Oct. 31 - Nov. 2, 2008: Black Sea NGO Forum "Time To Meet!" Bucharest

The Federation of Romanian Development NGOs (FOND) is announcing the launching of the Black Sea NGO Forum: "Time to Meet". The Forum will be held on October 31 – November 2, 2008 in Bucharest, Romania. It will be the start of an annual tradition bringing together NGOs from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Romania and (other) EU member states active in the wider Black Sea region. Over 100 NGOs will participate in the Forum.

The event is organized in cooperation with organizations from Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Russia, and in partnership with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation and UNDP Romania.

The aim of this event is 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 forum will not be just another seminar about the Black Sea region, but rather refined interaction between key civic leaders from the region, led and owned by the countries in the region with the support and contribution of the European and Euro-Atlantic community. The forum will focus on creating a pool of concrete projects and on proposing concrete recommendations for regional NGOs and donors in order to increase the number and quality of regional partnerships and projects.

The programme will include:

• 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
  The presentations in each of the panels will try to provide answers to the following questions:
  - What are the needs, challenges and expertise of NGOs in the region?
  - What are the main obstacles that affect NGO regional cooperation?
  - What are the solutions that have yielded positive results so far?
  - What are the lessons learnt that can contribute to the success of regional NGO projects?
  - What is the NGO perspective? What is the donor perspective?
• Partnership fair. Over 100 participants will come together to exchange experiences, to find partners for their project ideas and to elaborate project concepts in the field of social justice, human rights, democratization and good governance, sustainable development. A portfolio of concept proposals will be presented to the donors in the region.

More information on the Forum and the final agenda of the event will be available by October 1, 2008, on http://www.blackseango.org/

The working language of the Forum is English. Additionally Russian translation will be available.

The organizers will arrange and cover costs for travel, accommodation and meals for the participants from the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia.

Participants from the EU can still register, by 15 October.

For any other questions and details, please contact us at Forum@BlackSeaNGO.org

The Secretariat of the Forum is currently ensured by the Civil Society Development Foundation (FDSC) , http://www.fdsc.ro/

Information provided by Valentin Burada, valentin.burada@fdsc.ro