Are you too a #GlobalNeighbour?

An awareness raising campaign "You too are a global neighbour" is being launched in these days by SLOGA, NGO Platform from Slovenia. The goal is to raise consciousness about international development cooperation and importance of global solidarity in the European Year for Development 2015. SLOGA is addressing questions such as: "What is international development cooperation and who are the actors involved? Why is cooperation important? What are the results of such global policies and what is the input of European Union and its member states? How can individuals join the common journey towards sustainable development and global solidarity?

Actions involved in the campaign include educational events, promotional materials and policy papers. Besides, they are organizing a web movement, through which they will collect photos of individuals who consider themselves #GlobalNeighbours.

Are you a #GlobalNeighbour? Join their campaign, take your photo with the printed slogan below and share it on your Facebook or Twitter profile! Don't forget to use #GlobalNeighbour and #EYD2015 hash tags!


Information provided by Adriana Aralica, SLOGA

Czech CSO platform FoRS participated in “Czech Development Week”

From Monday 14th till Friday 18th of September, FoRS-Czech Forum for Development Cooperation actively engaged in a series of events showing sustainable development-related topics to and discussing them with the public, as part of the platform´s contribution to the European Year for Development.
The week started with the launch of The World’s Best News newspaper 2015 on September 14th in Prague and other Czech towns, with a support of up to 80 volunteers. The following day, FoRS and the Environmental Centre of the Charles University in Prague organised the discussion “Democracy in Education through a Dialog of Actors” in the framework of this year´s international Conference Forum 2000. The discussion focused on the various social actors´ points of view and deliberative processes that influence education in the contemporary world.
On September 17th, FoRS as well as several member organisations participated in the happening called Czech Development Day organised by the Czech Development Agency under the auspices of the prime minister with the aim to showcase the Czech development cooperation to the broad public. This “action” week was concluded by a panel discussion “New tendencies in evaluations and presentation of their results”, where civil servants, evaluators, practitioners from NGOs and other development actors had the opportunity to share their experience and opinions with international experts as well as representatives of the European Commission and the Czech Development Agency.

Information provided by Marie Zázvorková, FoRS Liaison Officer

Advocacy on Humanitarian Aid and response to influx of refugees in Slovenia and other activities of SLOGA

Over the last months SLOGA is intensively involved in a dialogue with different government officials on the topics of humanitarian aid and Slovenian capacity for a response to an influx of refugees moving on the so called “Western Balkans route”. SLOGA participated in the consultations on the preparation of Guidelines on international humanitarian assistance of Republic of Slovenia in July 2015. The meeting was aimed at exchanging views and suggestions regarding the content of the Guidelines, which should be prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the coming months. Apart from that a lot of efforts were concentrated on the question of the growing refugee crisis in the wider region. SLOGA is very active coordinating a huge coalition of NGO’s in Slovenia, which is responding to the refugee crisis in terms of advocacy, planning the distribution of humanitarian aid, questions of integration etc. This coalition also sent an open letter to the Prime minister of Slovenia which sparked a direct dialogue with the Government. Operation Center was established, where a representative of SLOGA is also present. The aim of Operation Center is to coordinate response between different actors, and to share information and good practices among them. Apart from ongoing dialogue and advocacy a huge pressure on Government was also exerted before the meeting of the Council of EU for Justice and Internal Affairs.

Promoting international development cooperation and raising awareness
SLOGA intensified its efforts to promote international development cooperation to general public in Slovenia not only with its »Global Neighbour« campaign. SLOGA also organized several events which were aimed at promoting international development cooperation. Thus, several panels and group discussions (called Skuhna Talks) were organized on the topics of positive consequences of migration, gender equality and the role of youth. Aforementioned campaign and its messages were also presented and different workshops were held on several international events such as World Schools Debate Academy in Kranjska Gora, MUNSC Salient: Youth Conference on Global Matters 2015 in Ljubljana, AidWatch platform event in Serbia, and United Nations Summer School in Ljubljana. We also joined the World’s Best News project organized by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and distributed best news on development cooperation in Ljubljana. SLOGA was also present on several public events with the aim to present both the role and work of the platform and its projects as well. Therefore, SLOGA took part at Šuštarska nedelja in Tržič and Bivak festival in Ljubljana. Part of SLOGA’s efforts there were also to gather signatures for petition for a European Year of Social and Solidarity Economy 2018 as a part of Challenging the Crisis campaign.

