Cooperation: old myth or new challenge?
Cooperation among agencies involved in development assistance is a long standing and commonly agreed objective. However, its attainment has been compromised by a range of factors, not least the rapidly changing global context within which development and assistance are taking place. The notion of cooperation has, thus, to be revisited and a number of questions addressed:

•	what is the future of cooperation at a time when competition appears the dominant form of relations?
•	what does cooperation mean in a context of many "norths" and multiple "souths"?
•	what becomes of cooperation when agencies are decentralising operations and the emphasis is shifting towards the development of southern capacities?
•	what effect do attempts to impose intra-sectoral coherence across aid policies have for policies in sectors such as skills development?
•	what is the implication of the cross-sectoral nature of skills development for cooperation between agencies?
•	what lessons can be learnt from other fora dedicated to agency cooperation?

Skills development: a bridge between education, training and production?
The Group has chosen to use the notion of vocational and technical skills development rather than technical and vocational education and training..

This reflects a concern to take notice of the move away from a focus on the large, homogenising institutions of the state in favour of more varied modalities of skills development which prevail in many countries.

The concept places the emphasis on the exploration of skills development across a range of institutional locations, in education, training and production systems. The process of coming to terms with this is an on-going one, both in the « north » and in the « south. » As far as agencies are concerned, it has led to a variety of responses. Some have chosen to merge their vocational training concerns with their small enterprise programmes whilst others have come to view skills development in both sectoral and instrumental ways.

International cooperation: between states or societies?
The focus on skills development is part of a wider realisation that development cooperation is not simply an affair of states. A variety of other actors are increasingly involved, both « north » and « south ». Agency policies are increasingly coming to reflect the need to include new constituencies in policy dialogues. However, dialogue, coordination and cooperation within countries is by no means easy. The behaviour of agencies can serve to worsen rather than better the situation. Central to the concerns of the Group is the examination of strategies that donors can promote and utilise in order to strengthen the voices of stakeholders and the mechanisms by which they can be heard.

The Working Group: towards professional and institutional development?
This Group is intended to enhance the capacity of its members to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of international assistance to skills development. In order for this to be achieved a stable presence of core staff from participating agencies. The personal commitment of these individuals will be as important as their representative roles.

In order to take account of decentralisation within agencies and the imperative for broader dialogues with wider constituencies, the Working Group will focus on the dissemination of information to relevant constituencies and individuals.

Inter-network cooperation
By viewing skills development broadly and acknowledging its intersections with other fields, the Group is highlighting an awareness with the need to develop relationships with other groupings. In particular, linkages will be explored with the Donors Committee for SME Development, the Association for the Development of African Education and the International Working Group on Education. The Group intends to explore mechanisms for information sharing across these different networks.

Mechanisms for cooperation
The groups referred to above each have different modalities of organisation. They exist on a continuum between an informal club and a fully structured organisation. This Working Group is concerned to establish a mechanism for light but effective steering of its activities.

An important consideration when looking at the possible modality of the Group's operations is the potential financial base of its operations. At present a sum of money has been set aside by the SDC for coordination with hosts of each meeting taking responsibility for the costs of delivery of that meeting. It would also be desirable for the Group to be able to develop new funding mechanisms in order that coordinated activities might take place as has been the case with the other networks mentioned above.