The ACEP - Association for Cooperation Between the People was formed in the early 90s, in a complex context, the increase of social exclusion and manifestations of racism on the one hand, and a progressive distrust of the motivations and impacts of development cooperation, on the other. The base concerning national and international social movements came to be blurred and the revaluation of the concept and practice of solidarity has become indispensable.

The challenges: maintaining the principles, risking innovation, learning from the experiences of others and engaging with reality, the ACEP has sought to embody a coherent project, based on cross-cutting principles to policies, practices and organizational models. Participatory democracy, solidarity between equals, the entirety of human rights, respect for difference and knowledge sharing are the basis of projects and actions, guided by an ethic of transparency in the management of resources, relationships, combined with an aesthetically valued the other in form and content of communication. ACEP is part of the continuing demand for new approaches and new contributions to cooperation between different spaces of citizenship, based on those principles.

An organization for research and development, recognizing the difficulties of a project aiming to add something new, the ACEP wants to accept the challenge of building a democratic culture, open to other realities and proposals, flexible and efficient, as an intervention that combines research, action, debate and communication. This requires a re-evaluation of research, new skills and complementarities between areas and institutions of various kinds, new risks and responsibilities, to ensure real changes with an impact in the medium and long term.

In the South against a North and a South in the North, the result of models that extend the gaps between people, countries or regions, the ACEP appreciates the creation of collaboration between organizations, generating confidence in building more democratic and plural relationships at local level national and global. In a country of emigrants and immigrants, this highlights the need to value the contributions of each, in their diversity. Education for equality - other than paternalistic tolerance - and a full realization of migrants while allowing the maintenance of its roots and building a natural solidarity links with their countries of origin.

Cooperation for common development in an interdependent world requires the involvement of people and organizations in the same dynamic of change in the South, North, and the relationship with the North South cooperation. Being an enrichment process of learning, it translates into building partnerships, capacity building and empowerment of communities and organizations, in experimenting with new forms of democracy and participation and respect for the desire for intrinsic development of each community. The ACEP has opted for qualitative participation in activities designed, implemented and evaluated as a process involving research / action. The practice of ACEP for development cooperation wants to be persuasive in the public and assertive at the centers of political decision, without giving in to stereotypes and double standards and refusing to be a screen concealing the real protagonists of change.

In solidarity with the development of Portuguese-speaking peoples, including cooperation with other peoples, the ACEP is part of the historical current that assumes the bridges built in the common struggles of people of Portuguese-speaking countries. The traces of unity against dictatorship, colonial rule and the developing world face new challenges and are committed to continue to feed them, mutual learning, the daily cooperation and solidarity.