Dutch Development Cooperation Event
On the 26 September the Dutch Ministry for Development Cooperation organized an event celebrating 60 years of Development Cooperation. Approximately 1500 people were present. The celebration was particularly interesting for its speakers (demographic professor Hans Rosling, former president of Ghana John Kufuor, and Kofi Annan had sent in a video message), and also the wide range of participants, from government, civil society, students and private sector. Minister Bert Koenders made interesting deals with private sector, like TNT Post and Akzo Nobel.
During the day several plenary sessions were held as well as clinics and presentations. Ilze Smit, Monique Demenint and Lucie van Mens conducted a clinic on the Female Condom (FC) project. An odd 20 people participated the clinic of which many high representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Joke Brandt, Director General International Development Cooperation; Marijke Wijnroks, AIDS ambassador; Bram van Ojik, director Social Development; Lilly Talapessy, senior policy officer; Donia Hammadi, policy adviser SRGR, and Farah Karimi (executive director Oxfam Novib).
Lucie van Mens gave a presentation on the FC in general and led the discussion about stereotypes. Monique Demenint spoke about UAFC Joint Programme and the connection with MDG 5, and last, Ilze Smit showed how to use the female condom using a plastic pelvic model.
The conclusion was that the Female condom hasn’t got much attention in the Netherlands in comparison to Africa. Getting more attention also in The Netherlands is necessary in order to strengthen the support base.
