Czech Members of Parliament support an Increase in Czech ODA

FoRS-Czech Forum for Development Cooperation (Czech NGDO platform) initiated the European Year for Development with the seminar “Current challenges and possibilities for support of Czech Official Development Assistance (ODA)”. The event took place on January 14th, 2015 in the Chamber of Deputies under the auspices of the chair of the Sub-committee for development cooperation of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Over 30 stakeholders of Czech development cooperation, including 12 members of the parliament (MPs) from different committees, gathered in order to discuss the views and experiences presented by FoRS, NGOs, academia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Czech Development Agency and a member of the sub-committee for development cooperation. The main purpose of this event -to initiate dialogue and cooperation with members of the renewed subcommittee for development cooperation and to raise their awareness on the results and challenges in this area- was fulfilled.
Most participants expressed their conviction about the significance of Czech ODA and an agreement with an increase of its total volume. There was also an overall understanding among the MPs of the difference between the provision of ODA and economic diplomacy.
FoRS is now planning steps for further work with MPs.

Contact person: Katarina Šrámková.


Information provided by Marie Zázvorková, FoRS Liaison Officer

Czech NGOs enhanced Knowledge in Monitoring & Evaluation and EuropeAid Funding

In the last three months, the Czech NGDO platform FoRS organised two workshops and one seminar in order to address the needs and priorities identified by the platform´s members.

At the end of November 2014, an interactive workshop on participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation took place in cooperation with Czech Evaluation Society, a FoRS´ observer, and with a support of TRIALOG. The participants could learn how to properly set the project logic based on a theory of change considering the requests on evaluation and monitoring from the very beginning of the project cycle including forms of participations of various stakeholders, a needs analysis and a logframe matrix. They also learned how to set proper indicators for the different kinds of goals, assumptions and risks and how to set monitoring. Finally, the different steps of an evaluation were comprehensively explained.

A follow-up workshop on methodological tools in evaluation practice was organized by FoRS and supported from a capacity building project of DEEEP, also in cooperation with the Czech Evaluation Society two months later. This workshop enhanced the capacities of the FoRS Global Education working group members. Especially, they could learn the tools for answering evaluation questions, the tools for data collection, how to plan a survey and prepare a good questionnaire or the structure of the interview.
More information can be found here.

Finally, at the beginning of December, FoRS organised a seminar “EU funded projects: instruments and programmes for NGOs, project management and audits)” supported by TRIALOG. The trainer from a FoRS member organization used a new training module for EC contract management prepared by CONCORD working group Funding for Development and Relief (FDR). The interactive and specifically prepared methodology of the event was very positively evaluated by the participants. An introductory session on the existing EC/EuropeAid-DEVCO funding instruments and programmes relevant for CSOs in the period 2014-2020 (based on recent CONCORD Guide) and a closing session on EC audits were added to the main topic of the seminar.

Contact person: Marie Zázvorková.


Information provided by Marie Zázvorková, FoRS Liaison Officer, and Adéla Stiborová, FoRS Communication Coordinator

First Call for Development Cooperation Projects of the Croatian Ministry for Foreign and European Affaris

At the end of the last year, the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia - MEFA published its first call for funding development cooperation projects for civil society organizations in Croatia. The total amount of money made available was 2 million kunas and each CSO could get 150 – 250 000 kunas (approx. 19 500 – 32 500 EUR) per project.

Several CROSOL(Croatian Platform for International Citizen Solidarity) members applied, a total of eight grants were given to CSO's and CROSOL's members received four grants. Centre for Peace Studies got a grant for a peace building project in Palestina, GONG for democratic development in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Documenta for documenting war crimes in Ukraine and finally B.a.B. for education and empowernment of women in Bosnia and Hercegovina. CROSOL is a partner in all of these projects.


Information provided by Ela Naranđa, CROSOL

Be a Global Citizen! Be a Global Educator!

A.R.T. Fusion Association from Romania created “You are Part of This World, Be Part of Its Future” project in the context of the huge need in the world for a positive change. At the root of this initiative was a genuine and growing concern for how the world is at the moment and the uncertainty of its wellbeing and future. To bring along sustainable changes we need more global citizens and for this to happen competent global educators are needed, especially among young people and youth workers. The ambition that existed at the base of this project was to include on equal term partners from North and South of the world. When we explore global connections, dependencies and responsibilities we need to be as global as possible for a meaningful and powerful discussion, and for a long term impact. The main goal of this project was to increase the capacity of 6 youth organizations from Ghana, Estonia, Nigeria, Romania, Sierra Leone and UK to raise the level of global citizenship competencies in their communities.

