The international three-day Development Forum took place in Līgatne, Latvia on June 3-5, 2015, as one of the main events in the field of development organized during half of the year that Latvia holds Presidency of the European Union. As part of the process, LAPAS (Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation) organized an event on Community Development from local to global. Around 10 countries represented by community activists and passionate leaders, policy-makers gathered together and focused their conversation on glocalization methodology (interaction between the local and the global) with the hope of increasing public understanding about global issues and their links to people’s everyday life, and how these daily choices of the people carry impact on the global challenges.

The Development Forum aimed at raising public awareness about global development issues and promoted the potential of cooperation initiatives among communities as a tool for global development.

Participants enthusiastically joined the interactive discussions and listened to inspirational stories of representatives from Uganda and Moldova and noted down lessons and insights that they can bring home to their respective countries and communities they are working for development. They also shared their practical experiences and particular opportunities for further cooperation in order to create a common sustainable future.

Traveling Workshops in selected places in the municipality of Ligatne also highlighted the event that showcased glocalization at the local level. Participants had the chance to witness the local stories of communities in Latvia on Sustainable Food Provision through direct sales movement and direct food delivery, organic vegetable cultivation and food processing and collaboration between local producers organized as cooperative, good stories on sustainable and innovative solutions for the living environment as initiated by the youth sector, sustainable and inclusive activities of local people making domestic wines and baking, and preserving human craftsmanship and knowledge that Latvians inherited from generation to generation by invigorating green lifestyle and living in harmony with nature.

Finally, participants came up with practical solutions on the problems they commonly encountered in their countries on glocal challenges may it be on a personal, organizational or community level. These solutions were crafted in a form of Resolutions and forwarded the same to the policy-makers, diplomats and officials in Latvia and Europe, and International partners.

We were there not just a witness of those global stories but stamped our commitment in one of the Resolutions to disseminate GLOCALIZATION as a methodology to respond to poverty and community challenges and a key to sustainable development.

CODE-NGO was represented in this Forum by its member network, the Coalition for Bicol Development (CBD).

Joy Oropesa-Banares is the Regional Coordinator of CBD.