LADDER Activities 
SLOGA took part in training in Zagreb, held between 21 and 24 July, which offered the participants a deeper insight into the concept DEAR and connected it with the existing development issues. In the end everything was combined in creation of a DEAR strategy. The aim of LADDER (Local Authorities as Drivers for Development Education and Awareness Raising) project is to improve the functioning of local authorities in the policy areas of global learning and raising awareness, with special emphasis on neighboring EU Member States. Within LADDER project SLOGA also contributed to a joint call to EU ministers before the meeting of the Council of EU for Justice and Internal Affairs, which called for an urgent, comprehensive, coordinated and humane response to the migration crisis in the European Union and its neighborhood. Information provided by Adriana Aralica, SLOGA

Hungarian NGOs lobby for SDGs in the national development strategy

Along the adoption of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals, HAND Association targets – through a mini-project financed by the Beyond 2015 campaign – the implementation process in Hungary to ensure that these goals are built in the national framework. Our aim appears essential as there seems to be no clear plan for dealing with the issue on government level.

While during the summer we aimed at the public by raising awareness on international development issues at festivals that attracted hundreds of people, in September we try to draw the attention of both government and parliamentary decision makers to the need of adopting the SDGs into the national strategy and implementation plans and to communicate the recommendations of Hungarian NGOs how to best do it. Therefore, a proposal package about the most important steps for national implementation has been elaborated. It also formulates suggestions for the revision of the national sustainable development strategy. The proposals will be discussed not only among our member organisations, but at a wider scale of NGOs before having it published and presented for decision makers.

In the past months we have managed to reach a higher appearance in several media, as well we used social media extensively (Facebook and Twitter). We intent to put more emphasis on our media activities in regard to build political leadership. Hopefully after the UN General Assembly there will be much more supporters of the implementation process both on the side of decision-makers and in society.

Information provided by Timea Gedeon, HAND

News from FoRS-Czech Forum for Development Cooperation

FoRS present at and preparing for the Addis Ababa, New York and Paris summits
As a preparation for the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, FoRS-Czech Forum for Development Cooperation together with its member organisation Glopolis, launched a media brief at a breakfast for journalists on July 8th, presenting the main issues and putting them in the national context. The brief criticises the lack of the participation of a Czech government´s representative (especially the absence of a representative of Ministry of Finance in the delegation) in Addis Ababa, as well as the insufficient amount of Czech ODA (0,11 % GDP, i. e. one third of its commitments). FoRS was represented in the official national delegation to Addis by its Executive Board President from Glopolis, who contributed to the final Czech position, which recognised importance of domestic resource mobilisation for sustainable development and encouraged the international community to elaborate more on the international tax reforms at the global level. FoRS also supported the participation of a journalist writing for a national renowned weekly magazine contributing thus to raise awareness of the Czech public on global development issues. FoRS is now preparing for the UN summit in New York. Here, the platform will be represented in the official national delegation led by the vice-prime minister and will send another participant in side-events. FoRS will also provide an input for the Czech vision on SDGs to the Czech government, especially on the topics related to the development cooperation. In addition, since last year, FoRS has been engaged in a dialogue of development, environmental, social, educational, NGOs working with migrants and other Czech NGOs about a joint vision and requirements for the Czech Republic implementation of the Agenda 2030. As to the December climate summit in Paris, FoRS cooperates with the association of environmental NGOs, Green Circle.

FoRS discussed the refugee crisis 
Current critical refugee crisis and its insufficient and inadequate attention at the national level woken up a huge interest from FoRS members to discuss the situation and to search for ways of joint action. This debate took place on August 26th and the participants –members of FoRS-Czech Forum for Development Cooperation as well as NGOs specialised on migration in the Czech Republic- shared their experiences, opinions and good practices. They identified several concrete topics of concern and of interest in cooperating, e. g. to work on proposals for more system solutions addressed to national policy and decision-makers, to improve ways of communication with haters and the media, to exchange experiences with the discussion about migration in schools, to include foreigners living in the Czech Republic in policy and decision-making processes and to make proposals on how to address migration in the framework of development cooperation.

Photo by Michaela Lenc, FoRS: debate on refugee crisis

Information provided by Marie Zázvorková, FoRS Liaison Officer

Latvian Development Platform LAPAS looks back at the country’s EU Presidency

The first half of year 2015 marked the time of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU. It gave opportunities to Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation (LAPAS) to cooperate actively with other European platforms and civil society organisations working in the field of global development, to accumulate knowledge and experience, talk to wider audiences about the challenges and opportunities of development and to advocate for aid quality and effectiveness in the Parliament and ministries in Latvia.

Priorities of LAPAS within the Presidency project were divided into four parts: developing and applying the approach of glocalization to sustainable development; choosing responsible food consumption as a topic to improve the understanding of interconnectedness of global and local dimensions; promoting the non-financial means of implementation for post-2015 agenda and highlighting the important role that the new donors can play in global sustainable development.

