The EC published the Call for Proposals in Development Education for Non-State Actors and Local Authorities! Find all call documents on the EuropeAid Webpage. Use the direct link.
Deadline for concept notes is on February 17, 2009!
Read more about "News, differences and changes" in relation to this call in our seperate article at http://trialog-information-service.blogspot.com/2009/01/news-differences-and-changes-within.html
Check out which NGOs are searching for project partners for a joint EC project or post your own partner search on the TRIALOG website at: http://www.trialog.or.at/start.asp?ID=117
Note that all applicants and partners need to be registered in PADOR, see: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/onlineservices/pador/index_en.htm
Find a "Quick reference guide" at: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/onlineservices/pador/manuals/quick_reference_en.pdf
The direct link to register in PADOR is: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?do=Pador.Register&userlanguage=en
CONCORD raised some concerns in relation to the PADOR registration vis a vis the European Commission - read the reply by the EC, forwarded by bengo, at: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/reply-to-concord-january09.pdf
In case of further questions, you can contact the PADOR helpdesk: europeaid-on-line-registration-hd@ec.europa.eu
For NGOs from new member states:
If you have any specific questions related to the guidelines of the Call for Proposals, you can contact our capacity building officer Petra Kreinecker at: p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at.
Friday, 19 December 2008
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
TRIALOG at the European Development Days
The European Development Days were held for the third year running in the middle of November (15-17), this time in Strasbourg, France. The event brought together thousands of development actors, from pre
sidents of developing countries, to individual teachers, including ministries, NGOs, regional authorities, European institutions and interested citizens.
TRIALOG’s director, Christine Bedoya, was part of the official programme, presenting the results of a side event organised in cooperation with HUMANIS, a regional Strasbourg platform of development NGOs. The workshop looked at the ways platforms and individual NGOs from old and new EU member states work together.
Participants heard from representatives of the Latvian, Slovakian, Romanian and Maltese NDGO platforms, as well as a regional platform from France. Main ideas included how new member states should partner up with older member states and developing countries for real cooperation, ensuring the flow of information between all three partners and moving away from the teacher-student model. Speakers gave examples of concrete projects where countries worked together successfully, such as the Regional Partnership Programme, which involved Austria and its four neighbouring new member states the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. The group also discussed the benefits of new member states’ platforms being full of young enthusiastic people who are very motivated to work in this field and the opportunities offered by ‘new’ subjects such as fair trade and responsible tourism.
The results of the workshop and parallel workshops moderated by Coordination Sud and CONCORD were presented at a well-attended meeting on the second day of the Development Days. The event was also an opportunity to present TRIALOG and its work to a new group of development actors.
Find a summary of the HUMANIS event on the European Development Days' website: http://www.eudevdays.eu/Public/PressRelease.php?ID=2724. The full report will be available from HUMANIS in the near future. Please contact trialog@concordeurope.org for copies. The text of Christine’s presentation can be downloaded from http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/EDD-workshop-TRIALOG.pdf.
sidents of developing countries, to individual teachers, including ministries, NGOs, regional authorities, European institutions and interested citizens.TRIALOG’s director, Christine Bedoya, was part of the official programme, presenting the results of a side event organised in cooperation with HUMANIS, a regional Strasbourg platform of development NGOs. The workshop looked at the ways platforms and individual NGOs from old and new EU member states work together.
Participants heard from representatives of the Latvian, Slovakian, Romanian and Maltese NDGO platforms, as well as a regional platform from France. Main ideas included how new member states should partner up with older member states and developing countries for real cooperation, ensuring the flow of information between all three partners and moving away from the teacher-student model. Speakers gave examples of concrete projects where countries worked together successfully, such as the Regional Partnership Programme, which involved Austria and its four neighbouring new member states the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. The group also discussed the benefits of new member states’ platforms being full of young enthusiastic people who are very motivated to work in this field and the opportunities offered by ‘new’ subjects such as fair trade and responsible tourism.
The results of the workshop and parallel workshops moderated by Coordination Sud and CONCORD were presented at a well-attended meeting on the second day of the Development Days. The event was also an opportunity to present TRIALOG and its work to a new group of development actors.
Find a summary of the HUMANIS event on the European Development Days' website: http://www.eudevdays.eu/Public/PressRelease.php?ID=2724. The full report will be available from HUMANIS in the near future. Please contact trialog@concordeurope.org for copies. The text of Christine’s presentation can be downloaded from http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/EDD-workshop-TRIALOG.pdf.
For more information on the third edition of the European Development Days, please visit http://www.eudevdays.eu/.
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
New annual TRIALOG bulletin published
The Bulletin on EU Enlargement and NGDOs is an annual printed TRIALOG publication. This year's issue is out now and reports about the Prague conference and debates that continue beyond the conference; the focus is on voices from new member states and the EU neighbourhood. Read also about the upcoming Czech presidency programme priorities of FoRS.This year's content:
- Editorial: Civil society on the right track to handle global problems?
- After the Prague development conference: Paradigm change inevitable
- South-East cooperation: A new member state perspective
- CONCORD strategy: Putting politics back into development
- Key note speeches of the 2008 Prague conference: Are we on the right track? Paradigm review by civil society organisations (CSOs) as development actors
- Macedonia on the way into the EU: The challenge of development cooperation
- Civil society development in Moldova: The role of the EU
- The Mediterranean region: Time for new mindsets to solve problems
- TRIALOG: Structure and activities
- FoRS for civil society development effectiveness: Programme of the Czech NGDO platform for the EU presidency 2009
Download the TRIALOG Bulletin 2008 from: http://www.trialog.or.at/start.asp?ID=178
Direct link: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/trialog_bulletin_2008.pdf
Write to office@trialog.or.at to order a hardcopy; please indicate your name, organisation and postal address.
Black Sea NGO Forum 2008 in Bucharest
The Romanian Development NGOs Platform (FOND) organised between the 31st of October and 2nd November 2008, the Black Sea NGO Forum - “Time to Meet” in Bucharest, Romania.The Forum gathered more than 220 participants representing over 100 NGOs from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Georgia, Greece, Republic of Moldova, Turkey
, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania and other EU member states active in the wider Black Sea region. The event was organised in partnership with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation and UNDP Romania in the framework of the Black Sea Synergy.The aim of this event was to increase the level of dialogue and coordination among NGOs in the wider Black Sea region as well as to strengthen the advocacy capacity of NGOs in the Black Sea region in order to
influence development strategies in the region. The organisers envisioned this forum as an opportunity for creating a pool of concrete projects and proposing concrete recommendations for regional NGOs and donors in order to increase the number and quality of regional partnerships and projects.The programme included:
- Presentations of the state of affairs of the NGO sector in the region; perspectives of NGO regional cooperation; programmes and financial support for civil society initiatives in the Black Sea region;
- Three panels focused on a cross-cutting issue “Challenges and opportunities for NGO cooperation in the Black Sea region”, with presentations and discussions of the state of affairs in three broad fields: Social Justice and Human Rights, Democracy and Good Governance, Environment.
- Partnership fair to exchange experiences, to find partners for their project ideas and to elaborate project concepts in the field of social justice, human rights, democratisation and good governance, sustainable development. A portfolio of concept proposals will be presented to the donors in the region.
TRIALOG Director Christine Bedoya introduced the TRIALOG project as an example of good practice in creating capacity for NGO cooperation and exchange in the EU new member states and accession countries.
For more details on the Black Sea NGO Forum please visit: http://www.blackseango.org/
Fotos: Civil Society Development Foundation
Information provided by Adela Rusu, Romanian NGDO Platform FOND
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
EP seminar on development cooperation challenges for new member states
The European parliamentary group ALDE (the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) held a seminar on 12 November 2008. The meeting followed up the EP report written by Lithuanian MEP Danute Budreikaite earlier in the year on the challenges for new member states (see link below), and featured speakers from the national and European parliaments, the European Commission, CONCORD and the media.Annamaria Kekesi, a board member from the Hungarian platform, was at the seminar representing CONCORD. She introduced the confederation and described the close contact with TRIALOG in relation to supporting the particular challenges new member states face in the field of development cooperation. She supported the conclusions that were made in the report and focused on four main challenges facing new member states: restricted capacity; low levels of awareness; limited national budgets and the lack of diverse funding for civil society organisations (CSOs) and platforms.
The presentation ended with an appeal to members of the ALDE party to provide support and political will needed to strengthen the role of CSOs in the newer EU member states. Annamaria asked that the MEPs support giving opportunities to organisations from new member states such as through weaker eligibility criteria for funding, and amounts directed specifically at them.
She also restated the important role CSOs play as development actors, highlighting their importance in development education and awareness raising and encouraging their inclusion in development policy making and programming, as well as the implementation of development projects.
Links:
Full text of the speech given by Annamaria Kekesi at the ALDE seminar: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/alde-speech-annamaria-kekesi.pdf
EP resolution on "The challenge of EU Development Cooperation Policy for the new Member States" (adopted in March 2008): http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2008-0097+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN
European Parliament: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/
ALDE political group: http://www.alde.eu/
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
Training in Lithuania: Mental Health and Development Education?
The Global Initiative of Psychiatry (GIP) invited TRIALOG for a 2day training in November 11-12 to Vilnius (Lithuania). Topics included the EU-strategy 2007 – 2010 for the Thematic Programme Non-State Actors and Local Authorities, the Annual Action Plan 2008 and the expected Call for Proposal on Development Education and Awareness Raising in Europe. The training was open to other Lithuanian NGOs as well.12 participants from two networks working on the issue of mental health problems as well as in the field of intellectual disabilities, tried to interlink the topic of disabilities in developing countries with their regional focus on Georgia, Moldova and the 
Caucasus Region, in order to elaborate concrete projects to raise awareness in Lithuania and other European countries.
Caucasus Region, in order to elaborate concrete projects to raise awareness in Lithuania and other European countries. As a result of the training, aims and goals, indicators and assumptions of future awareness raising projects have been elaborated and formulated. Apart from this outcome, the group had interesting and challenging discussions on the whole dimension of mental health problems: on definitions, on where they start and how they are able to influence the development of a society – especially where mental health problems are combined with HIV/Aids. It seems much more "accepted", if health related problems are clearly related with traumatic experiences – with the consequences of war, natural disasters, violations. But even then, the affected persons are mostly excluded from their families and their societies.
A second training together with GIP will take place in December 4-5, 2008 in Sofia, in cooperation with the Bulgarian platform on international development and its member NGOs.
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG
Provisional results of last EC development education call
The statistics from the EC on the results of the 2007 Call in Development Education (ED) within the budget line 21-02-03 are now available. Note that it is provisional data and some changes are still possible. The final results of approved projects and further analyses will become available in the beginning of 2009.
