Wednesday 6 May 2009

General Assembly of the Romanian platform FOND

The Romanian NGDO Platform – FOND, organized its second General Assembly on 12th -13th March 2009, at CENTRAS Office located in Bucharest. During this event, FOND members elected their new Board representatives and president:

- Viorel Micescu (president) - CENTRAS
- Valentin Burada (vicepresident) - Civil Society Development Foundation (FDSC)
- Gabriela Alexandrescu - Save the Children Romania
- Andra Tanase - Peace Action Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR)
- Mirela Oprea - World Vision Romania
- Angela Achitei - "Alaturi de Voi" Foundation Romania (ADV)
- Olivia Baciu - Partners Foundation of Local Development (FPDL)

Also, three Romanian NGDOs joined the Platform becoming new FOND members- Joseph Foundation, Resource Center for Public Participation-CeRe, The National Volunteer Center Romania-Pro Vobis. FOND has now 40 member organizations.

Among the guests were the UK Ambassador in Romania, H.E. Robert Barnett; Mihaela Rutjens, Director Development Assistance - Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Monica Loloiu, European Commission Representation in Romania.

The main issues discussed were the strategic direction of Romanian ODA programs and in this regard Ambassador Barnett sugested a high-level meeting with all the national stakeholders in this field (including FOND) to come up with a long-term strategy for this policy and also to clearly settle the role of all the actors involved. Another important topic was related to the cooperation between FOND and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2009, and here Mrs. Rutjens presented the plans and budget for 2009 of the ODA division (which was cut more than half, down to 1,9 million EUR) and emphasized the neccesity of a strong collaboration with FOND to overcome the negative impact of the financial crisis and to raise the profile of development cooperation as a policy within the Romanian government and parliament.

Information provided by Adela Rusu, FOND Romania

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