DESCRIPTION OF THE ENTITIES (PORTUGAL)
Rede Europeia Anti-Pobreza, Oporto

The Rede Europeia Anti-Pobreza / Portugal (reapn) is a nation-wide, non-profit organisation constituted before notary public on 17 December 1991. This Organisation emerged following the creation in 1990 of the European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN) that, as of June 1993, is recognised by the Directorate General for Social Affairs (DG V) of the European Commission as the interlocutor for issues concerning poverty and social exclusion.

En 1995 the REAPN was recognised by the Instituto de Cooperação Portuguesa as a Non-Governmental Development Organisation (NGDO).

The following REAPN objectives should be highlighted:
  • To promote actions that increase the effectiveness of programmes designed to fight poverty and social exclusion and to foster the implementation of innovative actions in this field;
  • To set up/empower interaction (network) among institutions, groups and individuals working in the fight against poverty and social exclusion;
  • To collaborate in the conception/definition of action programmes and social policies;
  • To guarantee the operability of “pressure groups” in favour of the disadvantaged;
  • To promote the social integration and organisation of services and other activities among individuals or groups that find themselves in a situation of poverty/exclusion, on the one hand, and among intervention agents (field professionals, social workers, directors of private social solidarity institutions) on the other hand. The main purpose of said services and activities is the cultural, economic, moral and physical development of individuals facing situations of poverty/exclusion.

Since the time of its founding in Portugal the Rede Europeia Anti-Pobreza, in consonance with its intervention objectives, has managed to always remain attentive to those issues having to do with the origin and causes of poverty and social exclusion. In addition to perceiving and detecting the causes of these phenomena, it has always put a high priority on analysing the type of possible responses, endeavouring to get behind movements, especially those rooted in the civil society (NGOs), that provide innovative responses and, stemming from this methodology, has attempted to exert an influence on the design and the implementation of new social policies.