The full text of the Manifesto of LAPAS is available here.
In a report, all materials that have been produced within the EU presidency project by LAPAS are made available. Download the report here.


Information provided by LAPAS

Eventful Spring of European Year for Development in Slovakia

During the months of April and May, messages of the European Year for Development (EYD 2015) – “Our world, our dignity, our future” – have been spread by the Slovak NGDO Platform and its member organisations also throughout Slovak regions.

Among huge variety of topics, the issues of poverty and decent life were discussed with the Slovak public during an urban event called “Good Market”, which took place on one of the historic squares in Bratislava. In cooperation with the EC Representation in Slovakia, the Platform organised a public discussion CAFÉ EUROPA hosted by the ambassador of the EYD, an internationally acknowledged writer Michal Hvorecký. The Millenium development Goals were thoroughly discussed by the representatives of academia, government and NGOs. Bratislava also celebrated the annual Day of Europe, where the goodwill ambassadors of the EYD and 9 member organisations of the Platform presented their activities. The audience had an opportunity to see the television spots and also to participate in the debates with EYD ambassadors, together with two journalists who visited Kenya with the aim to report on the coherence betw
een non-development policies and development goals.

At the end of April, the Minister of the Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajčák officially met the goodwill ambassadors Adela Banášová (TV show host, ambassador for the campaign ŽI FÉR), Marián Čaučík (director of the Good News Campaign of eRko, ambassador for SlovakAid) and Michal Hvorecký (writer, ambassador for EuropeAid). One of the most visible outcomes of the meeting was a joint statement of the ambassadors, namely Marián Čaučík, who presented the plea to increase funding for bilateral development cooperation in order to come closer to the Slovak commitment of reaching 0,33% ODA/GNI by 2015. The EYD 2015 was present also in Banská Bystrica and Košice during the Africa Day celebrations organised by Partners for Democratic Change Slovakia, in cooperation with other NGO partners.

More information on the activities of the EYD in Slovakia can be found at www.err2015.zifer.sk.


In the picture: TV spot of Adela Banášová and its young spectators during the Day of Europe in Bratislava. Photo: Slovak NGDO Platform, May 2015 

Information provided by Andrea Girmanova, Slovak NGDO Platform

Seminar on “Global Education and the European Year of Development 2015” in Slovenia

On 2 May, the Slovenian Development NGO Platform SLOGA held a seminar titled “Global Education and the European Year of Development 2015”. Participants were discussing about the meaning of global education and its essence in their personal context. This was followed by an exchange of good and bad practices and evaluation of the performed activities.
The second part of the first seminar was dedicated to activities in the field of global education in the context of European Year for Development 2015, finding synergies and preferably greater participation and cooperation of NGOs in the field and a group evaluation and reflection of the seminar.

For more information, please contact Adriana Aralica at SLOGA.


Information provided by Adriana Aralica, SLOGA

News from the Maltese Development NGO platform SKOP

Social Justice in the Streets of Valletta 
The Development Education and Awareness Raising Working Group (DEAR WG) within SKOP worked in an awareness raising campaign that produced a series of informational banners that helped promoting messages of social justice within the general public. 2015 is a crucial year for global social justice as it is the target year where the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) should be met. The international community is gearing itself for this process to culminate in an evaluation of the results achieved and adopting a new strategy for the next 10 years: the SDGs Sustainable Development Goals. Moreover as 2015 is the European Year for Development, this campaign provides the unique opportunity for a broad public discussion to take place about meaningful civic engagement on human rights, environmental sustainability and social cohesion.
The banners were set up along Republic Street, a strategic point and one of the busiest streets of Valletta for a whole week in May. The messages on the banners addressed three main target groups: youth, professionals and families while tacking important topics such us, water, gender, health, youths, fair trade, climate change, migration and food security. The project has been funded with support from the VO Fund managed by the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector (MCVS). 

Training Programme for Educators on Development 
With its seminar programme, the Maltese Development NGO platform SKOP, aimed at raising awareness among a group of educators and train them to become multipliers on development education in non-formal settings. The programme was delivered in 15 sessions of two hours each, including face to face training and personal jour
nal writing. Through this exercise the participants had the opportunity to reflect on their own awareness about global issues. The format of the seminar included lecturing, whole group discussion, small group workshops and journal writing. The training seminar tackled significant issues such us: Sustainable Development, Consumption, Development and Migration, Climate change, Ethical approaches to development and Children's’ Rights in the Broader Context of Human Rights.
This seminar enhanced the skills of a group of educators to be able to work on a global education campaign with children in a non-formal setting, thus stimulating a more active participation of the Maltese society in global social justice. Moreover it also contributed in creating synergies and reinforces links among different groups in society that will be working together for systematic change and global justice.

