Minister of development cooperation Meryame Kitir inaugurates new offices of Enabel

Brussels, Belgium | Minister of Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir officially inaugurated the new offices of Enabel in the Brussels Marolles neighbourhood.

The refurbished offices include Enabel’s brand new conference centre, which shows the Belgian development agency ambition to become thé meeting place of Belgium’s international cooperation.

“As a house of international solidarity, this building is the perfect place to become the new meeting place of the Belgian development cooperation,” says minister Kitir.

“Our name says it all,” explains Managing director Jean Van Wetter. “Enabel is an ‘enabler’, an agency that brings people together and thus facilitates collaboration and makes significant change possible. Only by working together and forming partnerships can sustainable development become a reality.”

The renovated offices and the conference centre offer space for workshops, seminars, conferences and meetings of all kinds. “We are just completing the installation of technical equipment and then nothing will stand in the way of Enabel’s conference centre becoming the hub of Belgian international development, a hotbed of new ideas, the incubator for doing development differently,” Van Wetter proudly concludes.

“The corona crisis has accelerated things,” adds HR Director Martine Brisse. “We were thinking about reducing the rented office space because homeworking was on a structural rise and we took advantage of the lockdown to accelerate renovations.”

Less office space, but more room and space to work together, to brainstorm, to consult in a friendly environment where everyone can find their place and feel at home. Enabel’s head office indeed looks like a lively place with sitting areas, armchairs, stools, coffee tables and a very nice looking cafeteria, including a table football table. There are also showers for cycling commuters and electric bikes for trips in the city.

For the renovation, Enabel called on the Vilvoorde company NNOF (Nearly New Office Facilities). “A deliberate choice,” says Martine Brisse.

“For the new furniture NNOF made use of as much recycled materials as possible. In this way we have saved more than 5,000 kg of CO2, equivalent to a 37,000 km car journey.”