Expertise for Central Africa
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The Directorate-General Development Cooperation
The Directorate-General Development Cooperation (DGDC) is the federal administration for development cooperation and it is attached to the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. The DGDC comes under the Minister for Development Cooperation and it manages on average 55 to 65 % of the Belgian development programmes.
Terms of reference are the Law of 25 May 1999 concerning international cooperation that stipulates that development aid must be oriented towards sustainable human development by combating poverty and based on the partnership between development countries and donor countries.
Through governmental cooperation, the DGDC prepares and follows up development actions, which are concentrated on 18 partner countries, mainly in Africa, with special focus on Central Africa: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The implementation of the projects in the field is in the hands of the implementation agency: the Belgian Technical Cooperation. Sustainable development is supported in five key sectors: education and training, primary health care and reproductive health, agriculture and security of food supply, basic infrastructure, civil society building and conflict prevention. There are four priority cross-sectional themes: gender equality, protection of the environment, promotion of social economy and focus on the children’s rights.
The non-governmental development cooperation includes subsidies from the DGDC to ngos (non-governmental organisations), development projects of universities, scientific institutions, eductional non-profit associations, trade unions, urban and rural municipalities.
The European and multilateral cooperation consists of contributions to aid programmes from both the European Union and big international organisations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the IMF.
The DGDC also funds humanitarian aid operations as well as projects of the Belgian Survival Fund in order to help improve the security of food supply in countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Raising awareness with the Belgian population for both the North-South issue and development cooperation also is a priority to the DGDC.
Contact:
Minister in charge: Minister for Development Cooperation
Direction: Peter Moors, director-general
Directorate-General Development Cooperation — DGDC
Karmelietenstraat 15 rue des Petits Carmes
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: (+32) (0)2 501 81 11
Fax: (+32) (0)2 501 45 85
Website: www.dgos.be - www.dgdc.be