on the impact of the exchanges.
On the 20th of October 2014 the Chinese NGO Twinners gathered in a conference room at the newspaper die tageszeitung (taz) to hear presentations on developments and challenges European NGO’s are confronted with. Providing the participating organizations with information on environmental and social topics in the respective other region is one of the main goals of the EU-China NGO Twinning.
From the 22nd to the 26th of September, the European NGO twinners of 2014 were holding four special public sharing events in Beijing to share their experiences of EU-China NGO cooperation with the Chinese public. The topics were “Participatory Guarantee Systems for organic agriculture”, “Waste pollution and the European civil society’s participation on local waste incineration” and “Social Innovation and Pro Bono Model in Europe and in China”. A short description can be found in the attached document.
10 days have passed since I arrived in Beijing on 3rd September to start my twinning experience at Beijing Farmers Market (BFM). Being busy from day one, time has flown by fast. During the first 4 days in Beijing, several events and networking opportunities were set-up by my Chinese host on top of the regular markets activities.
The events included a lecture on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) with guests from Europe and meeting with a group of farmers and consumers from the Farmers Market in Xi’an who came to study the model of BFM to learn and get inspiration for their own work.Participation in a wine tasting event allowed to me to spend a whole evening of exchange and discussion on future cooperation with interesting Beijing NGO people.
After this I departed on a 3-day farm trip together with farmers and consumers from BFM to Hebei Province. The trip allowed me to get an insight in the harsh conditions of farmers working on the Mongolian Plateau and to get a grasp of the commitment and energy of the people involved in the network.
Overall I have been impressed about the vibration around the market. There seems to be always something going on.
The next week we will visit of a farm close to Beijing, and I will give a lecture during a 4-day workshop on Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) with participants from several regions in China and the following days a public lecture on PGS at the Sunday Beijing Farmers Market.
Save-Our-Seeds, Germany & Pesticide Eco-Alternatives Center, Yunnan Province,Exchange topic: Small-scale farming.