The Danube is the second longest river in Europe. With its main industries of shipping, fishing and tourism, the Danube is of great economic significance. The European-funded NEWADA project supports the shipping authorities of the countries along the banks of the Danube. One of the main issues concerns political attention to stimulating the shipping industry in the Danube countries. This attention has proven to be hard to come by and even harder to keep. Within the framework of an exchange program, NEWADA has asked Oranjewoud (member of Antea Group) Adviesgroep Organisatie en Ontwikkeling (Oranjewoud Organization and Development Consultancy Group) to provide a training course on this topic.

Under the title 'How do you get shipping on the political agenda?', 12 participants from various Danube countries delved into decision-making theory, agenda setting, story-telling and framing. Experiences from the Netherlands and Belgium provided examples for the participants. The main conclusions drawn were that shipping in itself is not very political, which makes it desirable to link shipping to other, more political issues. And that figureheads and a crisis (or near-crisis) can provide momentum for taking political steps.

This training contract reinforces the profile for the Adviesgroep Organisatie en Ontwikkeling. It shows that the right combination of training expertise and content-related knowledge and experience provides added value for customers. The participants were very enthusiastic about the results and went home with new insights and ideas.

Further information:
Geert Roovers
Phone: +31 (0) 162 48 72 25
Mobile: +31 (0) 6 51 09 43 83
Email: geert.roovers@oranjewoud.nl