In the picture: Street banners of the awareness raising campaign, photo: SKOP.

Information provide by Paola Prinzis Liaison Officer at SKOP.

News from the Slovenian Development NGO Platform SLOGA

Many events took place around the topics of cultural diversity, volunteerism and a new development agenda post-2015 over the past two months in Slovenia. The “Week of Africa” offered many occasions for intercultural dialogue, SLOGA promoted its work and visions at the “Happy Day of Volunteerism” in Ljubljana and organised a panel on »Post-2015 Development Agenda as a New Reality – Opportunities for Small States« before the official start of European Development Days in Brussels.

Week of Africa 
SLOGA organized in cooperation with various Slovenian NGOs and other institutions the Week of Africa, commemorating the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development and the Africa Day. Various activities have taken place between 20 and 31 May. The Week of Africa started with a show called Diaspora*, that took place in the cultural center in Velenje. This show has taken the audience into the world of multiculturalism, in which we are witnessing both the beauties of diversity as well as intolerance and discrimination.
A panel titled “To live intercultural, a challenge or a problem?” was organized on 21 May, the day of intercultural dialogue, at Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre. The panel was composed of Eyachew Tefera, president of the SLOGA Board, and Faila Pašić Bišić, ambassador of intercultural dialogue. Workshops on intercultural dialogue and the role and importance of human rights were conducted by the volunteers of the United Nations Association of Slovenia at the primary schools in Videm and Ptuj.
An intercultural evening was held by Slovene Philanthropy, spiced up by the a-capella gospel choir Bee Geesus, ambassador of the project of Humanitarian association ADRA Slovenia. The role of youth in intercultural environments was also tackled during the Week of Africa. So called ‘young global neighbors’ - young people originating from other countries but currently living in Slovenia – have presented their experiences in meeting with a new culture and their perception of multiculturalism.
Another colorful event contributed to the overall image of Week of Africa. A football tournament for peace and unity was organized on 24 May in Ljubljana. Aims of this traditional event are to strengthen the body and mind to overcome diversity, and the promotion of integration and social inclusion of vulnerable groups in society. The Week of Africa ended with international ‘global picnic’, which was escorted by a rich program and various workshops that were intended for individuals, families and particularly children.
The Week of Africa was coordinated by SLOGA platform in cooperation with Slovenian national commission for UNESCO and with financial contribution of European Commission.

Round table on partnerships and implementation of new development agenda 
SLOGA platform, in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Brussels, organized a panel titled »Post-2015 Development Agenda as a New Reality – Opportunities for Small States« before the official start of European Development days. Panel was composed of H. E. Mr. Matjaž Šinkovec, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Cabo Verde, the African Union and Ambassador Designate to Ethiopia; assistant professor Dr. Draško Veselinovič, President of the Board of Slovenian Business and Research Association; and Mr. Eyacehew Tefera, President of SLOGA Board. Panel was moderated by Dr. Sabina Lange, lecturer at the European Institute of Public Administration – EIPA. Panelists talked about challenges and opportunities arising from new development agenda, priorities of Slovenia in the field of development cooperation and negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals, the opportunities for the private sector in the new development agenda and also the role of civil society in both implementation of the agenda as well as design of country’s priorities.

Happy Day of Volunteerism 
The Happy Day of Volunteerism took place in the centre of Ljubljana at Prešeren square on 9 June. Overarching slogan of the National Week of Volunteerism, organized by Slovene Philanthropy within which the Happy Day of Volunteerism took place, was “All generations, all colors, all knowledge. With love.” SLOGA took part in this event and promoted its work and vision, the work of its member organizations, and also launched the campaigns within two of its projects, Challenging the Crisis and You Too are a Global Neighbour.

Meeting with NGOs on the topic of human rights in Slovenian foreign policy 
On 4 June, SLOGA attended a meeting organized by the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with NGOs on the topic of human rights in Slovenian foreign policy. The aim of the meeting was to include NGOs in the process of preparation for the 29th session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations.


In the photo: SLOGA stand at the Happy Day of Volunteerism.

Information provided by Adriana Aralica, SLOGA

News from the Polish NGDO Platform Grupa Zagranica

Poland no longer includes spending on refugees in their ODA 
Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided not to include spending on refugees in Poland in the Official Development Aid reported for 2013. For years this has been an advocacy objective of Grupa Zagranica, the Polish NGDO platform. CONCORD’s yearly AidWatch report counts in-donor country refugee costs, together with debt relief, interest on loans, tied aid and in-donor country spending on students, as inflated aid. Poland and Ireland are the only two OECD DAC member countries that did not report in-donor spending on refugees as ODA in 2013. In-country refugee spending amounted to less than 2% of Polish ODA in 2011 and 2012. Nevertheless, Grupa Zagranica sees this decision as a success and congratulates Polish MFA on the progressive step in their ODA reporting.