The preliminary EC data already shows that new member states (NMS) NGOs have participated much more as partners than as applicants. Only 3 project contracts will be signed by NMS organisations from Malta, Poland and Slovakia. That seems few, but when we look at the whole picture, all NMS are well represented as European partners in the selected projects: in total 59 NMS organisations will be partners in projects led by old member states NGOs: Bulgaria (11), Cyprus (1), Czech Republic (8), Estonia (5), Hungary, (6), Latvia (1), Lithuania (2), Malta (5), Poland (5), Romania (8), Slovakia (4) and Slovenia (3).
During the previous ED Call for Proposals 2006, NMS have been prioritised by smoother criteria and by the provision of an extra-budget. This time, during the CfP 2007, some smoother criteria were kept, but the NMS had to compete with the very experienced NGOs from OMS within one budget. This might be one of the reasons for the small number of lead agencies from NMS. Another reason seems to be the fact, that bigger NMS NGOs haven´t submitted projects this year as they signed contracts for their successful projects of the previous call only in December 2007 and have started to implement their projects in the beginning of 2008.
Download the preliminary results of the 2007 ED call from: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/ed2007-preliminary-results.pdf
The next Call for Proposals 2008 is expected to be launched at the beginning of December 2008. Rumours say that this time the EC will give the NGOs a 60 days preparation time (instead of 45days) until the deadline for the Concept Note, in view of the Christmas and New Years break. It is foreseen, that – according to the Annual Action Plan 2008 – the EC will include in the upcoming Call for Proposals 2008 the budgets of 2 years - 2008 and 2009. This means that more money will be available for the upcoming Call, but it also implies that the following Call for Proposals will be published not earlier than in summer 2010!
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG, on basis of information from EuropeAid
The preliminary EC data already shows that new member states (NMS) NGOs have participated much more as partners than as applicants. Only 3 project contracts will be signed by NMS organisations from Malta, Poland and Slovakia. That seems few, but when we look at the whole picture, all NMS are well represented as European partners in the selected projects: in total 59 NMS organisations will be partners in projects led by old member states NGOs: Bulgaria (11), Cyprus (1), Czech Republic (8), Estonia (5), Hungary, (6), Latvia (1), Lithuania (2), Malta (5), Poland (5), Romania (8), Slovakia (4) and Slovenia (3).
During the previous ED Call for Proposals 2006, NMS have been prioritised by smoother criteria and by the provision of an extra-budget. This time, during the CfP 2007, some smoother criteria were kept, but the NMS had to compete with the very experienced NGOs from OMS within one budget. This might be one of the reasons for the small number of lead agencies from NMS. Another reason seems to be the fact, that bigger NMS NGOs haven´t submitted projects this year as they signed contracts for their successful projects of the previous call only in December 2007 and have started to implement their projects in the beginning of 2008.
Download the preliminary results of the 2007 ED call from: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/ed2007-preliminary-results.pdf
The next Call for Proposals 2008 is expected to be launched at the beginning of December 2008. Rumours say that this time the EC will give the NGOs a 60 days preparation time (instead of 45days) until the deadline for the Concept Note, in view of the Christmas and New Years break. It is foreseen, that – according to the Annual Action Plan 2008 – the EC will include in the upcoming Call for Proposals 2008 the budgets of 2 years - 2008 and 2009. This means that more money will be available for the upcoming Call, but it also implies that the following Call for Proposals will be published not earlier than in summer 2010!
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG, on basis of information from EuropeAid
NGDO platform BPID – Bulgarian “Yes” to Development
Not so long ago, even before becoming a “new kid on the block”, i.e. newest EU member together with Romania, in Bulgaria there was already thinking and speaking concerning its future responsibilities in the development field. So in 2006, thanks to TRIALOG and CONCORD the development NGOs in the country started spelling the new vocabulary and discovering what was it all about. At that very moment the administration was not considering yet its future policy in this field, not to
talk about drawing action plans, programmes etc. Everything started really shy and silent – Bulgaria was still getting massive support from abroad and it was really hard to imagine how in a year or two it was about to donate itself to other countries…
talk about drawing action plans, programmes etc. Everything started really shy and silent – Bulgaria was still getting massive support from abroad and it was really hard to imagine how in a year or two it was about to donate itself to other countries…In the end of 2008, the situation looks quite different. The state already has its National Strategy, the MFA is creating a task force to deal with these important obligations, there is a constant dialogue with all major actors. Moreover – Bulgaria is already thinking of bigger commitments, adding in the near future more target countries to the initially defined Serbia, Macedonia, Georgia, Armenia and Mold
ova. Civil society is as well advancing, probably with lower speed one would expect. But still – the Bulgarian Platform on International Development (BPID) is just about to emerge as a formal structure. Its strategy for 2008-2011 is in place; its representatives are having active dialogue with state institutions. The successful implementation of a Presidency Fund project, aiming at formal structuring of BPID is another substantial impetus to the process. The project is getting implemented in partnership with the Austrian Platform and in cooperation with TRIALOG. Upon its completion, Bulgaria would have its active platform, which currently consists of 10-15 active member NGOs. Who claims, Bulgaria is not saying “Yes” to the international development yet?
As a next step, TRIALOG will hold a training on “Development Education and Awareness Raising” in Sofia on December 4-5, 2008, with the aim to prepare NGOs to actively participate in the upcoming EC development education call for proposals.
ova. Civil society is as well advancing, probably with lower speed one would expect. But still – the Bulgarian Platform on International Development (BPID) is just about to emerge as a formal structure. Its strategy for 2008-2011 is in place; its representatives are having active dialogue with state institutions. The successful implementation of a Presidency Fund project, aiming at formal structuring of BPID is another substantial impetus to the process. The project is getting implemented in partnership with the Austrian Platform and in cooperation with TRIALOG. Upon its completion, Bulgaria would have its active platform, which currently consists of 10-15 active member NGOs. Who claims, Bulgaria is not saying “Yes” to the international development yet?As a next step, TRIALOG will hold a training on “Development Education and Awareness Raising” in Sofia on December 4-5, 2008, with the aim to prepare NGOs to actively participate in the upcoming EC development education call for proposals.
For more information on BPID, please contact Dimitar Sotirov, Project Manager of the Bulgarian Presidency Fund Project, sotirovdk@gmail.com
Fotos: Platform Strategy Meeting, October 2008
Information provided by Dimitar Sotirov, Bulgarian Platform on International Development
Information provided by Dimitar Sotirov, Bulgarian Platform on International Development
Lithuanian Kolping Society organised conference on volunteering
On the 14th of November 2008, the Lithuanian Kolping Society organised the conference „Volunteering teaches us to Be Tolerant“ in order to commemorate the International Tolerance Day and the European development days.
The goal of the conference was to introduce people to the possibilities of volunteering in developing countries, to foster discussion on tolerance and its lack in Lithuanian society. With this event, the Lithuanian Kolping Society also wanted to gain publicity for the European Development Days that took place in Stasbourg on November 15-17.
In the morning of the conference, young people near the Kolping house distributed several hundreds of special badges to the passers-by in order to draw their attention to the subject. The participants of the conference listened to the presentations about tolerance and development education as well as to information about the GLEN p
rogramme and presentations prepared by volunteers. Augustas Kligys and Dovile Sinkuniene shared their personal experience of volunteering in Africa, Ethiopia. At the end of the conference the participants actively discussed in groups.Since 2005 the Lithuanian Kolping society has been partner of GLEN in Lithuania. GLEN (http://www.glen-europe.org/) is a global education network for young Europeans that consists of nongovernmental organizations from 12 European Union countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Malta, France, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Germany. Through this project, every year several young people go as volunteers to developing countries.
For several years, the Lithuanian Kolping society has been organizing seminars and conferences in the field of development cooperation and education as well as volunteering. Many people of different age, different professions and from different parts of Lithuania have already participated in these events. The recent conference was supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and InWEnt.
For more information, please contact Lina Kalibataitė, National Secretary of Lithuanian Kolping Society, lina.kalibataite@kolping.lt
Information provided by Ruta Kazlauskaite, Lithuanian Kolping Society
Czech NGDOs learning on policy from their Irish and British colleagues
In September, the Czech NGDO platform FoRS organised two key capacity building activities within the project “Starting Up Policy Activities of the Czech NGDOs Platform” supported by the Presidency Fund (http://www.presidencyfund.org/). The partners in the project are the Irish platform Dóchas and the British platform BOND.
The first event was a study trip of the FoRS extended policy team to the Irish platform Dóchas. The Irish colleagues prepared intensive five days with an extensive programme in a very professional way. The FoRS policy team could get a solid overview on the activities of Dóchas, its relations with member organisations and institutional partners, as well as good tips and tricks on how to develop network. The FoRS policy team could also get into more in-depth discussions on organisational structures within Dóchas member organisations (Concern, Trócaire, World Vision, Comhlámh), and on various models of internal coordination between policy and other departments. The meetings arranged for FoRS covered a wide range of Dóchas partners – among the key ones Irish Aid (Civil Society Unit, DE Unit, EU Unit), Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Friends of the Earth or Gender Based Violence Consortium. The FoRS team also spent informal evenings with the Irish minister for Development and the participants of the CONCORD Board meeting.
In the following week, the FoRS Policy Officer went for an internship to the British platform BOND where she could learn more about the EU development policy from the perspective of the national platform and engage in the work of the BOND Advocacy team. She also worked together with the BOND EU Policy Officer in London and Brussels.
Overall, these events were a remarkable impetus for FoRS. The project enables FoRS to develop more structured and institutionalised policy work with the engagement of its member organisations, which is the crucial basement not only for the coming Czech EU Presidency, but much beyond.
Information provided by Jana Krczmarova, FoRS Secretariat Director, sekretariat@fors.cz
The first event was a study trip of the FoRS extended policy team to the Irish platform Dóchas. The Irish colleagues prepared intensive five days with an extensive programme in a very professional way. The FoRS policy team could get a solid overview on the activities of Dóchas, its relations with member organisations and institutional partners, as well as good tips and tricks on how to develop network. The FoRS policy team could also get into more in-depth discussions on organisational structures within Dóchas member organisations (Concern, Trócaire, World Vision, Comhlámh), and on various models of internal coordination between policy and other departments. The meetings arranged for FoRS covered a wide range of Dóchas partners – among the key ones Irish Aid (Civil Society Unit, DE Unit, EU Unit), Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Friends of the Earth or Gender Based Violence Consortium. The FoRS team also spent informal evenings with the Irish minister for Development and the participants of the CONCORD Board meeting.
In the following week, the FoRS Policy Officer went for an internship to the British platform BOND where she could learn more about the EU development policy from the perspective of the national platform and engage in the work of the BOND Advocacy team. She also worked together with the BOND EU Policy Officer in London and Brussels.
Overall, these events were a remarkable impetus for FoRS. The project enables FoRS to develop more structured and institutionalised policy work with the engagement of its member organisations, which is the crucial basement not only for the coming Czech EU Presidency, but much beyond.
