3rd International EADI Summer School 2005
Summer School Presentation
Background
The fall of “The Iron Curtain” in the late 1980’s signified the end of the bipolar world. Since then, Central and Eastern European countries have implemented a number of reforms leading peacefully to a competitive free-market economy, and a functional parliamentary democracy, based on the protection of human rights. The extent of the economic and political reforms performed in eight of them has been confirmed by their accession to the European Union in May 2004. However, mainly Eastern European countries still encounter serious problems in achieving liberal democracy: their initial economic breakdown lead to a deterioration of social conditions, which altogether constitutes a challenge for the development agenda.
The Central and Eastern European Countries used to be experienced and ideologically motivated aid donors during the Cold War. They became suddenly in the beginning of 90’s aid recipients as the economic and political turmoil occurred. Some Central and Eastern European countries reached a certain level of economic and political development, social and human conditions have significantly improved, and thus, the need for development aid is not urgent any more. Besides entering the European Union, some countries have also become members of OECD, an elite club of developed countries, which puts pressure on them to become active aid donors again. Nowadays, the main challenge of these “re-emerging donors” consists in increasing their development budget and enhancing their professional network to meet Millennium Goals challenges and face anew, security issues.
This double recipient and donor experience, together with the practice of transition reforms implementation, present an opportunity for Central and Eastern European Countries to share their experience with other countries and become significant players in the field of international development assistance.
Goal
The EADI International Summer School will for the first time take place in a Central European Country, which the organisers believe will enrich all the participants across the recently enlarged Europe by allowing them to meet together and share their experience, also with overseas colleagues.
The main goal of the 3rd International Summer School is to acquaint participants with the process of transition, which the Central and Eastern European Countries have recently gone through. Their position, and possibilities, in international development assistance will be emphasised. Every participant should be, afterwards, able to answer following question
What is the transition process about? Which components does it consist of? Which reforms have been implemented and with which effect? What was the role of the various actors such as politicians, elites, civic society or corporations in the process? Where did the countries succeed and where did they fail? What has been the effect of the transition process on people’s lives (poverty reduction, unemployment, rural development, environment, minority and gender issues etc.)?
Transferred to other world regions, how can the newly acquired knowledge and experience of the countries be applied elsewhere in the world? Do sound business policies, democratic institutions by themselves create a sufficient framework for augmenting the wealth and well-being of nations? What are the “transition costs” and can they be avoided? Is there a lesson to be learnt by international organisations and NGOs?
Activities
The first part of the summer school will provide information on the transition process in the Central and Eastern European Countries in a multidisciplinary approach, which means looking at the issue from political and economic points of view, over public administration to social and cultural aspects of the whole process. Professionals, mainly from Central European universities, will illustrate this multidisciplinary approach on the Czech Republic as the host country and then on Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, i.e. the group of so-called Visegrad countries.
The first part of the school will be based mainly on lectures and discussion with university professors or other professionals; the other part will focus on case studies, which should help all participants to implement their newly acquired knowledge in the development cooperation agenda. In this part, some of the Czech NGO’s and their development projects will be introduced and experts from other Eastern countries will also contribute their experience. Summer school participants will not only passively learn, but will also share and enrich their experience in teamwork concluded by a set of recommendations and course evaluation.
The official social programme will include a welcome dinner, a trip to a Czech NGO in the countryside, Prague sightseeing and other cultural programmes in the capital city. An overnight facultative trip to Southern Moravia will close the Summer School.