PCD in Polish Impact Assessment Guidelines 
Every official regulation in Poland needs to be analysed in terms of its potential impact on economy, society and environment before being submitted to the parliament for debate and enactment. Impact Assessment is a common practice in EU countries, further encouraged and supported through the ‘Better Regulation 2015’ programme. The recent update of the Impact Assessment (IA) guidelines opened an opportunity for the integration of policy coherence for development (PCD) approach in the Polish legislative process. Following a focused advocacy action of Grupa Zagranica the new guidelines include a question relating to the potential “impact on social and economic development of priority countries of Polish development cooperation”. Grupa Zagranica plans further activities aiming at supporting the implementation of this element of the IA guidelines.

For more information, please contact Kasia Szeniawska, Policy Officer at Grupa Zagranica. 

Sources: For ODA http://goo.gl/FkTmdt and PCD http://goo.gl/sdv7be

News from the Czech NGO Platform FoRS

FoRS-Czech Forum for Development Co-operation has recently organized a couple of events for its members as well as other entities. The first one -workshop on private fundraising- was supported by TRIALOG and was organized in cooperation with Czech Fundraising Center on May 12 – 13. FoRS members learned advantages and disadvantages of corporate fundraising, different forms of support from private companies as well as the necessary steps to suceed in establishing long-term cooperation with these entities. There was also space for discussion about possible ways of cooperation in fundraising, especially from individual donors, within the platform FoRS.

The following two events were supported by DEEEP4 EC grants. The workshop „How to jointly promote changes: advocacy workshop not only for development education and awareness raising“ (May 21, 2015) was organized for FoRS members and their partners to help DEAR practitioners to enhance their own policy and advocacy capacities. The participants could better understand the importance of advocacy and its relation to their own work and learn how to effectivelly plan and carry out advocacy activities related to NGOs´ topics from concrete examples of good advocacy practice of Czech NGOs. They could also discuss opportunities for joint advocacy work at the regional and national level as well as what to do in case of limited capacities for advocacy work. The outcomes of the discussions about the joint advocacy work were recorded and will be used for the following work of the FoRS Working Group gathering the DEAR practitioners.

The national seminar „Vision for Education: Open Gate for Debate“ (June 4, 2015) was held within the European Sustainable Development Week and its participants from NGOs, academia, public administration and businesses could discuss a recent open document - vision for education for our common future. It was prepared by a working group of representatives of NGOs, universities and other entities in the context of the finalization of the Sustainable Development Goals as well as current debates on reforms of the Czech educational system. According to this document, in a interconnected and rapidly changing world it is increasingly evident that education does not only mean preparation for a concrete profession, but should also provide young people with skills, which would help them live a successful life and at the same time will contribute to sustainable development of the society as a whole. Thanks to this event the discussion with the business representatives has been started and some of them have also expressed their willingness to participate more in the further process associated with the promotion and implementation of the vision.

Photos are available here.


Information provided by Marie Zázvorková, FoRS Liaison Officer

First Annual Assembly of the Croatian Platform CROSOL

On 22nd of May 2015, CROSOL Platform held its first annual assembly in Zagreb.

Present were 17 members, 16 full members and 1 observatory member. Two members changed their membership status from observatory to full: OBRIS and Autonomous Women's house Zagreb. The assembly voted on a new statute that will improve the work of the Platform and its bodies. The Platform also welcomes five new members: ADRA, M.A.R.E., Institute for Development of Education, MIRamiDa Centre, Odraz and Zivi Atelje Dajhl Kralj.











In the photo: participants of the annual assembly of CROSOL.

Information provided by Ela Narandja, CROSOL

EU-13 Advocacy on DEAR – Radio Show by CYINDEP

Over the past two years the changes that occurred to the EC-funded DEAR Programme have affected the capacity of small NGOs and especially from the EU13 countries to participate, thus posing great challenges to their sustainability. The EU13 National NGDO Platforms with the support of TRIALOG have been jointly and individually advocating for the improvement of the DEAR Call in order to allow different capacity organizations to equally benefit from this funding programme.

