CNCD groups together over 100 French-speaking development NGOs and social movements that share a goal for a world based on the rule of law, where countries have sufficient resources which cooperate amongst themselves to guarantee peace and respect for the fundamental rights of each of them.

The CNCD supports around 60 development programs in Africa, Latin America, the Middle-East and Asia. These programs are conceived and developed by Southern organizations and supported by member organizations of CNCD. They have also worked on debt, aid and conditionality issues recently and cooperated with EURODAD throughout.

 HISTORY

ONCE UPON A TIME THE CNCD

The National Centre for Development Cooperation / Nationaal Centrum voor Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (CNCD / NCOS) was born on April 26, 1966. Four of collective solidarity associations with the Third World  [ 1 ] and would respond to the call of FAO - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization - to eradicate hunger in the world. They therefore create a dome regrouping several young Belgian associations of international solidarity, which will be called later non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The main idea of ​​this dome was to put development cooperation above the stakeholders and the great ideologies of the time by placing it under the patronage of different personalities of the three political pillars (socialist, Christian and liberal) who Marked the history of the country. Its first president was Paul-Henri Spaak, the same who served as Prime Minister, Secretary General of NATO and President of the first UN General Assembly.

ONCE UPON A TIME 11.11.11

The CNCD launched, which organized a few months later, on 11 November exactly, the first Operation 11.11.11. Its objective is to mobilize funds from the Belgian population to finance development projects in the Third World. Why do 11.11.11 often ask people? Because the founders of the dome wanted to remember that there was no development without peace and vice versa, hence the choice to organize the harvest on 11 th day of the 11 th month to the 11 th hour, The time when traditionally the veterans flourished monuments to the dead.

11.11.11, YES BUT ...

While the early years were marked by a charitable vision, the 1970s, under the impetus of the third-world movements, brought the organization towards a wider coordination of around a hundred members. The CNCD-11.11.11 separates itself from the political personalities and develops around three pillars: third-world NGOs, local volunteer committees and socio-cultural and youth movements. The organization thus becomes the center of convergence of organizations for which development is linked to structural changes in international policies. The dome then set itself three missions: funding projects in the third world, political arrests and informing the Belgian public.

THEY SEPARATE BUT THEY REMAIN FRIENDS

As the organization evolves towards a more human rights-based approach and solidarity with the struggles of the peoples of the Third World, the demand for autonomy of the Flemish wing, NCOS (now 11.11.11 ), Split into two distinct legal entities in 1981. Today, the collaborations remain permanent and the campaigns are often common ...

A POLITICAL PROFILE THAT ASSERTS ITSELF

During the 1980s, CNCD-11.11.11 multiplied the political struggles: against apartheid in South Africa, for democracy in Congo / Zaire, against hunger in the world. Formally approved in 1991 as an NGO by the government - which gives access to public co-financing -, CNCD-11.11.11 continues its political work during the 1990s. At the time already, a campaign was conducted on the regulation of financial markets and the fight against financial speculation. 1992 also sees the environmental issue entering the development sector with the Rio Earth Summit. Stakes always and even more topical.

SUPPORTING SOUTHERN CIVIL SOCIETY

The early 2000s is marked by the seal of Third World debt. CNCD-11.11.11 participates in the global mobilization of the Jubilee 2000 for the cancellation of third-world debt and launches a major three-year campaign in Belgium. In 2003, the three unions (CSC, FGTB and CGSLB) joined the dome, whose number and nature of member organizations continued to grow. It is also at this time that starts a process of institutional reform, which passes including the creation in 2006 of a program "Citizenship and Democracy" funded 11.11.11 Operation  [ 2 ] . It aims to strengthen the capacities of civil society in the South through coordination and cupolas of NGOs and associations. Its philosophy is based on the premise that democracy is an integral part of the development process and that the construction of coordinated and sufficiently representative citizen counter-powers represents the cement essential for the implementation of development policies that reflect the expectations of the local populations. In 2015, the organization of Assizes of cooperation led to the adoption of a new political charter in order to face the challenges of the 21 th century. There is no doubt about it: the path has been traveled since the early charity vision.

In its 50 years of existence, CNCD-11.11.11 has gone through much of the history of development cooperation in general and NGOs in particular. Willingly, through debates, struggles and reforms, in school classes, in the corridors of the Parliament or in the streets, he has become a member of civil society and has become His Dutch counterpart, the main interlocutor of the government on international cooperation issues.