What has happened so far on participation Developing participation in the EAPN National Networks Input Tanya Basarab Development Officer Participation meeting 1-2 October 2009, Madrid

EAPN Participation Framework  EAPN uniting various actors in the fight against poverty committed to the participation of people experiencing poverty  20 years of experience building through working groups, campaigning, policy making, transnational projects, GA  Benefits for individuals, organizations, policies and improves democracy

Who are the actors involved Self-organized advocacy groups Self-help groups advocacy groups Service providers Issue-based organizations Academics and researchers Social workers

5 + and 5 - on participation in EAPN  People experiencing poverty active in organizations members of EAPN participate in working groups  EAPN demands better governance and higher participation of people experiencing poverty in anti poverty policies  The European Meetings have helped some members develop their work on participation  Participation is becoming more visible in the General Assembly and other meetings  EAPN will continue to invest more in participation  Not all NNs have enough resources to develop participation  Language appears to be a barrier to participation for a few NNs  Without strong participation at national level it is difficult to pick it up at European level  Few NNs include people experiencing poverty in their delegations to GA and other meetings  EAPN does not yet have a clear strategy of fostering participation of people experiencing poverty in its European work

Many Questions  What is the meaning of participation of persons experiencing poverty?  What is the meaning of participation for EAPN National Networks?  The role, the place vis-à-vis other groups, the link and the continuity of this process?  How do we ensure a real participative democracy inside EAPN?  how do we make sure participation is not tokenistic?  Should a person experiencing poverty be remunerated for their participation?  Who does a participating person experiencing poverty represent?  How do we build on the good practices in national context?  Why is it difficult to build participation in some of the National Networks?  Who should help people be ready to participate in policy making?  Who should help people participate in the European work of EAPN?  How can this participation support national and local level engagement?  Which are the major barriers to tackle?

A New Strategy on Participation To focus on building participation in the structures and work of EAPN and to be clear about how we build it and who carries which responsibilities Four objectives:  Support National Networks to build bottom-up participation  Develop training and capacity building  Involve people experiencing poverty in policy making and in the working groups  Improve our communication work to change the stigma on people experiencing poverty and to challenge our own perceptions

Focus on National Networks Objective:  Support Networks to develop bottom-up participation Actions:  Building and exchanging case studies and models (publication)  Building on the European (and National) meetings of People Experiencing Poverty  Creating a reference page on the website for tools and elements that make good participation in National Networks  Organizing seminars to help Networks learn from each other’s experiences  Lobbying for EU and National funding of participation Can we do more? YES, what exactly!

Objectives of the meeting  What are the realities and opportunities in National Networks?  What are the challenges we face in building participation?  What do we need to put in place in order to have participation?  What can EAPN do to help National Networks?  Who carries what responsibilities (members of National Networks, NNs, EAPN Europe)?