Information provided by Jana Krczmarova, FoRS Secretariat Director, sekretariat@fors.cz
"FDR Tea Party" for new member states in the European Commission
Prior to each meeting of the CONCORD Working Group FDR (Funding for Development and Relief), TRIALOG organises the "Tea Party" for new member states (NMS) representatives in this working group, in order to prepare them to the topics of the meeting agenda and empower them to participate actively in the group's work.
The recent FDR Tea-Party for NMS took place in the EC on November 18, the day before the official FDR meeting in Brussels. Representatives of the NGDO platforms from Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovenia participated.
The group had the chance to meet the two persons in charge of NMS development education projects in the EC: Nicoletta Pusterla (responsible for BG, EE, LT, LV, SI, RO) and her new colleague Maria Gonzalez Mata (responsible for CY, CZ, HU, MT, SK, PL), who recently came back from the delegation in Paraguay, to join the team of Carlos Cardao, Head of Sector "Non State Actors and Local Authorities" in Unit AIDCO F3.
The first part of the meeting with EC representatives was an up-date on the thematic programme "Non-State Actors and Local Authorities (NSA-LA)"; and the group received information about the results of the last Call for Proposals (CfP) on Development Education and Awareness Raising. The session was followed by a discussion and a short presentation of the general external evaluation of the entire 10-years programme of development education actions, funded by the EC between 1998 and 2007 (under the Budget Line "Co-financing with NGO").
During the second part of the Tea Party, the new member states FDR representatives met the former chair of FDR, Maria Winnubst, who left the NGO world and is now working as Desk Officer for Kenya in EuropeAid. She gave an interesting insight and the possib
ility to discuss the changing dynamic of funding from the Commission like the increasing flow of money through budget support and UN-channels. Working in the EC allowed her also to have a critical view on the work done by FDR and she recommended the NMS not to focus in their lobby work only on the thematic programme NSA-LA, but to broaden the view to geographical programmes and to re-think their own financial strategies. "Get out of the box" was her impulsive and emotional invitation, which she gave us to take along with us, when we had already took one more hour of her time as originally planned… The participants received a lot of input to bring back to their national platforms and to reflect and work on until the next Tea Party and FDR meeting.
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG
The recent FDR Tea-Party for NMS took place in the EC on November 18, the day before the official FDR meeting in Brussels. Representatives of the NGDO platforms from Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovenia participated.
The group had the chance to meet the two persons in charge of NMS development education projects in the EC: Nicoletta Pusterla (responsible for BG, EE, LT, LV, SI, RO) and her new colleague Maria Gonzalez Mata (responsible for CY, CZ, HU, MT, SK, PL), who recently came back from the delegation in Paraguay, to join the team of Carlos Cardao, Head of Sector "Non State Actors and Local Authorities" in Unit AIDCO F3.
The first part of the meeting with EC representatives was an up-date on the thematic programme "Non-State Actors and Local Authorities (NSA-LA)"; and the group received information about the results of the last Call for Proposals (CfP) on Development Education and Awareness Raising. The session was followed by a discussion and a short presentation of the general external evaluation of the entire 10-years programme of development education actions, funded by the EC between 1998 and 2007 (under the Budget Line "Co-financing with NGO").
During the second part of the Tea Party, the new member states FDR representatives met the former chair of FDR, Maria Winnubst, who left the NGO world and is now working as Desk Officer for Kenya in EuropeAid. She gave an interesting insight and the possib
ility to discuss the changing dynamic of funding from the Commission like the increasing flow of money through budget support and UN-channels. Working in the EC allowed her also to have a critical view on the work done by FDR and she recommended the NMS not to focus in their lobby work only on the thematic programme NSA-LA, but to broaden the view to geographical programmes and to re-think their own financial strategies. "Get out of the box" was her impulsive and emotional invitation, which she gave us to take along with us, when we had already took one more hour of her time as originally planned… The participants received a lot of input to bring back to their national platforms and to reflect and work on until the next Tea Party and FDR meeting.Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG
4th Austrian Development Conference: "Environment – Growth – Development"
For the first time, the 4th Austrian Development Conference in Innsbruck (November 14-16, 2008) brought together actors from the environmental and the development sector to a common conference. Key-speakers came from the South and participants from Austria and some neighbouring countries; among them students, researchers, NGO-representatives, social entrepreneurs, politicians and official representatives from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).
TRIALOG moderated the Forum "Down to Earth" on organic agriculture with speakers from Hungary, Uganda and Austria; it followed up on a related conference held last May in Kampala (Uganda). The Forum was strongly related with the Food (Price) Crisis and tried to answer the big question, if "organic farming could feed the world". The Forum was one of two fora with invited key speakers and took place in addition to 10 other topic-related workshops, ranging from the "theatre of the oppressed" to "political ecology" and the "Ilisu retaining dam in Turkey".
The African speaker Fred Kabuye (Africa 2000 Network) had in his "baggage" a "Message to Austria" from Ugandan small scale farmers, saying that they would like to produce for the world market. The concepts of organic farming in Hungary (presented by Agnés Gagyi, National Institute of Minority Rights), Austria and Ecuador (presented by Petra Koppensteiner, HORIZONT3000) showed a more "lifestyle oriented" approach of consumers - favoring seasonal orientation and concentration on local markets as a big value. The discussion was completed with bringing in the human right for food (presented by Gertrude Klaffenböck, FIAN) and a scientific approach, presented by Michael Hauser (Research on Development at the Austrian University of Agriculture), who underlined the necessity of intensifying the organic agri-"culture" systems with appropriated approaches, to be able to respond to the necessities of growing populations in the future.
At the end, the forum participants together with the 5 speakers, elaborated a "Message to Uganda", following the approach that the European NGOs should support the Southern small scale farmers in the participatory elaboration of own African concepts by providing best practises from other world regions. Additionally, the group was clear, that the European NGOs have to pressure their national governments with advocacy work to achieve structural changes in the relations between North and South.
More information and the conference documentation will become available on the website of the main organiser "Paulo Freire Zentrum": http://www.paulofreirezentrum.at/
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG
TRIALOG moderated the Forum "Down to Earth" on organic agriculture with speakers from Hungary, Uganda and Austria; it followed up on a related conference held last May in Kampala (Uganda). The Forum was strongly related with the Food (Price) Crisis and tried to answer the big question, if "organic farming could feed the world". The Forum was one of two fora with invited key speakers and took place in addition to 10 other topic-related workshops, ranging from the "theatre of the oppressed" to "political ecology" and the "Ilisu retaining dam in Turkey".
The African speaker Fred Kabuye (Africa 2000 Network) had in his "baggage" a "Message to Austria" from Ugandan small scale farmers, saying that they would like to produce for the world market. The concepts of organic farming in Hungary (presented by Agnés Gagyi, National Institute of Minority Rights), Austria and Ecuador (presented by Petra Koppensteiner, HORIZONT3000) showed a more "lifestyle oriented" approach of consumers - favoring seasonal orientation and concentration on local markets as a big value. The discussion was completed with bringing in the human right for food (presented by Gertrude Klaffenböck, FIAN) and a scientific approach, presented by Michael Hauser (Research on Development at the Austrian University of Agriculture), who underlined the necessity of intensifying the organic agri-"culture" systems with appropriated approaches, to be able to respond to the necessities of growing populations in the future.
At the end, the forum participants together with the 5 speakers, elaborated a "Message to Uganda", following the approach that the European NGOs should support the Southern small scale farmers in the participatory elaboration of own African concepts by providing best practises from other world regions. Additionally, the group was clear, that the European NGOs have to pressure their national governments with advocacy work to achieve structural changes in the relations between North and South.
More information and the conference documentation will become available on the website of the main organiser "Paulo Freire Zentrum": http://www.paulofreirezentrum.at/
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG
Monday, 24 November 2008
EC Enlargement Strategy and Progress Reports 2008
On 5 November 2008 the Commission adopted its annual strategy document explaining its policy on EU enlargement. The document includes also a summary of the progress made over the last twelve months by each candidate and potential candidate: Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo (under UN Security Council Resolution 1244/99).
Furthermore, the 2008 progress reports were published on the same date, where the Commission services monitor and assess the achievements of each of the candidate and potential candidates over the last year.
The progress reports on Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey assess the "development policy and humanitarian aid" of each of the three candidate countries as part of the External Relations chapter 30.
The Croatian report states: "Some progress can be reported on development policy and humanitarian aid. A new department responsible for developmental cooperation was established within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integrations in November 2007. Croatia currently does not collect statistics on development and humanitarian aid in line with OECD/ODA standards, however, progress has been made towards meeting the standard. Croatia will need to establish the required legal framework in this area. Generally, preparations in this area are well advanced." However, the chapter concludes that "Continued efforts are also needed in the areas of development policy and humanitarian aid."
The Macedonian report has "no progress to report in the areas of development policy and humanitarian aid." The conclusion of the external relations chapter states that "The institutional capacity is not yet sufficient, especially in the areas of development policy and humanitarian aid."
Some progress has been made in Turkey in the field of development policy and humanitarian aid. According to the report, "Turkey granted some 602 million USD of official development aid in 2007. Turkey’s level of alignment remains satisfactory in this field."
For more information, download the Enlargement Strategy 2008-2009 and the country Progress Reports from: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/press_corner/key-documents/reports_nov_2008_en.htm
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/press_corner/key-documents/reports_nov_2008_en.htm#1
Furthermore, the 2008 progress reports were published on the same date, where the Commission services monitor and assess the achievements of each of the candidate and potential candidates over the last year.
The progress reports on Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey assess the "development policy and humanitarian aid" of each of the three candidate countries as part of the External Relations chapter 30.
The Croatian report states: "Some progress can be reported on development policy and humanitarian aid. A new department responsible for developmental cooperation was established within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integrations in November 2007. Croatia currently does not collect statistics on development and humanitarian aid in line with OECD/ODA standards, however, progress has been made towards meeting the standard. Croatia will need to establish the required legal framework in this area. Generally, preparations in this area are well advanced." However, the chapter concludes that "Continued efforts are also needed in the areas of development policy and humanitarian aid."
The Macedonian report has "no progress to report in the areas of development policy and humanitarian aid." The conclusion of the external relations chapter states that "The institutional capacity is not yet sufficient, especially in the areas of development policy and humanitarian aid."
Some progress has been made in Turkey in the field of development policy and humanitarian aid. According to the report, "Turkey granted some 602 million USD of official development aid in 2007. Turkey’s level of alignment remains satisfactory in this field."
For more information, download the Enlargement Strategy 2008-2009 and the country Progress Reports from: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/press_corner/key-documents/reports_nov_2008_en.htm
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/press_corner/key-documents/reports_nov_2008_en.htm#1
Thursday, 20 November 2008
EuroMed Civil Forum
The EuroMed Civil Forum brought together civil society from countries around the Mediterranean, to discuss the future of the region. They met in Marseille from 31st October to 2nd November and presented their final declaration, including concrete recommendations and proposals, to the EuroMed ministerial conference on 3rd and 4th November 2008.
