October 29-31: Black Sea NGO Forum 2009

Time to meet again has come for NGOs in the Black Sea Region, which are invited to attend the second edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum in Bucharest, Romania.

The event was launched in 2008 by the Federation of Romanian Development NGOs (FOND) in co-operation with organisations from the wider Black Sea Region with the support of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This year’s edition of the forum is entitled ‘NGOs in Times of Crisis’ and will be held on October 29 – 31, 2009.

The Forum aims at increasing the level of dialogue and coordination among NGOs, as well as strengthening the advocacy capacity for NGOs in order to influence development strategies in the region. It gathers NGOs from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, other EU member states and important actors in the wider Black Sea Region.

The first edition of the Forum acknowledged that within this region, which is extremely complex from a political point of view, cooperation among NGOs from the civil society represents a real potential for stability and prosperity in the wider Black Sea area.

NGOs from the Black Sea region are invited to propose themes for the discussions of this year’s Forum. More information on the Forum, a draft agenda, updated list of workshop topics and the last year’s report are available on the website http://www.blackseango.org/.

Download the latest issue of the Black Sea NGO Newsletter (e.g. with information on funding opportunities in the region) from: http://www.blackseango.org/pagini/black-sea-ngo-newsletter.php

Information provided by Iuliana Rada, FOND