The Partners

The European Union is a unique economic and political partnership between 27 European countries. In 1957, the signature of the Treaties of Rome marked the will of the six founding countries to create a common economic space. Since then, first the Community and then the European Union has continued to enlarge and welcome new countries as members. The Union has developed into a huge single market with the euro as its common currency.

What began as a purely economic union has evolved into an organisation spanning all areas, from development aid to environmental policy. Thanks to the abolition of border controls between EU countries, it is now possible for people to travel freely within most of the EU. It has also become much easier to live and work in another EU country.

The five main institutions of the European Union are the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, the Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors.

The European Union is a major player in international cooperation and development aid. It is also the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor. The primary aim of the EU’s own development policy, agreed in November 2000, is the eradication of poverty.

DEVCON, Inc. is a non-stock, non-profit organization catering alternative consultancy services to the grassroots and development agencies. DEVCON subscribes to the strategy of people’s empowering alternative development. Assistance to community development projects is supported by its strategy. It mainly comprises awareness program and technical skills development. It firmly considers these programs as prime factor in project implementation, appraisal, monitoring and evaluation.

DEVCON is a development agency advocating a supporting role for Non-Government Organizations and Peoples Organizations (NGO-PO) in helping the poor charts the course of their own economic and social growth. Since 1990, DEVCON developed the NGOs and POs from small-bit actors to full pledged directors of their own communities and organizations and hence, control over their own future. DEVCON operates and maintains development network with more than 50 NGOs-POs from Mindanao.

Freedom, justice and solidarity are the basic principles underlying the work of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS). The KAS is a political foundation, closely associated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).

KAS cooperates with governmental institutions, political parties, civil society organizations and handpicked elites, building strong partnerships along the way. In particular, KAS seeks to intensify political cooperation in the area of development cooperation at the national and international levels on the foundations of their objectives and values.

KAS has been active in the Philippines since the late 1960s. From 1998 to the present, the main activities of the KAS in the Philippines have focused on Social Market Economy, Institutional and Political Reform, and Peace and Development in Mindanao.