Institut de Haute Formation aux Politiques Communautaires asbl (IHF asbl) is a non profit organisation established and operating in Brussels (Belgium) since 2003 to promote awareness of European values and reinforce the capacity to use opportunities at European level of a diverse audience of young people, business community and academia, as well as social partners like associations and public administration.
The mission of IHF is to increase awareness about EU integration and offer capacity building opportunities about EU opportunities for transnational collaboration to representatives of three key groups of stakeholders:
- civil society, with a particular focus on the Third Sector and NGOs, especially those at grass root level (i.e. small associations operating outside of urban areas);
- public sector, in particular local and regional authorities
- business community, with emphasis on individual entrepreneurs, microenterprises and SMEs.
Thematically, IHF asbl operates in a wide range of areas and topics, like youth-work, social empowerment, entrepreneurship promotion for fragile groups (unemployed, job-seekers, female, etc.), public policy and education. In all those areas, IHF asbl carries out public policy research and analysis, producing memos and reports on specific policy topics. IHF also provides tailored training solutions to specific target groups such as young professionals, people in conditions of socioeconomic disadvantage. IHF asbl is very proactive in Brussels and organises visibility and awareness events, often in collaboration with institutional stakeholders.
IHF asbl serves as a platform of collaboration among international practitioners of EU affairs and EU integration coming from the international public service, academia and research community and the private sector. Such consolidated international network, empowers IHF asbl to carry out significant visibility and dissemination activities.
Associated Partners of IHF
ESSEI was established in 2016 by a group of practitioners in the field of International Relations, European Affairs and Social Sciences. ESSEI’s mission is to promote European integration through information, awareness and capacity building activities. To pursue its objective, ESSEI also carries out research and analysis of socio-economic trends influencing the process of European integration.
ESSEI promotes EU integration by:
- Creating knowledge: ESSEI carries out research and analysis of policy and regulatory trends at European level. Moreover, ESSEI hosts roundtables and brainstorming sessions among practitioners and produces articles, policy memos and briefs on most relevant issues and topics affecting European integration;
- Sharing knowledge: ESSEI is also a platform for knowledge creation and sharing on EU integration. ESSEI’s founding members are recognised practitioners of EU integration and EU affairs, and have an extended network among relevant communities of practice at EU level that are also mobilised to share knowledge and experiences;
- Brokering Partnerships: ESSEI as a networking platform to facilitate and broker partnerships among participants in the EU integration process.
Thanks to the consolidated experience of its members, ESSEI has the ability to carry out significant visibility and dissemination activities at EU level, in particular:
- Stakeholders identification: profiling, identifying and mobilising relevant stakeholders from the community of practice and EU policy makers;
- Development of strategic dissemination and exploitation plans and strategies: ESSEI has consolidated experience in devising visibility and outreach campaigns to disseminate initiatives, activities and results;
- Implementation of dissemination activities: development and deployment of targeted dissemination activities to maximise impact and reach target audiences with the most appropriate communication means.