The declaration “Moving and Living together in the EuroMed space”, reaffirms the importance of properly functioning civil society and the essential element of peace for stability and democracy. It also highlights the positive benefits of migration, comparing this to the 'fortress Europe' stance of the EU and its member states.
The statement ends with 8 proposals for the EuroMed community. These call for the end to short-stay visas; and demand that all relevant international conventions be ratified, and human rights be respected. They call for the organisation of a follow up conference in 2009, and cover issues such as education, gender equality and environmental concerns. The community is asked to readdress the social and economic agenda in the region, and take migration into account in a measured way. Those in power are also invited to let civil society and independent and alternative media play a full role in the region.
More information about the EuroMed Platform and the Civil Forum can be found at http://www.euromedplatform.org/
The text of the final declaration is available at http://www.euromedrights.net/pages/553/news/focus/68134
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
The declaration “Moving and Living together in the EuroMed space”, reaffirms the importance of properly functioning civil society and the essential element of peace for stability and democracy. It also highlights the positive benefits of migration, comparing this to the 'fortress Europe' stance of the EU and its member states.
The statement ends with 8 proposals for the EuroMed community. These call for the end to short-stay visas; and demand that all relevant international conventions be ratified, and human rights be respected. They call for the organisation of a follow up conference in 2009, and cover issues such as education, gender equality and environmental concerns. The community is asked to readdress the social and economic agenda in the region, and take migration into account in a measured way. Those in power are also invited to let civil society and independent and alternative media play a full role in the region.
More information about the EuroMed Platform and the Civil Forum can be found at http://www.euromedplatform.org/
The text of the final declaration is available at http://www.euromedrights.net/pages/553/news/focus/68134
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
The FEST project took NGOs to Brussels
From the 8th-10th of October, 25 persons from Estonian, Finnish and Swedish NGOs had the opportunity to visit Brussels and meet some of the numerous actors in the EU development policy process.
This study visit was the last one out of the 3 study trips organised by the „FEST“ project – an EU-funded co-operation initiative between Finland, Estonia and Sweden, designed to build the development NGOs’ capacity to participate in the formulation and implementation of EU development policies.
During three days, Nordic NGOs met with the EU institutions (the European Parliament and the Commission) and selected European NGOs (Concord Europe, Eurostep, EEPA), as well as the countries’ permanent representations in Brussels. In addition to more general overviews of how the policy process works, some of the meetings had a specific focus on the upcoming EP elections and the EU’s work on policy coherence for development.
As in previous years, the participants considered most valuable the meetings with their Permanent Representations and deputies in the European Parliament. Out of the numerous meetings with the EU institutions, the presentation by Anna Caprile from the European Parliament Development Committee was especially appreciated for its informativeness and objectivity.
The participants also valued the opportunity to meet their colleagues from other FEST countries – a majority of the participants found the trip to have been an important networking possibility. Now just 4 months away from its end, the study trip was the last bigger international event in the 3-year history of FEST. Networking between the three countries will still be continued via the project’s cross-border mentoring programme.
Information provided by Maarja Toots, FEST co-ordinator in Estonia
This study visit was the last one out of the 3 study trips organised by the „FEST“ project – an EU-funded co-operation initiative between Finland, Estonia and Sweden, designed to build the development NGOs’ capacity to participate in the formulation and implementation of EU development policies.
During three days, Nordic NGOs met with the EU institutions (the European Parliament and the Commission) and selected European NGOs (Concord Europe, Eurostep, EEPA), as well as the countries’ permanent representations in Brussels. In addition to more general overviews of how the policy process works, some of the meetings had a specific focus on the upcoming EP elections and the EU’s work on policy coherence for development.
As in previous years, the participants considered most valuable the meetings with their Permanent Representations and deputies in the European Parliament. Out of the numerous meetings with the EU institutions, the presentation by Anna Caprile from the European Parliament Development Committee was especially appreciated for its informativeness and objectivity.
The participants also valued the opportunity to meet their colleagues from other FEST countries – a majority of the participants found the trip to have been an important networking possibility. Now just 4 months away from its end, the study trip was the last bigger international event in the 3-year history of FEST. Networking between the three countries will still be continued via the project’s cross-border mentoring programme.
Information provided by Maarja Toots, FEST co-ordinator in Estonia
New DAC list of ODA Recipients
The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been collecting data on aid flows since 1961. The new list of ODA recipients, effective for reporting on 2008, 2009 and 2010 flows, has just been released.
The lists of aid recipients the committee publishes have changed shape several times over the years, to reflect new political and economic situations, and the ‘DAC List of Aid Recipients’ was introduced in 1993.
To begin with there were two parts to the list: aid to traditional developing countries, which was counted as ODA and which has the long-standing UN target of 0.7% of a country’s income; and aid to more advanced developing countries, which was classified as ‘official aid’.
The list was reviewed every three years, and successive revisions reflected global changes, including the transitions of countries in central Europe becoming EU members and donors themselves. In 2005, the DAC decided to maintain only part one of the list; the ‘List of ODA Recipients’.
The DAC List of ODA Recipients as at 1 January 2009, which was approved in September 2008, is now available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/62/48/41655745.pdf
For more information on the DAC list and its history visit: http://www.oecd.org/document/45/0,3343,en_2649_34447_2093101_1_1_1_1,00.html
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
The lists of aid recipients the committee publishes have changed shape several times over the years, to reflect new political and economic situations, and the ‘DAC List of Aid Recipients’ was introduced in 1993.
To begin with there were two parts to the list: aid to traditional developing countries, which was counted as ODA and which has the long-standing UN target of 0.7% of a country’s income; and aid to more advanced developing countries, which was classified as ‘official aid’.
The list was reviewed every three years, and successive revisions reflected global changes, including the transitions of countries in central Europe becoming EU members and donors themselves. In 2005, the DAC decided to maintain only part one of the list; the ‘List of ODA Recipients’.
The DAC List of ODA Recipients as at 1 January 2009, which was approved in September 2008, is now available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/62/48/41655745.pdf
For more information on the DAC list and its history visit: http://www.oecd.org/document/45/0,3343,en_2649_34447_2093101_1_1_1_1,00.html
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
Eurobarometer on the 2009 European Elections
The recently-published Eurobarometer on the 2009 elections has presented its findings on awareness of and interest in the European elections. The survey also looked at likely levels of voting, voting criteria and the campaign themes that are attracting voters.
Face to face interviews were carried out in each of the 27 EU member states and the information was compiled to see whether attitudes and trends have changed. The aim of the survey was to see whether the 2009 elections will be truly European or simply an accumulation of 27 national elections.
Surveys were carried out around 18 months before the elections, and then again around a year before. Compared with the first wave of interviews, ‘awarenesss of the date of the European elections has improved’ but given that this only represents 16% compared with 10%, overall ‘European citizens are not particularly aware of this event.’ This result was not split along lines of older and newer member states. Luxembourg and Slovakia were near the top of the poll, with 43% and 32% of their citizens knowing the elections were to be held next year; while only 8% of Bulgarian, and just 3% of Finnish and British respondents knew the year.
When talking about interest in the elections however, the survey notes that ‘in numerous new member states, an absolute majority of respondents are not interested in the European elections.’ This is also true of British respondents, who are notoriously uninterested in a wide range of European matters.
The survey found that in countries with a long tradition of European political life, European criteria were more important than national criteria when asked how they would choose which candidate to vote for. In new member states however, respondents gave priority to candidates’ positions on national issues, presumably because of ‘the relative newness of European political life in these countries’.
In terms of campaign themes, Europeans want to see a primary focus on economic themes, then on global and security-related themes and finally on themes related directly to the EU. One issue where there is a clear divide between old and newer member states is agriculture.
The survey concludes by noting that the two main challenges of the 2009 European elections will be ‘to inform European citizens about the European Parliament’s role and the ability of candidates to offer practical solutions at European level to the economic crisis.’
The full Eurobarometer report is available from: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_299_en.pdf
For more information (eg. a summary or country fiches in national languages) see:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb_special_en.htm#299
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
Face to face interviews were carried out in each of the 27 EU member states and the information was compiled to see whether attitudes and trends have changed. The aim of the survey was to see whether the 2009 elections will be truly European or simply an accumulation of 27 national elections.
Surveys were carried out around 18 months before the elections, and then again around a year before. Compared with the first wave of interviews, ‘awarenesss of the date of the European elections has improved’ but given that this only represents 16% compared with 10%, overall ‘European citizens are not particularly aware of this event.’ This result was not split along lines of older and newer member states. Luxembourg and Slovakia were near the top of the poll, with 43% and 32% of their citizens knowing the elections were to be held next year; while only 8% of Bulgarian, and just 3% of Finnish and British respondents knew the year.
When talking about interest in the elections however, the survey notes that ‘in numerous new member states, an absolute majority of respondents are not interested in the European elections.’ This is also true of British respondents, who are notoriously uninterested in a wide range of European matters.
The survey found that in countries with a long tradition of European political life, European criteria were more important than national criteria when asked how they would choose which candidate to vote for. In new member states however, respondents gave priority to candidates’ positions on national issues, presumably because of ‘the relative newness of European political life in these countries’.
In terms of campaign themes, Europeans want to see a primary focus on economic themes, then on global and security-related themes and finally on themes related directly to the EU. One issue where there is a clear divide between old and newer member states is agriculture.
The survey concludes by noting that the two main challenges of the 2009 European elections will be ‘to inform European citizens about the European Parliament’s role and the ability of candidates to offer practical solutions at European level to the economic crisis.’
The full Eurobarometer report is available from: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_299_en.pdf
For more information (eg. a summary or country fiches in national languages) see:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb_special_en.htm#299
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
Tutors Call - GLEN 2009
The new GLEN cycle 2009 starts very soon. The call for tutors for GLEN 2009 is open now - for both, the English and the French speaking group. Download the calls from the following links:
http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/call-for-tutors-glen2009.pdf (English)
http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/call-for-tutors-glen2009-fr.pdf (French)
Experience with GLEN and involvement in one of the GLEN partner organisations is a strong advantage. Submit your application to Kasia Szeniawska (kasia.szeniawska@gmail.com), co-ordinator of GLEN at European level, until January 8, 2009.
Find more information on GLEN at: http://www.glen-europe.org/
Information provided by Laure Heinrich, InWEnt
http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/call-for-tutors-glen2009.pdf (English)
http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/call-for-tutors-glen2009-fr.pdf (French)
Experience with GLEN and involvement in one of the GLEN partner organisations is a strong advantage. Submit your application to Kasia Szeniawska (kasia.szeniawska@gmail.com), co-ordinator of GLEN at European level, until January 8, 2009.
Find more information on GLEN at: http://www.glen-europe.org/
Information provided by Laure Heinrich, InWEnt
CONCORD Flash and Working Groups Newsletter
The latest October issue of the CONCORD Flash reports news from the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development.
In this issue:
- Don’t forget world hunger, urge development NGOs
- Almost 100 national NGO platforms gather in Paris
- NGOs: how can you communicate better with your members?
