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Belgium-German-Speaking-Community

Belgium-German-Speaking-Community

4. Social Inclusion

4.8 Current debates and reforms

Last update: 28 November 2023

Together Against Poverty

Together Against Poverty (Gemeinsam gegen Armut) is a project of the third implementation phase of the Regional Development Concept (Regionales Entwicklungskonzept, REK), the implementation phase of which is 2019 to 2024. As part of this project, it is planned to elaborate a Strategic Plan on Poverty (Armutsstrategieplan), to pass a Decree on Fighting Poverty and to establish a network on fighting poverty.

 

Subject of the Citizen Dialogue

The Citizen Dialogue (Bürgerdialog) is a model aiming at permanent participation of the public at political decision-making, which finds its legal base in the Decree of 25 February 2019 establishing a permanent Citizen Dialogue in the German-speaking Community" (Dekret vom 25. Februar 2019 zur Einführung eines permanenten Bürgerdialogs in der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft). The Citizen Dialogue is composed of a Citizen Council and a Citizen Assembly. The members of both the Council and the Assembly are regularly exchanged. Once a year, the Citizen Council launches a call for proposals for topics to be discussed. Once a topic is chosen, the Citizen Assembly will get informed about the topic, debate the topic and finally formulate policy recommendations. One year later, it is evaluated to what extent the policy recommendations have been implemented.

In 2021, the topic of the Citizen Dialogue was "Inclusion makes school! What changes do we need in education to make inclusion a success for everyone?" After several consultations with experts, the Citizen Assembly presented its recommandations to the Parliament of the German-speaking Community (Parlament der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft, PDG) on 24 june 2021. The Parliament in turn presented its statements to the recommandations on 14 october 2021. Within a year after the presentation of the statements, the Parliament will again invite the Citizen Assembly to present the state of implementation of the approved recommandations. 

 

"The future of special education in mainstream schools"

The future of special education in mainstream schools (Die Zukunft der Förderpädagogik in Regelschulen) is a project of the Regional Development Concept III. The aim of this project is to identify learning deficits and to establish systems for the individual support of pupils. New structures in the area of special education are to be established to enable children and adolescents to follow their own developmental path. The contents of the project are an overall concept for special education, a new legal basis and awareness-raising measures.