Conquering Rules and Regulations: Building Capacities to work with EuropeAid Standard Contract

From 13th to 14th December 2011, TRIALOG in cooperation with the Slovenian platform of NGDOs SLOGA (Slovenian Global Action) held a training seminar on “EuropeAid Standard Contract Management” in Ljubljana. This seminar was a follow-up to the training on “Quality Criteria for Development Cooperation“ which TRIALOG and SLOGA organised in June 2011. The training on Standard Contract (SC) Management looked at the basics of project management related to the EuropeAid SC and introduced and discussed the various components of the SC. A considerable part of the training was dedicated to exploring the potential for change within the SC system and learning more about the financial regulations of the SC. Hands-on exercises regarding the EC requirements on visibility provided a larger frame to contextualise the SC’s set of laws within participants’ own projects and activities. An additional emphasis on monitoring and evaluation concepts, approaches and methods concluded the training seminar. Ten participants from Slovenian NGDOs, mainly project managers and programme directors working with the SC on a day-to-day basis, participated in the seminar. They appreciated the dynamic and participatory design of the training and expressed the wish and need to continue with such trainings in the future in order to increase NGDO’s capacities of contract management and to ensure that the complexity of the SC is not a limitation but can be transformed into opportunities for NGDO’s work.

Information provided by Emilia Nunnari, TRIALOG