- Coming soon: the 2009 Czech presidency
- Breaking a record: more than 116 million people Stood Up against poverty
- European civil society challenges the EC on the lobbying register
- Young Africans win the "World Views on Europe" competition
… and more.
You can download the Flash from the publication section of the CONCORD website http://www.concordeurope.org/ or use the direct link: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/internetdocumentsENG/4_Publications/1_CONCORD_Flash/Flash2008/October-Flash-En.pdf
The latest CONCORD Working Groups newsletter reports about the work of all CONCORD working groups and projects such as DEEEP and TRIALOG during the first semester of 2008 (January-June). Download the publication from: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/extranetdocumentsENG/NavigationPrincipale/06.Publications/WG-Newsletter-10---1st-semester-2008-EN.doc
Information provided by Agnes Philippart and Guenola Henry, CONCORD.
In this issue:
- Don’t forget world hunger, urge development NGOs
- Almost 100 national NGO platforms gather in Paris
- NGOs: how can you communicate better with your members?
- Coming soon: the 2009 Czech presidency
- Breaking a record: more than 116 million people Stood Up against poverty
- European civil society challenges the EC on the lobbying register
- Young Africans win the "World Views on Europe" competition
… and more.
You can download the Flash from the publication section of the CONCORD website http://www.concordeurope.org/ or use the direct link: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/internetdocumentsENG/4_Publications/1_CONCORD_Flash/Flash2008/October-Flash-En.pdf
The latest CONCORD Working Groups newsletter reports about the work of all CONCORD working groups and projects such as DEEEP and TRIALOG during the first semester of 2008 (January-June). Download the publication from: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/extranetdocumentsENG/NavigationPrincipale/06.Publications/WG-Newsletter-10---1st-semester-2008-EN.doc
Information provided by Agnes Philippart and Guenola Henry, CONCORD.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
CEE Trust: Civil Society Forum
The Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE Trust) is initiating a discussion about the state, the role and the future of civil society in Post-Communist Europe.
To join the Civil Society Forum and to give your input, you can visit http://ceetrust.org/civil-society-forum.html
Information provided by CEE Trust, trust@info.ceetrust.org
To join the Civil Society Forum and to give your input, you can visit http://ceetrust.org/civil-society-forum.html
Information provided by CEE Trust, trust@info.ceetrust.org
Christmas and New Year office closure; Reimbursements
Please note that the TRIALOG Vienna and Brussels offices will be closed between December 22 and January 6. From January 7 onwards, we will again be at your disposal.
We would also like to inform you that the last reimbursements before the Christmas/New Year's break will be made on December 16. Please be aware that all open reimbursement claims which do not reach our Vienna office before December 12, will be processed only in January 2009.
Thank you for your understanding. The next TRIALOG Information Service (TIS) will come out in January 2009. Early Season's Greetings to everybody from our team!
We would also like to inform you that the last reimbursements before the Christmas/New Year's break will be made on December 16. Please be aware that all open reimbursement claims which do not reach our Vienna office before December 12, will be processed only in January 2009.
Thank you for your understanding. The next TRIALOG Information Service (TIS) will come out in January 2009. Early Season's Greetings to everybody from our team!
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
UNDP announces 2009 Procurement Training Calendar
United Nations Development Programme offers procurement-related training courses to staff in NGOs, inter-governmental organizations, the UN system, development banks and their borrowers, and governments. The following courses are offered regularly in Bangkok, Copenhagen, Dubai, New York and Vienna:- Fundamentals of Public Procurement
- Procurement Strategy Development
- Contract and Supplier Relations Management
- Logistics and Incoterms
- Risk Management in Contracting for Construction Services
- Effective Negotiations in Projects and Procurement
In addition to these regularly scheduled courses, all training courses can also be delivered at your preferred location and time on cost recovery basis. UNDP can also collaborate with you to deliver tailor-made courses to meet your specific needs.
To download the 2009 Calendar or Course Catalogue, for more information about tailor-made options and to register on-line, go to the UNDP procurement training website: http://www.undp.org/procurement/training.shtml.
In case of any further questions, please email to: procurement.training@undp.org.
Information provided by Michelle Cumming Lokkegard, UNDP Procurement Support OfficeFriday, 31 October 2008
First conference and TRIALOG workshop on development cooperation in Macedonia
The conference under the title "Development Cooperation in the EU Integration Process” was held in Skopje, Macedonia on 21st October, 2008. The conference was organized by TRIALOG in cooperation with 3 local civil society organisations (CSOs) - Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC), Macedonian Helsinki Committee (MHC) and Sigme7.The aim of the public conference was to raise awareness on EU development policies and to assess the required steps and actions in order for Macedonia to be able to actively participate in this field as a future EU member state. The conference was addressed by Mr. Ivica Bocevski, Vice-Prime Minister in charge of EU Integration, from the Government of the Republic of Macedonia. In his keynote address Mr. Bocevski stressed: “The Government is open to inputs from CSOs on issues relating to development” and added that the relationship between the Government and CSOs is the key to fully utilizing development capacities in the country. The conference was attended by around 40 representatives of CSOs, ministries, universities, international organizations and media.
The second day featured a workshop for interested CSOs to discuss the current situation, needs and possibilities for their future engagement in development cooperation. In the workshop entitled "Macedonian CSOs' future role in EU Development Cooperation" the participants learned more about the activities of NGDO platforms in Europe as well as current possibilities for their concrete involvement on project-level (Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development programme). At the end, concrete steps were agreed among 19 CSO representatives for further steps such as exchange of information, identification of best practices and identification of further organizations interested in future cooperation, meetings, study visits, roundtables etc. on development issues, and in working towards a possible creation of a Macedonian NGDO platform.
For further information, please contact TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer, Petra Kreinecker, p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at or MCIC Project Officer, Tanja Hafner Ademi, thf@mcms.org.mk
Links:
MCIC website, http://www.mcms.org.mk/
MHC website, http://www.mhc.org.mk/
Information provided by Tanja Hafner Ademi, MCIC, thf@mcms.org.mk
The EPAN Working Group meets again
Members of the CONCORD working group on Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood (EPAN) which is convened by TRIALOG met in the middle of October for one of the group’s twice-yearly meetings in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. The agenda included updates on the group’s work since the last meeting and brainstorming of ideas for next year’s work plan.
The group is divided into two subgroups. One focuses on the EU’s neighbourhood policy, and is currently preparing for the funding instrument’s (ENPI) mid term review next year through two case studies, looking at the situation in two neighbouring countries – Egypt and Ukraine. The second subgroup is working on pre-accession issues, including access of civil society organisations to funding under the relevant instrument (IPA) and preparing ways to contribute to this instrument’s mid term review in 2010.
The meeting agenda covered points related to CONCORD processes, such as the strategic framework that is currently being drafted, and preparations for the European elections 2009.
Other highlights were provided by the guest speakers – one from the city’s university, who gave an academic perspective of the current situation in Georgia; and a second from an organisation providing training to government departments in the Western Balkans.
The group elected two new members into the steering group, and has a long list of interesting things to do before it meets again as a full working group in March 2009, in Brussels.
For more information please contact TRIALOG Policy Officer, Rebecca Steel: Rebecca.Steel@concordeurope.org
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
The group is divided into two subgroups. One focuses on the EU’s neighbourhood policy, and is currently preparing for the funding instrument’s (ENPI) mid term review next year through two case studies, looking at the situation in two neighbouring countries – Egypt and Ukraine. The second subgroup is working on pre-accession issues, including access of civil society organisations to funding under the relevant instrument (IPA) and preparing ways to contribute to this instrument’s mid term review in 2010.
The meeting agenda covered points related to CONCORD processes, such as the strategic framework that is currently being drafted, and preparations for the European elections 2009.
Other highlights were provided by the guest speakers – one from the city’s university, who gave an academic perspective of the current situation in Georgia; and a second from an organisation providing training to government departments in the Western Balkans.
The group elected two new members into the steering group, and has a long list of interesting things to do before it meets again as a full working group in March 2009, in Brussels.
For more information please contact TRIALOG Policy Officer, Rebecca Steel: Rebecca.Steel@concordeurope.org
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
Nov./Dec. 2008: TRIALOG training on EC funded development education projects
The EC Call for Proposals in "Public Awareness and Education for Development in Europe" within the "Non-State Actors and Local Authorities programme" is expected to be launched in November or December 2008. In preparation of this upcoming Call, TRIALOG will hold 3 decentralised training events: one in Latvia and two in cooperation with the "Global Initiative on Psychiatry" in Lithuania and Bulgaria, with the aim to prepare local development NGOs to actively participate in the EC call, to be aware of all related issues and successfully develop project proposals, possibly together with other European partners.
The training events will focus on the following issues:
- Introduction into the topic of “Development Education and Awareness Raising”
- Introduction into European funding posssibilities, with focus on the budgetline “Non State Actors - Local Authorities”
- Partner search for EU-funded development education projects in Europe
- Explanation of the guidelines (Call for Proposal 2008)
- Elements of the logframe
- Eligible costs and the (EU-project-)budget
The dates for the training events are:
Vilnius (Lithuania): November 11-12
Riga (Latvia): November 25-27
Sofia (Bulgaria): December 4-5
Local development NGOs who would still like to register for one of the trainings, please contact TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Petra Kreinecker at p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at or get in touch with your national NGDO platform representatives.
The training events will focus on the following issues:
- Introduction into the topic of “Development Education and Awareness Raising”
- Introduction into European funding posssibilities, with focus on the budgetline “Non State Actors - Local Authorities”
- Partner search for EU-funded development education projects in Europe
- Explanation of the guidelines (Call for Proposal 2008)
- Elements of the logframe
- Eligible costs and the (EU-project-)budget
The dates for the training events are:
Vilnius (Lithuania): November 11-12
Riga (Latvia): November 25-27
Sofia (Bulgaria): December 4-5
Local development NGOs who would still like to register for one of the trainings, please contact TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Petra Kreinecker at p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at or get in touch with your national NGDO platform representatives.
New EC website for the search of Call for Proposals
The EC has renewed its webpage with the searching function on Call for Proposals, which you can now find under the following address:
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?do=publi.welcome
What´s new?
The selection criteria are mainly the same, but additionally you have the possibility to limit the date-related search with the function “published before” and “published after”. The menue “Programme” allows a better overview due to a new subdivision into regional and thematic programmes.
Therefore you will now find the Calls for Proposals of the thematic programmes under their own headings, that means you will find all related Calls for “Non-state actors and local authorities” under that specific title (and no more under “others”).
Information provided by bengo; bengo eu-mail-info Nr. 239: 29.10.2008
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?do=publi.welcome
What´s new?
The selection criteria are mainly the same, but additionally you have the possibility to limit the date-related search with the function “published before” and “published after”. The menue “Programme” allows a better overview due to a new subdivision into regional and thematic programmes.
Therefore you will now find the Calls for Proposals of the thematic programmes under their own headings, that means you will find all related Calls for “Non-state actors and local authorities” under that specific title (and no more under “others”).