As part of this effort, the Cypriot radio show Let’s Go Global  hosted Rebecca Steel-Jasinska, Project Manager of TRIALOG, to demystify this complicated policy issue and discuss how civil society can contribute to a constructive dialogue with the European Commission and work together to improve the future rules of the programme. The hosts of the show, Annagrace and Sophia, both civil society workers and members of the Cypriot NGO platform CYINDEP, took the opportunity to present the situation at the local level. They explained the difficulties faced by NGOs in Cyprus, a country where civil society is still young and was traditionally focused around peacebuilding due to its political problem. Currently, with a financial crisis that affected all aspects of the society and the main donors having withdrawn from the country, local NGOs are facing challenges in surviving.

You can listen to the radio show here.

Let’s Go Global is a fortnightly radio show hosted by CYINDEP at MYCYradio, the first multi-lingual web radio in Cyprus. The show focuses on issues around global education, development cooperation, social justice, sustainable development, peace, and many more. Even though the title of the show reveals its global direction, this is always done through the lens of the local experience and encourages actions at the community level that can contribute to positive global change.


Information provided by Sophia Arnaouti, CYINDEP

News from the Slovenian NGO Platform SLOGA

SLOGA, the Slovenian NGO platform for development cooperation and humanitarian assistance, has recently produced two short films as a part of their awareness raising efforts. Additionally the platform organised capacity building for its members and participated in consultations of the MFA on the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit.

Cartoon and documentary on development cooperation
SLOGA produced a cartoon designed for children and youth, which was prepared in collaboration with INFODROM – children and youth daily show on RTV Slovenia. The second film is a documentary called 'We are all part of the same world', which portrays chosen projects of Slovenian humanitarian and development NGO's working in Africa and Western Balkans. SLOGA aims to use this documentary to bring development projects closer to the Slovenian public. This project was financed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia.

Second workshop focused on relations in humanitarian and development field 
On April 21, SLOGA platform organised the second workshop to strengthen NGO capacities working in developing countries. The workshop was held by Dr. Anica Mikuš Kos, president of Slovene Philanthropy, and Vahida Huzejrović from Slovene Philanthropy. The workshop focused on relations in humanitarian and development field, such as relations within the project team, relationships with our counterparts in developing countries, relations with volunteers, with recipients of development aid, as well as relations with donors or financers. The workshop built on participatory and human-rights based approach as basic principles of work in the development and humanitarian field. The workshop concluded with a lively debate.

SLOGA participated in consultations for the World Humanitarian Summit
At the end of March, Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs organised consultations with NGOs active in humanitarian aid. The meeting was part of a preparation process for the World Humanitarian Summit with the purpose to include NGOs in the process of preparations for the Summit which will be held next May in Istanbul. The meeting was also attended by a SLOGA representative.


Information provided by Adriana Aralica, SLOGA

The 10th edition of FOND General Assembly

The Romanian NGDO Platform – FOND organised the 10th edition of its General Assembly from 30th of March to 1st of April the in Bucharest. This anniversary edition was a special one that focused on the results achieved by the platform so far in development cooperation.

The first day was dedicated to finalising the new FOND strategy for the next 5 years. The priorities set up refer to:
• strengthening FOND members’ capacity to design and implement projects in development cooperation and global education,
• raising awareness at national and international level,
• influencing public policies at national, European and global level,
• ensuring the multi-annual financial sustainability of the Platform.

The second day focused on activity reports and main results achieved by the Platform in the last year, including its projects: the 7th edition of the Romanian Development Camp and Black Sea NGO Forum (Kyiv), TRIALOG V project and the World Wise Europe Project. FOND staff presented to the members the opportunities for 2015, brought by the current projects and activities implemented by the platform, especially in the EYD context. The members reflected on their contribution regarding the implementation of the new FOND strategy.

The second day also included a special session on the partnership with the Romanian MFA. Mr. Radu Podgorean – State Secretary and Mrs. Doina Doroftei – Head of the Development Assistance Unit congratulated FOND on its active involvement as a partner and presented the MFA action plan for this year. The main priority will be the adoption on the new development cooperation law, which is planned for the second part of this year. Mrs. Anca Stoica – Romanian ODA Project Manager at UNDP Regional Centre for Europe and Central Asia presented the new call for proposal launched by MFA/UNDP for CSOs in the EYD context and also the national EYD action plan.

