Report of the study group:

Mr. Johan Swinnen, the former Belgian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has held a speech in the offices of Medics Without Vacation on "Ethic and development cooperation".
It became an exciting evening where Mr Swinnen mainly spoke from his own experience.
He sketched his own findings with regard to the democratisation process in Congo and the need for self-reflection by the government on their responsibilities towards the local population.

In the extension of this, he spoke about development aid: tied and untied aid (the pros and cons), the profiling of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), their added value and the necessity of their work with respect to local structures.

Ex-ambassador Swinnen also stressed the need for the cooperation between the different foreign actors and the NGOs. In this respect, also the importance of a thorough selection between the NGOs has been focussed on: according to him, there are still a couple of organisations that mainly focus on maintaining themselves rather than on improving the lot of the local population.

Finally, he spoke respectfully about the work of MWV, which does not substitute anything anywhere, but which is aimed at strengthening the capacity of local people, which according to him, is a very valuable and contemporary approach.