Participation of Uniterra's Southern Partners to the Conference

In addition to Conference activities, participants were able to meet partner organizations on Canada’s west coast, develop ties and share and exchange knowledge. Specifically, they visited a First Nations tourism centre and presented their own activities during the workshops organized by Uniterra on North-South partnership.
Texte par Roch Harvey

Workshop on North-South partnership: an innovative international approach for fostering local development in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
As part of CCEDNet’s Annual Conference, Uniterra organized a workshop on North-South partnership in the community-based tourism sector. Representatives from two partner organizations—The National Federation for Community Tourism of Guatemala (FENATUCGUA) and l’Auberge l’Autre Jardin, a Quebec City social economy enterprise—were members of the panel. The workshop addressed the sector’s socioeconomic benefits within the context of an anti-poverty strategy. As the Director of l’Auberge l’Autre Jardin, an organization which welcomed interns from Guatemala, Ms. Sandrine Viel was in a position to present the point of view of a Canadian organization involved in an international partnership.

As for Ms. Morongoe Ntloedibe-Disele, General Director of the Hospitality & Tourism Association of Botswana, a Uniterra partner, her presence in this workshop contributed an African perspective regarding socially responsible and developmental tourism. Moreover, three responsible tourism practitioners from Thailand, Costa Rica and Burkina Faso—CUSO partners all—also participated in this workshop.

After Dakar 2005: next steps towards an international movement
In collaboration with CUSO, Uniterra participated in another workshop. The issue: building an international CED and social economy movement. Sylvain Matte, Uniterra’s Program Director, discussed the next steps in the wake of the November 2005 Dakar Meeting on the Globalisation of Solidarity. These deliberations kicked off a process aimed at endowing the Canadian CED network with an international dimension, one that will include partnerships with NGOs and Uniterra.

Uniterra’s participation at the conference in Vancouver contributed to a number of goals: examining the state of international cooperation in local sustainable development, presenting the activities of different international networks such as the INPSSE, and exploring ways of enabling Canadians to participate in these efforts. In a word, Uniterra is moving forward in implementing its innovative approach: building and facilitating ties between organizations from the South and Canadian anti-poverty organizations.

First Nations Tourism: visiting the XÁ:YTEM Interpretation Centre
In 1990, near the town of Mission, in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, an archaeologist made a discovery: several stone tools. In so doing, he unearthed artefacts from a site that was inhabited 9,000 years ago, a site that was subsequently home to the Stó:lo Nation for thousands of years. In 1992, the federal government officially recognized this site, XÁ:YTEM (pronunciation: HAÏ-tum), as one of the most ancient places of First Nations spirituality in Canada.

In 1998, an archaeological research project led to the creation of a cultural heritage interpretation centre, a unique marriage of science and native oral traditions where visitors benefit from an educational archaeological experience based on active learning.

Today, under the direction of Linnea Battel, who is herself a member of the Stó:lo Nation, the Interpretation Centre has become an educational tourist attraction that introduces the general public and school children to the rich cultural heritage of the First Nations. As for economic development, the Centre—via its museum, boutique, handicrafts workshops and group facilitations—has created jobs for local indigenous youth, as well as diversified the community’s economic base, which was essentially based on forestry.

For our partners from the South, as community tourism sector practitioners, the visit to the XÁ:YTEM Centre proved extremely worthwhile. Discussions with the Centre’s Director and local stakeholders allowed Guillermo Perez, a representative of the National Federation for Community Tourism of Guatemala, and Morongoe Ntloedibe-Disele, General Director of the Hospitality & Tourism Association of Botswana, to gather valuable information on the process that culminated in this successful and dynamic First Nations enterprise—a model for our partners from the South.

For more information: http://www.xaytem.ca/

From Asia to Canada’s West Coast: exchanging ideas on economic development and education
Three volunteers from Vietnam attended the CCEDNet conference in Vancouver: Mr. Tu An DANG, a high-level representative from the Ministry of Education, which is in charge of the Primary Education for Disadvantaged Children project (PEDC), Mr. Quyoc Ly, a community development coordinator and Ms. Nguyen Thuy Duong, the project’s Administrative Assistant. They had the opportunity to meet with key partners: The British Columbia Confederation of Parent Advisory Committees and The Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives of the University of Victoria. The PEDC project is a leader in Vietnam in the area of support for educational projects and initiatives seeking to improve the living conditions in local communities.

Uniterra invited the following CED practitioners from Sri Lanka: Mr. Azmi Thassim, General Director of the Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Shakila Wijewardane, Executive Director of Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise Development Services and Ms. Pearl Steven, Coordinator of the Women’s Development Centre. Their objectives: to enrich their knowledge of community economic development, develop new partnerships with Canadian organizations and strengthen existing ones.