This General Assembly also voted for a new Board (2015-2017) having as members: President Natalia Budescu – Association for Cross-border Cooperation “Lower Danube Euroregion”, Vice – President Cristina Rigman – Pro Vobis, National Resource Center for Volunteering, Stefania Mircea – Save the Children Romania, Anca Ciuca – Foundation for Democratic Change, Stefan Cibian –ARCADIA, The Romanian Association for International Cooperation and Development, Raluca Manaila – AUR, The National Association for Human Resources Specialists, Anemari Necsulescu – Habitat for Humanity Romania. 
3 new member NGOs active in sustainable development, social economy and youth (Bankwatch Romania Association, React Association, Romanian Youth Movement for Democracy) adding up a total of 39 members and a stronger voice of the Romanian NGOs in development cooperation.
esource Center for Volunteering, Stefania Mircea – Save the Children Romania, Anca Ciuca – Foundation for Democratic Change, Stefan Cibian –ARCADIA, The Romanian Association for International Cooperation and Development, Raluca Manaila – AUR, The National Association for Human Resources Specialists, Anemari Necsulescu – Habitat for Humanity Romania. In addition, FOND welcomed

The event was organized within the project “Supporting Romanian NGOs in Development Cooperation” financed from EEA grants – for more details visit eeagrants.org. For more information about FOND activities, please visit the platform’s website www.fondromania.org and Facebook page.


Photo provided by FOND: Board members.
Information provided by Adriana Zaharia, FOND

Slovenia: Cultural Bazaar on European Year for Development 2015

For the past decade, arts and cultural education has been an important area of learning in terms of global, European and national concerns. The aim of the Cultural Bazaar, organised jointly by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO, CMEPIUS as well as numerous Slovenian cultural institutions, is to provide information on cultural events taking place throughout Slovenia and stimulate interest in the arts and cultural education.

Within the scope of the Bazaar, numerous lectures, workshops and panel discussions were held. Cultural Bazaar was organised on 18 March 2015. This year, one of the topics addressed at the Cultural Bazaar was the European Year for Development 2015. SLOGA platform was promoted by various publications, and some member organisations participated at thematic workshops and round tables. The aim of the activities was to bring the development issues closer to teachers and youth.

Information provided by Adriana Aralica, SLOGA

Launch of the European Year for Development in Romania

The European Year for Development was launched in Romania on the 17th of February 2015, under the title “Storytelling – Power to the People in International Development”. The event was organised by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNDP – Regional Centre for Europe and Central Asia, as implementer of this campaign in Romania in partnership with the NGDO platform FOND Romania.

The opening session benefited from the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, the Chief of the Representation of the European Commission to Romania, Angela Filote, and FOND President, Olivia Baciu.

Mr. Bogdan Aurescu underlined the importance of development cooperation in the current geopolitical context and mentioned that in essence international development is defined by solidarity, dialogue and responsibility. In order to give more weight to the development cooperation policy, Minister Aurescu mentioned the draft law on development cooperation initiated by the MFA (currently in the process of being adopted) that will equip the policy with the necessary resources.

In the spirit of storytelling, Ms. Angela Filote shared her experience in working in developing countries, in order to raise awareness on poverty in the world and encouraged actions through development cooperation initiatives. In addition, Ms. Filote highlighted the value of volunteering in development organizations in Romania and abroad, as an individual effort to land a hand to developing countries.

Ms. Olivia Baciu underlined in her speech that the European Year for Development 2015, an initiative of CONCORD, is a crucial moment for raising awareness and bringing development cooperation on the public agenda. Moreover, she emphasized that development means working together, making connections between people, ideas and activities and learning from each other.

Following the opening session, there were several interventions from Romanian practitioners in international development and journalists documenting development issues. Moreover, the event had special guests: Ms. Lina Ben-Mhenni, blogger and activist nominee to the Nobel Peace Prize, and Ms. Libby Powel, initiator of “On our radar project” – a project giving people from developing countries the opportunity to act as local journalists and report of issues of interest to them.

More information about the event can be found on the ROAid Facebook Page.

In the photo: speakers panel at the EYD launch.


Information provided by FOND Romania.

News from the Slovenian NGO Platform SLOGA

Recently, representatives of SLOGA discussed future funding for NGO networks with state representatives, they met with a delegation of ministries from Western Balkans countries to present development and humanitarian projects of NGOs and to foster cooperation with NGOs from respective countries. The platform organised a workshop for member organisations to discuss challenges of field work in developing countries and SLOGA representatives discussed development issues with the Maltese President during her visit in Slovenia.