Information provided by bengo; bengo eu-mail-info Nr. 239: 29.10.2008
New DEEEP Development Education Advocacy Toolkit
How to convince decision makers to support development education? The brand new Development Education (DE) Advocacy Toolkit, published by DEEEP, the Development Education Exchange in Europe Project, provides solid arguments and strategic advice on how to promote development education towards politicians, state authorities and within civil society organisations.
It consists of three parts:
• Arguments recalls the definition of development education and its relation to other fields like global learning or citizenship education. It outlines in eight arguments why development education is important and provides links to more detailed background information. Furthermore, it gives an overview on the situation of global education strategies and funding in Europe.
• Methods is a training module on advocacy strategy planning, including tips for successful lobbying and practical advice on meeting with decision makers.
• Examples shows three successful advocacy processes which led to better recognition of development education: The European multi stakeholder process, the way towards a national DE strategy in Spain and the strengthened support of the Polish government for DE.
The toolkit will be updated regularly in order to include latest data and evidence. You can download it for free from the DEEEP website: http://www.deeep.org/advocacytoolkit.html
For further information, contact: Tobias Troll, DEEEP Advocacy officer, at t.troll@deeep.org
Source: DE Times-October 2008, http://www.deeep.org/
It consists of three parts:
• Arguments recalls the definition of development education and its relation to other fields like global learning or citizenship education. It outlines in eight arguments why development education is important and provides links to more detailed background information. Furthermore, it gives an overview on the situation of global education strategies and funding in Europe.
• Methods is a training module on advocacy strategy planning, including tips for successful lobbying and practical advice on meeting with decision makers.
• Examples shows three successful advocacy processes which led to better recognition of development education: The European multi stakeholder process, the way towards a national DE strategy in Spain and the strengthened support of the Polish government for DE.
The toolkit will be updated regularly in order to include latest data and evidence. You can download it for free from the DEEEP website: http://www.deeep.org/advocacytoolkit.html
For further information, contact: Tobias Troll, DEEEP Advocacy officer, at t.troll@deeep.org
Source: DE Times-October 2008, http://www.deeep.org/
CONCORD Manifesto for the 2009 European Parliament Elections
In June 2009 more than a half billion citizens of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) will elect their representatives to the European Parliament for the 2009-2014 term. On this occasion, the CONCORD manifesto identifies and discusses three essential EU objectives, namely sustainable development, more and better development aid and democratic accountability and urges Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to act on them.
Trade, agriculture, environment, migration and many other policies have an impact on sustainable development. Yet, these policies have not sufficiently and directly contributed to poverty eradication and the promotion of human rights at the EU, as well as the global level. In addition, the fact that the implementation of these policies exacerbates the situation of people outside the EU is very often ignored.
To promote a responsible Europe, the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development CONCORD calls for a partnership between civil society and the European Parliament in order to uphold the right to sustainable development and responsible citizenship. In this regard, we believe that particular attention needs to be paid to climate justice and gender issues.
The CONCORD Manifesto is available at: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/internetdocumentsENG/4_Publications/3_CONCORDs_positions_and_studies/CONCORD-EU-MANIFESTO-FINAL.pdf
For further information please contact Melis Alguadis melis.alguadis@concordeurope.org
Source: http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=4&language=eng
Trade, agriculture, environment, migration and many other policies have an impact on sustainable development. Yet, these policies have not sufficiently and directly contributed to poverty eradication and the promotion of human rights at the EU, as well as the global level. In addition, the fact that the implementation of these policies exacerbates the situation of people outside the EU is very often ignored.
To promote a responsible Europe, the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development CONCORD calls for a partnership between civil society and the European Parliament in order to uphold the right to sustainable development and responsible citizenship. In this regard, we believe that particular attention needs to be paid to climate justice and gender issues.
The CONCORD Manifesto is available at: http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/internetdocumentsENG/4_Publications/3_CONCORDs_positions_and_studies/CONCORD-EU-MANIFESTO-FINAL.pdf
For further information please contact Melis Alguadis melis.alguadis@concordeurope.org
Source: http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=4&language=eng
Thursday, 30 October 2008
NGDO Experts meeting on civil dialogue in Ljubljana
The experts meeting "Strengthening dialogue on global development affairs between civil society and government” was held in Ljubljana on 22 – 23 October 2008. The event was organised by SLOGA, the Slovenian NGDO platform, in cooperation with the Austrian, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak NGDO platforms in the framework of the Regional Partnership Programme (RPP).
The aim of the meeting was to exchange experiences of different civil dialogue practices on global development affairs in Europe. The outcome was a framework for effective civil dialogue in the RPP participating countries. Among the participants were representatives of the Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, Irish and Slovenian NGDO platforms, as well as a representative of Eurostep, the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration.
The debates were focused on advantages and disadvantages of various civil dialogue types (structured vs. informal) according to the experiences of the participating platform and governmental representatives, and on possible improvements of development consultation processes. It was stressed that the RPP significantly contributed to the establishment of civil dialogue with the ministries responsible for development cooperation in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary and Slovenia, and improved NGDO abilities for advocacy work.
After the meeting, the platforms shall now work on the implementation of the proposed framework for dialogue. The implementation shall be adopted to the national circumstances, based on answers to the following questions:
-what is the communication culture in our country? Is informal consultation with state officials on the basis of personal contacts common or is our cooperation with the government regulated by law? Should we have a combination of both dialogue practices?
-what is our expertise? What kind of expertise does our government expect from us?
-should we become more flexible within the platform in order to shorten the reaction time to respond to the government?
-should our government work more on securing the NGDOs voice in the decision-making?
For further information please visit:
SLOGA webpage: http://www.sloga-platform.org/
RPP webpage: http://www.eu-platform.at/english/start.asp?b=872
Information provided by Anja Mesic, SLOGA, anja.mesic@sloga-platform.org
The aim of the meeting was to exchange experiences of different civil dialogue practices on global development affairs in Europe. The outcome was a framework for effective civil dialogue in the RPP participating countries. Among the participants were representatives of the Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, Irish and Slovenian NGDO platforms, as well as a representative of Eurostep, the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration.
The debates were focused on advantages and disadvantages of various civil dialogue types (structured vs. informal) according to the experiences of the participating platform and governmental representatives, and on possible improvements of development consultation processes. It was stressed that the RPP significantly contributed to the establishment of civil dialogue with the ministries responsible for development cooperation in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary and Slovenia, and improved NGDO abilities for advocacy work.
After the meeting, the platforms shall now work on the implementation of the proposed framework for dialogue. The implementation shall be adopted to the national circumstances, based on answers to the following questions:
-what is the communication culture in our country? Is informal consultation with state officials on the basis of personal contacts common or is our cooperation with the government regulated by law? Should we have a combination of both dialogue practices?
-what is our expertise? What kind of expertise does our government expect from us?
-should we become more flexible within the platform in order to shorten the reaction time to respond to the government?
-should our government work more on securing the NGDOs voice in the decision-making?
For further information please visit:
SLOGA webpage: http://www.sloga-platform.org/
RPP webpage: http://www.eu-platform.at/english/start.asp?b=872
Information provided by Anja Mesic, SLOGA, anja.mesic@sloga-platform.org
World without poverty: Development day in Bratislava
The Bratislava development day took place on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October 2008 in the premises of the University Library of Bratislava. The event consisted of two parts – an official one and attendant events.
The official part was arranged as an interactive public discussion, based on existing experience of Slovak organizations actively involved in development cooperation and focused on topics related to the Slovak Official Development Assistance system, including upcoming steps of Slovakia as a donor country, which are necessary to reach the Millennium Development Goals. Apart from the panel on "Slovakia and Development Cooperation", another panel and discussion dealt with the "Global Dimension of Development Cooperation".
International guests from the beneficiary countries as well as other development cooperation experts guaranteed a highly professional debate. The audience highly appreciated the presence of very interesting international guests - Mary Alice Onyura, Director of the Rescue Dada Centre (Mwangaza rehabilitation centre for drug addicted street children) from Nairobi, Muturi Mwangi, farmer and Member of Kenyan National Parliament and Louis Michel, Commissioner responsible for Development and Humanitarian Aid, European Commission.
In parallel with the official part, the attendant events comprised stands of member NGOs of the Slovak NGDO platform MVRO incl. the possibility to buy fair trade products, a photo exhibition about Kenya and South Sudan, paintings by young articsts from Nairobi etc. The programme was concluded by short movie screenings about development aid topics and a "volunteer fair" with volunteers presenting their experiences and informing about volunteer opportunities.
The Development Day in Bratislava was organized within the project „Building support in Austria and Slovakia for reaching the Millenium Development Goals“, financed by the European Commission and Slovak Aid. Find more information about the event on the website of the Slovak NGDO platform MVRO: http://www.mvro.sk/humanitarian-aid-world-without-poverty-development-day.html
Information provided by Lenka Nemcova, MVRO
The official part was arranged as an interactive public discussion, based on existing experience of Slovak organizations actively involved in development cooperation and focused on topics related to the Slovak Official Development Assistance system, including upcoming steps of Slovakia as a donor country, which are necessary to reach the Millennium Development Goals. Apart from the panel on "Slovakia and Development Cooperation", another panel and discussion dealt with the "Global Dimension of Development Cooperation".
International guests from the beneficiary countries as well as other development cooperation experts guaranteed a highly professional debate. The audience highly appreciated the presence of very interesting international guests - Mary Alice Onyura, Director of the Rescue Dada Centre (Mwangaza rehabilitation centre for drug addicted street children) from Nairobi, Muturi Mwangi, farmer and Member of Kenyan National Parliament and Louis Michel, Commissioner responsible for Development and Humanitarian Aid, European Commission.
In parallel with the official part, the attendant events comprised stands of member NGOs of the Slovak NGDO platform MVRO incl. the possibility to buy fair trade products, a photo exhibition about Kenya and South Sudan, paintings by young articsts from Nairobi etc. The programme was concluded by short movie screenings about development aid topics and a "volunteer fair" with volunteers presenting their experiences and informing about volunteer opportunities.
The Development Day in Bratislava was organized within the project „Building support in Austria and Slovakia for reaching the Millenium Development Goals“, financed by the European Commission and Slovak Aid. Find more information about the event on the website of the Slovak NGDO platform MVRO: http://www.mvro.sk/humanitarian-aid-world-without-poverty-development-day.html
Information provided by Lenka Nemcova, MVRO
Evaluation conference of the Regional Partnership Programme in Budapest
The Regional Partnership Programme (RPP) was a unique initiative of the Austrian platform (now called "Global responsibility") focusing on development cooperation among 5 European countries: Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria. The aim of the RPP, that started in 2005 and is finishing at the end of 2008, was to strengthen the capacities and the visibility of development cooperation in the participating Central European countries as well as to improve cooperation between them at the regional level.
