In October 2016, COTA launched a cross-sectional perception study on territorial approaches.

12 people working in the sector of aid-development (Ngos, local governments, national aid-development agency…)  and 6 people working in the sector of local development (urban and social development, education, culture…) in Belgium have been interviewed. We asked them if the notion of territory was relevant in their own action and in that of their organization and how do they implement this notion in their daily work.

More and more people and organizations agree that territory is the future of the social and economic transition, considering it as the right level to analyze and promote the links between the social, the economic and the environmental issues.

Territory is both a geographical and an institutionalized (with administrative boarders) area. But it is also and above all a community of men and women living together and creating the future as a collective agent. Therefore, territory becomes also the right stage to learn « how to build a new society together ».

Aid-development stakeholders are not « developers » but kind of “catalysts” or “facilitators”. In many cases, they don’t practice directly “local development”.

However, even if you don’t do it directly, it seems necessary to know at least the issues and the ins and outs’ practices related to local development.

For these reasons, COTA will promote the dialogue between aid- development sector and social actors working in Belgium. This process can not only allow aid-development sector to better understand the practices and issues of local development but also encouraging the dialog between different sectors.

In this state of mind, COTA will organize a learning restitution in February 2017.