Hot summer for Romanian NGDOs

The end of June and the month of July featured three events supported by TRIALOG:

28-29 June, Iasi: “Moldova in the context of the Romanian Development Cooperation Policy and of the European Neighbourhood Policy - opportunities and challenges for the civil society organizations”
The Moldova – Georgia working group of the Romanian NGDO platform FOND, through CSDF (C ivil Society Development Foundation) and Pro Women, organised a seminar on civil society and development co-operation that brought together 40 NGOs from Moldova and Romania to discuss financial assistance to Moldova provided through the Romanian bilateral programme and the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). The seminar had three main objectives: elaborating a common position of the civil society representatives from Romania and Moldova on the necessity to accelerate the programming of the Romanian development assistance for Moldova and to ensure that the process will involve civil society on both banks of the Prut river in the identification of the priorities and types of assistance; a general need assessment and exchange of information between NGOs in Romania and Moldova; discussion on ENPI programming and monitoring in Moldova.
“It is vital that the fight against poverty remains at the heart of any financial assistance. Poverty is at the centre of all our problems, which include migration of skilled workers, corruption, HIV/Aids...”, said Victor Munteanu from the Open Society Institute in Chisinau.

14-15 July, Bucharest: Work meeting of FOND board on strategic planning and strengthening platform coordination and effectiveness
Members of the FOND board, with the help of Angela Haynes - BOND Policy Officer and Joachim Lindau – former Chairmain of the Liaison Committee of NGDOs to the EU and former Executive Secretary of Bread for the World, Germany -, worked on the consolidation of FOND’s internal rules of conduct and strategic papers for 2007-2008. Among other things the focus was put on two things: FOND’s policy and advocacy strategy and the creation of a common vision on development cooperation and common objectives for the member organizations - strictly connected to the Romanian context and to the member organizations’ capacity to implement projects.

24 July, Bucharest: Seminar on „EU Funding and Partnership Opportunities for Romanian NGOs”
On the 24th of July representatives from 12 FOND member organizations took part in a one day seminar organized by FOND and CSDF with the participation of TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Petra Kreinecker and Julien Vaissier from the GCAP Europe Secretariat (Global Call to Action Against Poverty). The main purpose of the seminar was to give updates on EU funding opportunities for NMS NGOs, discuss on the eligibility criteria and how they can apply to the context of Romanian NGOs and raise the question of partners and associates. The end of the day was dedicated to a presentation on GCAP and a discussion on potential involvement of FOND members in GCAP activities in 2007-2008. The discussion continued on the 25th of July in a small workshop where FOND member organizations evaluated their capacities and their needs in establishing contact with GCAP.

Information provided by Claudia Iatan, National Platform Coordinator, FOND, Romania
Email: claudia.iatan@fond-romania.ro
Web: www.fondromania.wordpress.com