A pilot project fund with the amount of EUR 1.100.000 was made available, financed jointly by the Austrian Development Cooperation (70%) and by the governments (20%) and NGDOs (10%) of
all participating countries. Through these calls for proposals for pilot projects, some of the "newcomer" NGDOs were for the first time able to gain applicable knowledge in proposal writing, reporting and implementation of development projects.
The RPP evaluation conference, held in Budapest on 25-26 September 2008, proved that the programme was a great success for the participating new member states and their platforms. The conference was a good opportunity for exchanging experiences made during the RPP among pilot project holders as well as their respective platforms and the official governmental representatives. Many of the pilot project holders stressed that the partnership with an Austrian NGDO, that was a precondition when applying for a project, allowed a mutual learning experience and facilitated networking that can be used for future cooperation. On the whole, 58 projects – 35 on development awareness and 23 on development cooperation were funded, with 53 different organisations participating from 5 countries.
In the framework of the RPP also a number of workshops and trainings has been organised to increase the capacities of platforms, eg. on "understanding EU development cooperation" and workshops on advocacy, lobbying and networking. Experience sharing among platforms proved to be very helpful, since many participants were facing similar problems with establishing a sustainable dialogue with the official side. The RPP proved to be a useful bridge between old and new member states. The programme contributed to cross border networking among platforms and opened up a forum for dialogue between MFAs and platforms. Therefore, a concept for continuing the cooperation will be developed among platforms and governments.
Find out more about the Budapest conference and RPP activities under http://www.eu-platform.at/english/start.asp?b=872
Download the brochure "Learning by doing" which summarises RPP activities from 2005-2008: http://doku.cac.at/rpp_broschure_a5_druckfertig_ansicht.pdf
Information provided by Danijela Janosevic, RPP
A pilot project fund with the amount of EUR 1.100.000 was made available, financed jointly by the Austrian Development Cooperation (70%) and by the governments (20%) and NGDOs (10%) of
all participating countries. Through these calls for proposals for pilot projects, some of the "newcomer" NGDOs were for the first time able to gain applicable knowledge in proposal writing, reporting and implementation of development projects.The RPP evaluation conference, held in Budapest on 25-26 September 2008, proved that the programme was a great success for the participating new member states and their platforms. The conference was a good opportunity for exchanging experiences made during the RPP among pilot project holders as well as their respective platforms and the official governmental representatives. Many of the pilot project holders stressed that the partnership with an Austrian NGDO, that was a precondition when applying for a project, allowed a mutual learning experience and facilitated networking that can be used for future cooperation. On the whole, 58 projects – 35 on development awareness and 23 on development cooperation were funded, with 53 different organisations participating from 5 countries.
In the framework of the RPP also a number of workshops and trainings has been organised to increase the capacities of platforms, eg. on "understanding EU development cooperation" and workshops on advocacy, lobbying and networking. Experience sharing among platforms proved to be very helpful, since many participants were facing similar problems with establishing a sustainable dialogue with the official side. The RPP proved to be a useful bridge between old and new member states. The programme contributed to cross border networking among platforms and opened up a forum for dialogue between MFAs and platforms. Therefore, a concept for continuing the cooperation will be developed among platforms and governments.
Find out more about the Budapest conference and RPP activities under http://www.eu-platform.at/english/start.asp?b=872
Download the brochure "Learning by doing" which summarises RPP activities from 2005-2008: http://doku.cac.at/rpp_broschure_a5_druckfertig_ansicht.pdf
Information provided by Danijela Janosevic, RPP
European NGOs challenge the EU on the financial crisis’ impact on the poor
Against the backdrop of rising food prices and a growing global economic crisis with detrimental impact on the world’s poor, European development Ministers convened at an informal meeting in Bordeaux. European civil society representatives addressed the ministers, urging them to fulfil their responsibilities to increase financial flows to developing countries, as well as actions to clamp down on capital flight.
CONCORD, the European Confederation of Development NGOs urged ministers to agree an ambitious and specific common EU position for the United Nations “Financing for Development” summit which starts on 29 November. Citizens in developing countries have little impact on the decisions of global traders who have abused and destabilised the financial system, but they will feel the effects of the financial crisis for years to come. The civil society organisations present in Bordeaux called for low-income countries to also be represented at the proposed Bretton Woods II conference to ensure their interests are represented when the financial system is reviewed.
Henri Rouille d’Orfeuil, President of Coordination SUD, the platform of French development NGOs, commented “It is essential that at this time of crisis Europe looks for a way forward, and does not signal that it is walking away from its political commitments and abandoning developing countries.”
“Money leaked through capital flight from developing countries to rich countries is an estimated 300 billion euros per year,” says Alex Wilks, Director of the European Network on Debt and Development. “This is an unforgiveable situation, and European governments must immediately take action to regulate the many European tax havens.”
CONCORD called upon EU Member States to agree a strong and unified European position on the Doha Financing for Development process. They urged heads of State to attend the conference in November to ensure real progress can be made in reforming the financial system in the interests of all citizens in Europe and in developing countries.
For further information, please visit http://www.concordeurope.org/
Source: CONCORD Press release, 30th September, 2008; Information provided by Agnes Philippart, CONCORD
CONCORD, the European Confederation of Development NGOs urged ministers to agree an ambitious and specific common EU position for the United Nations “Financing for Development” summit which starts on 29 November. Citizens in developing countries have little impact on the decisions of global traders who have abused and destabilised the financial system, but they will feel the effects of the financial crisis for years to come. The civil society organisations present in Bordeaux called for low-income countries to also be represented at the proposed Bretton Woods II conference to ensure their interests are represented when the financial system is reviewed.
Henri Rouille d’Orfeuil, President of Coordination SUD, the platform of French development NGOs, commented “It is essential that at this time of crisis Europe looks for a way forward, and does not signal that it is walking away from its political commitments and abandoning developing countries.”
“Money leaked through capital flight from developing countries to rich countries is an estimated 300 billion euros per year,” says Alex Wilks, Director of the European Network on Debt and Development. “This is an unforgiveable situation, and European governments must immediately take action to regulate the many European tax havens.”
CONCORD called upon EU Member States to agree a strong and unified European position on the Doha Financing for Development process. They urged heads of State to attend the conference in November to ensure real progress can be made in reforming the financial system in the interests of all citizens in Europe and in developing countries.
For further information, please visit http://www.concordeurope.org/
Source: CONCORD Press release, 30th September, 2008; Information provided by Agnes Philippart, CONCORD
The EU and its neighbourhood in a changing world
The Polish think tank, demosEUROPA – Centre for European Strategy, has published a report/policy paper about "The European Union and its neighbourhood in a changing world. Defining a new strategic relationship with the Eastern and Southern neighbours." The publication is available by following this link:
http://www.demoseuropa.eu/upload/editor/demos/File/demosEUROPA_The%20European%20Union%20and%20its%20neighbourhood%20in%20a%20changing%20world..pdf
Information provided by Marta Pejda, Polish NGDO platform Grupa Zagranica, marta@zagranica.org.pl
http://www.demoseuropa.eu/upload/editor/demos/File/demosEUROPA_The%20European%20Union%20and%20its%20neighbourhood%20in%20a%20changing%20world..pdf
Information provided by Marta Pejda, Polish NGDO platform Grupa Zagranica, marta@zagranica.org.pl
Joint EC funded project to stop malaria calls for public support
Malaria continues to be a major threat to health and development in many endemic countries, leading to about 1 million deaths annually. STOP MALARIA NOW! is a two-year awareness campaign of nine non-governmental organisations from Germany, Italy, Kenya, Poland, Spain and Switzerland aiming to increase awareness about malaria and to remind European decision-makers of the urgency to act in order to prevent more than one million malaria-deaths every year and to combat malaria in the long-run. The search for a new member state partner in the project consortium was facilitated by TRIALOG and the cooperation with the Polish NGO further deepened during a TRIALOG training in preparation of the EC Call to which the consortium applied successfully.
With the slogan “Show your face against malaria” STOP MALARIA NOW! calls for public support to increase political, strategic, and financial commitments on behalf of European governments to fight the illness. Everyone is encouraged to upload his or her photo on the campaign website as a sign of support. All photos will be included in an Africa-shaped photo mosaic, which will be handed to the European Commission and other relevant decision-makers at the end of 2009. Every single photo makes a difference.
Join campaigners across the globe and be a part of an international action against malaria. Take action and show your face against malaria using the following link: http://www.stopmalarianow.org/your-face.html
For further information please contact Antje Mangelsdorf, Project Coordinator, STOP MALARIA NOW! at: info@stopmalarianow.org
Information provided by Antje Mangelsdorf, STOP MALARIA NOW!
Join campaigners across the globe and be a part of an international action against malaria. Take action and show your face against malaria using the following link: http://www.stopmalarianow.org/your-face.html
For further information please contact Antje Mangelsdorf, Project Coordinator, STOP MALARIA NOW! at: info@stopmalarianow.org
Information provided by Antje Mangelsdorf, STOP MALARIA NOW!
Volunteer Network Project in Cyprus
Every year thousands and thousands of people volunteer for different causes all over the world. It has become a ‘second nature’ of individuals to offer their services to the many sectors that always need volunteers - whether it is the health sector, education sector, environment sector, arts and culture sector, youth or development sector.
As it has been seen worldwide what volunteers can achieve for a good cause, the Turkish Cypriot organisation 'The Management Centre' along with the Greek Cypriot partner 'The NGO Support Centre' has been implementing the Voluntee
r Network Project within the island in order to raise awareness for volunteerism. Nearly all civil society organisations (CSOs) in Cyprus require the assistance of volunteers to help them meet their organisations' goals.
r Network Project within the island in order to raise awareness for volunteerism. Nearly all civil society organisations (CSOs) in Cyprus require the assistance of volunteers to help them meet their organisations' goals. Through extensive advertising of the volunteer network project, posters, brochures and stickers have been created and disseminated to all ends of the island. Meetings with a steering committee and an advisiory board have been convened throughout the lifecycle of the project so that the project team has always been in touch with what the CSOs wanted to achieve and what they understood by the term ‘volunteer’. Television advertisements and radio annoucements have been accepted by most of the media who supported the projects aims. The project has already managed to match individuals with CSOs and still continues to do so.
A volunteer website http://www.volunteercyprus.org/ has been established and is frequently updated. A database of CSOs needing volunteers and individuals that want to be a volunteer has been created and will be uploaded to the website.
For further details on the island-wide project and how to become a volunteer in Cyprus please contact Tulin Aker taker@mc-med.org or Tanyel Oktar toktar@mc-med.org.
For further details on the island-wide project and how to become a volunteer in Cyprus please contact Tulin Aker taker@mc-med.org or Tanyel Oktar toktar@mc-med.org.
Information provided by Tulin Aker, taker@mc-med.org
Millenium Development Goals Report 2008
According to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals Report 2008, "the world has made strong and sustained progress in reducing extreme poverty, but this is now being undercut by higher prices - particularly of food and oil - and the global economic slowdown".