President of Malta in Slovenia: Dialogue with NGOs represents a key for exchange of good practices
The President of Malta, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, has met with representatives of Slovenian development NGOs during her official visit to Slovenia at the end of February 2015. They discussed challenges of international cooperation, the development agenda and ensuring respect of the human rights. NGOs welcomed the initiative of the Maltese President for the meeting as an example of good practice of dialogue with civil society.
A lot of time was devoted to the question of migration and how to effectively ensure support and integration of migrants. The number of migrants in Slovenia is a lot smaller in comparison to Malta, while Slovenia represents only a transitional country for the majority of migrants. Everyone involved acknowledged the need to change the Dublin Convention.
Development aid was also discussed in the meeting, which goes hand in hand with the European Year for Development 2015. Malta has a better track record when it comes to the meeting of internationally agreed commitments on official development assistance, since it allocates 0,19% of its GDP to ODA. Bilateral assistance is mostly being carried out through NGOs. Maltese Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. George Vella has highlighted the cooperation of representative of Maltese network of NGOs – SKOP – in the selection process of the projects that are financed by the Ministry, which ensures transparency of the procedure as well as higher level of accountability of the NGOs in the implementation of the projects.
Director of SLOGA platform Marjan Huč highlighted a very successful regional cooperation with different Maltese NGOs. Joint key challenges are ensuring of development policy coherence and strengthening the field of global education. He also pinpointed the increasingly present practice of the European Commission to finance exclusively bigger projects, which tends to paralyse the NGO sector in newer EU Member States. Lastly, he welcomed the support of Maltese public for development cooperation, which accounts for the highest percentage in the EU.
President Coleiro Preca has assessed that a lot has still to be done on the issue of awareness of the wider public with relation to the international development cooperation. This is based on the fact that development NGOs do not receive a lot of public support, even though they are essential for targeting inequalities in the world. She also perceives the dialogue with NGOs as a perfect opportunity to exchange experience and good practices, since NGO are the ones that possess specific, expert-based knowledge and experience.

Thematic NGO networks consult with State Secretary on possible future financing 
The Government of the Republic of Slovenia hosted consultations with representatives of thematic NGO networks on 11 March 2015. NGO sector in Slovenia remains under-financed and under-staffed, since it employs less than 1% of total population of employees. The purpose of the consultation was to improve cooperation between the ministries and the thematic NGO networks, to provide better conditions for NGOs and to review options for inclusion of financing for thematic NGO networks into the ministerial implementation plan of the Operational Programme for the Implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy in the Period 2014–2020. Consultations were hosted by State Secretary Tadej Slapnik, who has endorsed the efforts of NGO sector and thus opened the discussion between representatives of NGOs and ministries. As part of consultation SLOGA has also talked with the representatives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the possibilities of ensuring financing of the platform or transfer of public services to SLOGA. The consultations represent a good basis for future discussions on the topic.

SLOGA hosted a meeting of foreign ministries representatives from Western Balkans
On 17 March, SLOGA hosted a meeting with representatives of ministries for foreign affairs from Western Balkans countries. Aim of the meeting was to present development and humanitarian projects of NGOs and to foster cooperation with NGOs from respective countries, especially in the field of global education and awareness-raising. The visit was supported by German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

Workshop about challenges of field work in developing countries 
On February 12, SLOGA platform organised a workshop to strengthen NGO capacities working in developing countries. The workshop was held by Dr. Anica Mikuš Kos, president of Slovene Philanthropy, and Vahida Huzehrović from Slovene Philanthropy. The trainers have extensive experience in working in ODA recipient countries which were shared with workshop participants. Aim of the workshop was to enable exchange of experience among participants and to strengthen and improve the ability of participants for field work in developing countries. The trainers initially presented specifics of development and humanitarian projects’ implementation. They continued with describing motives and characteristics of individuals who decide for field work in developing countries and how to train the individuals for field work. They also touched upon relationships – not only within the project team, but also with the recipients of the Official Development Assistance. The workshop closed with a lively debate on most common challenges in project implementation.


Photo courtesy of SLOGA: Meeting with Western Balkan states representatives and GIZ.

Information provided by Adriana Aralica, SLOGA 

Workshop on Systemic Change for Czech NGOs

The Czech national platform FoRS organised a one-day workshop on the concept of systemic change for its members, especially those working in development education and awareness raising (DEAR) area.

The workshop was led by trainers from a Georgian NGO Civil Society Institute and took place in mid-March in Prague in the framework of a DEEEP grant. The goal of the event was to generate awareness of the different perspectives of system actors, the complexity of a system and how it can be mapped. The trainers used tools of the Springfield Center Making Markets Work for the Poor Approach such as the M4P lens and strategic framework.
The participants had thus an opportunity to become more sensitive about their own influence and potential, as well as to identify that systemic change and participatory approaches are essential for sustainable development and that this ‘new’ systemic thinking can be translated and applied in every civil society organisations sector and intervention. They could also learn to translate this approach into project design and implementation.

The participants finally discussed a practical use of the approach of systemic change during a follow-up meeting of FoRS DEAR working group and plan to organise an advocacy seminar, also with the suppport of a DEEEP grant, where systemic change would have an important place.

Contact person: Adéla Stiborová (adela.stiborova@fors.cz)


Information provided by Marie Zázvorková, FoRS Liaison Officer