Find the UN report at the following link:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/The%20Millennium%20Development%20Goals%20Report%202008.pdf
To read about the high-level event in New York on 25 September 2008, convened by the UN Secretary-General and the President of the UN General Assembly to renew commitments to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and to set out concrete plans and practical steps for action, please visit: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/
Source: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals
Find the UN report at the following link:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/The%20Millennium%20Development%20Goals%20Report%202008.pdf
To read about the high-level event in New York on 25 September 2008, convened by the UN Secretary-General and the President of the UN General Assembly to renew commitments to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and to set out concrete plans and practical steps for action, please visit: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/
Source: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals
Terra Viva Grants: Website about grants in the green sector
Terra Viva Grants is a new website for identifying where to look for grants in the "green sectors" of international development. The website includes profiles of about 300 grant makers worldwide in agriculture, energy, environment, and natural resources.
The profiles of grant makers can be browsed in lists, or searched in a database to speed up filtering and comparison. Users can search for grants made by foundations and NGOs, companies, government organizations, and international organizations. Grants are for technical assistance (development projects), education and capacity building, research, and prizes and awards.
Access to the website is free. Visit it at: http://www.terravivagrants.org/
Terra Viva Grants welcomes partners who are willing to recommend grant-making organizations to add to the profiles, and to translate the site into languages other than English. For further information or if you would like to place a link to Terra Viva Grants on your website, please contact Jan Laarman at terravivagrants@gmail.com.
Information provided by Jan Laarman, Terra Viva Grants
The profiles of grant makers can be browsed in lists, or searched in a database to speed up filtering and comparison. Users can search for grants made by foundations and NGOs, companies, government organizations, and international organizations. Grants are for technical assistance (development projects), education and capacity building, research, and prizes and awards.
Access to the website is free. Visit it at: http://www.terravivagrants.org/
Terra Viva Grants welcomes partners who are willing to recommend grant-making organizations to add to the profiles, and to translate the site into languages other than English. For further information or if you would like to place a link to Terra Viva Grants on your website, please contact Jan Laarman at terravivagrants@gmail.com.
Information provided by Jan Laarman, Terra Viva Grants
International Fellowship Programme: Call for Applications
The International Fellowship Programme for Learning and Exchange in Philanthropy (IFP) invites applications and searches for host institutions for its fourth round, beginning in spring 2009. This programme offers European foundation and NGO staff (young leaders as well as executives) the opportunity to work for up to 6 weeks in non-profit host institutions abroad. For every programme cycle, approximately 10 to 15 fellows are accepted. Two categories of fellowships (fully funded and partly funded) have been defined.
The deadline for applications is Friday, 14 November 2008. Fellowships will usually take place between March and September 2009, with a minimum duration of three and a maximum of six (in exceptional cases eight) weeks. Detailed information and the application form are available at http://www.efc.be/ifp.
The IFP was launched in 2005 by a group of European and international donors. From 2005 until 2008, a total of 51 fellows were supported, working in fields such as the environment, youth, community development and business-NGO relations.
Information provided by European Foundation Centre, ifp@efc.be
The deadline for applications is Friday, 14 November 2008. Fellowships will usually take place between March and September 2009, with a minimum duration of three and a maximum of six (in exceptional cases eight) weeks. Detailed information and the application form are available at http://www.efc.be/ifp.
The IFP was launched in 2005 by a group of European and international donors. From 2005 until 2008, a total of 51 fellows were supported, working in fields such as the environment, youth, community development and business-NGO relations.
Information provided by European Foundation Centre, ifp@efc.be
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Nov. 8, 2008: Conference on Youth Inclusion and Youth Participation in Cyprus
On Saturday, 8 November 2008 youth from Cyprus will meet with other youth from 11 European Union countries at the "European Conference on Youth Inclusion and Youth Participation" in Larnaca, Cyprus. They will hear from distinguished leaders across Europe, present results of an International Youth Survey, discuss outputs of regional youth Structured Dialogues held in Cyprus, Italy and Romania and present a joint declaration on citizenship and youth participation across Europe.
This conference is part of the European Union Youth in Action Programme project called "UCYVROK" which is short for "Uniting for Citizenship and participation: Youth promoting Vulnerable groups' Rights, Opportunities and Knowledge". The UCYVROK project is coordinated by a Cypriot non-governmental organisation, Future Worlds Center, and is implemented in partnership with eleven youth non-governmental organisations from across Europe.
Confirmed speakers at the conference include Panayiotis Demetriou, MEP from Cyprus, and Jaco Cilliers, Programme Manager from the United Nations Development Programme - Action for Cooperation and Trust (UNDP-ACT).
For more information please visit http://fwcis.blogspot.com/ or contact Project Coordinator Larry Fergeson at Future Worlds Center, larry.fergeson.cyprus@gmail.com
Information provided by the Future Worlds Center, Cyprus, futureworldscenter@gmail.com
This conference is part of the European Union Youth in Action Programme project called "UCYVROK" which is short for "Uniting for Citizenship and participation: Youth promoting Vulnerable groups' Rights, Opportunities and Knowledge". The UCYVROK project is coordinated by a Cypriot non-governmental organisation, Future Worlds Center, and is implemented in partnership with eleven youth non-governmental organisations from across Europe.
Confirmed speakers at the conference include Panayiotis Demetriou, MEP from Cyprus, and Jaco Cilliers, Programme Manager from the United Nations Development Programme - Action for Cooperation and Trust (UNDP-ACT).
For more information please visit http://fwcis.blogspot.com/ or contact Project Coordinator Larry Fergeson at Future Worlds Center, larry.fergeson.cyprus@gmail.com
Information provided by the Future Worlds Center, Cyprus, futureworldscenter@gmail.com
Nov. 15-17, 2008: European Development Days, Strasbourg
The third edition of the European Development Days (EDD), a meeting of different development cooperation stakeholders and decision makers organised by the European Commission, will take place in Strasbourg (France) on November 15-17, 2008.
This year, the central theme will be "local authorities and development"; eg. twinning initiatives between local authorities in the "North" and "South" will be encouraged. A lot of organisations, including NGOs, will present themselves in the so-called "Development Village".
Humanis, a French network of NGOs from the Strasbourg region, is inviting to a common reflection on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 entitled "European Meeting of NGO networks: key actors for development aid". The meeting will bring together NGO networks from old and new EU member states in order to share experiences and practices, to identify the expectations of each network and to build partnerships. A few parallel workshops will be offered. TRIALOG Director Christine Bedoya will lead a workshop on cooperation between NGO platforms from old and new EU member states and participate in the conference debate on "European NGO Platforms : Essentials Actors for Development Cooperation." Download the meeting programme from http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/european_meeting_ngo_networks.pdf.
For further information on the Humanis meeting, please visit http://www.humanis.org/ or contact Julie Martineau, martineau@humanis.org.
For more information and the agenda of the entire Development Days please visit the official EDD website: http://www.eudevdays.eu/Public/index_en.html
Sources: http://www.eudevdays.eu/Public/index_en.html and information provided by Julie Martineau, Humanis.
This year, the central theme will be "local authorities and development"; eg. twinning initiatives between local authorities in the "North" and "South" will be encouraged. A lot of organisations, including NGOs, will present themselves in the so-called "Development Village".
Humanis, a French network of NGOs from the Strasbourg region, is inviting to a common reflection on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 entitled "European Meeting of NGO networks: key actors for development aid". The meeting will bring together NGO networks from old and new EU member states in order to share experiences and practices, to identify the expectations of each network and to build partnerships. A few parallel workshops will be offered. TRIALOG Director Christine Bedoya will lead a workshop on cooperation between NGO platforms from old and new EU member states and participate in the conference debate on "European NGO Platforms : Essentials Actors for Development Cooperation." Download the meeting programme from http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/european_meeting_ngo_networks.pdf.
For further information on the Humanis meeting, please visit http://www.humanis.org/ or contact Julie Martineau, martineau@humanis.org.
For more information and the agenda of the entire Development Days please visit the official EDD website: http://www.eudevdays.eu/Public/index_en.html
Sources: http://www.eudevdays.eu/Public/index_en.html and information provided by Julie Martineau, Humanis.
Nov. 15-23, 2008: Global Education Week
The tenth annual European Global Education Week (GEW) will take place from the 15th to the 23rd of November 2008, at the initiative of the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe.The Global Education Week (also known in some countries as One World Week) supports teachers, youth leaders, young people and other formal and non-formal educational constituencies to engage in education for global citizenship; and enhances the effectiveness of this endeavour nationally and throughout Europe, through co-ordination of initiatives and sharing of best practices. All schools and youth organisations in the Council of Europe’s member States are invited to take part in the event, as well as any other interested educational practitioners.
For more information, e.g. about national contacts and activities, please visit the Global Education Week webpage: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/nscentre/GE/GEW/0GEW2008_en.asp#TopOfPage
Source: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/nscentre/default_EN.asp
Advance Notice: WorldAidsConference 2010 in Vienna
Following the World Aids Conference 2008 in Mexico City, Vienna will host the next WorldAidsConference from July 18-23 in 2010.
The World Aids Conference seeks impact on the emerging epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 33.2 million people live currently with HIV, the majority in sub-Saharan Africa, 1.6 million in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Between 2001 and 2007 the number of HIV positive people has grown by 150% in this region.
Nearly 90% of the newly reported HIV diagnoses in this region in 2006 were from two countries – the Russian Federation (66%) and the Ukraine (21%). Numbers from the Central Asian countries are increasing continuously. Regarding the mode of transmission, as far as reported in 2006, it was attributed to injecting drug use in two thirds of cases, but in more than one third it was ascribed to unprotected heterosexual intercourse. Migration and trafficking makes particularly women highly vulnerable to become infected.
In the Austrian capital where 15 years ago the UN World conference on Human Rights took place, the link between HIV/Aids and Violations of Human Rights will certainly be a focus. The International Aids Society (http://www.iasociety.org/), the main organizer of the conference, hopes that political leaders, scientists, NGO activists and HIV positive people themselves will be able to participate and take the opportunity to present their work and ideas and exchange experience with actors of other world regions who are involved in the fight against the pandemic.
Development NGOs from new member states and accessing countries are invited to participate! Contact the Community Forum Austria (CFA), an NGO Network which prepares the civil society participation in the conference and the global village – an NGO Fair, where it will be possible to have a stand.
For further information on the 2010 conference please contact Christine Keplinger from CFA at keplinger@aids.at or have a look on the internet page of the upcoming conference: http://www.aids2010.org
Further links:
The Austrian Aids Assistance Organisation in Vienna coordinates the CFA: http://www.aids.at. The Austrian Action Alliance against HIV/Aids consists mainly of NGDOs working with HIV/Aids affected people in their projects and is part of CFA: http://www.aidskampagne.at. World Vision Austria is member of both networks: http://www.worldvision.at/
Information provided by Lisa Sterzinger, World Vision Austria, lisa.sterziner@worldvision.at
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