The main project results included:

• A network of strong and competent organizations active in global education field in Africa and Europe; 
• A manual representing a tool that could be used by any person interested to work in Global Education area. Available for free download here
• More than 900 participants (fresh global citizens) at the workshops delivered during the project; 
• A resource movie based on the project development and experience (available online); 
• 6120 indirect beneficiaries and still counting; 

 A substantial contribution to a critical mass of global citizens needed in this world!

For any questions, comments or suggestions contact Andreea-Loredana Tudorache (andreea_loredana_psi@yahoo.com) *This 1 year project (2013-2014) was financially supported by European Commission through Youth in Action program (Action 3.2)

Information provided by A.R.T. Fusion

Commission unveils its Position on Global Development after 2015

The European Commission published priorities for a sustainable development agenda on the 5th of February, ahead of negotiations for the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to the Commission, the key components that need to be in place include a conducive policy environment, capacity development, effective use of domestic and international public finance, making the most of trade and technology, and harnessing the positive effects of migration.

You can read the full article here.

Source: Euractiv

International Development Forum in Latvia

The central international event in the field of development cooperation organized during Latvian Presidency in EU Development Forum - will take place from 3rd to 5th of June, 2015, and will emphasize the idea of glocalization as the key to sustainable development in local to global levels.

The three day forum will gather 70 development cooperation NGO activists, local community grassroots representatives and opinion leaders from Latvia and 50 from European Union, Eastern Partnership countries, etc., eager to develop hopeful global and local futures. Participation is free of charge provided that the participant takes part throughout the whole 3 day event.

Reimbursement of travel expanses is available for limited number of participants from partner countries upon request. The number of places is limited. In case of a large number of applications, the participants will be selected based on the assessment of the participant's motivation and ensuring broadest possible territorial and participant's profile diversity.

Find the programme here.
Registration until March 24th, 2015.

Register now on LAPAS website.

Information provided by Inese Vaivare, LAPAS

International Tax Conference: ‘Pay your taxes where you add the value’

In co-operation with the Universities of Groningen and Tilburg and the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands organizes a one-day international tax conference. The conference will provide a forum for academics, companies, government officials and members of civil society to discuss effective ways to support developing countries’ tax policy and revenue collection. The conference aims to feed national policymaking as well as the international debate on domestic resource mobilization in the post 2015 area. The conference is held in the context of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, of which Lilianne Ploumen, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, is co-chair.

When: 2nd of July, 2015
Where: The Hague, Netherlands
Registration deadline: 17th of April, 2015

The conference is free of charge for registered participants. More information can be accessed here.

Source: Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation

The Romanian International Development Review

The Romanian International Development Review is an online review powered by ARCADIA, the Romanian Association for International Development and Cooperation, that aims to enhance knowledge sharing, open thought-provoking debates on topics relevant to the field of international development and nurture interdisciplinary dialogue.

The review provides insightful contributions and coming trends from and for professionals working in the non-governmental and governmental sector, researchers, scholars and students interested in the field. While each issue of the Review is devoted to specific topics related to the vast field of international development and cooperation, on the eve of the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) deadline, the current edition tried to offer a collection of up-to-date articles, interviews and professional opinions related to “the world’s biggest promise to reduce poverty” and furthermore, address the challenges of the new SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

The online review is available here.

The nest issue, The approach of CEE countries on international development. From aid recipients to aid donors, will be addressing the topic of the new EU donors and their strategies within the global community of donors. For all those interested in contributing with articles and opinions to the next issue more information can be found here.

Further inquires about the initiative and possible contributions should be addressed to Alexandra Sabou (Alexandra.sabou@arcadianetwork.org), the executive editor of the ARCADIA review.


Information provided by ARCADIA and FOND.

The Aid Industry – What Journalists Really Think

The International Broadcasting Trust report published at the end of 2014 is still very relevant for aid agencies and organisations working in the aid sector in general. There has been growing media criticism of the aid industry in recent years. Some of this has been ideologically driven and some opportunistic but it also appears that journalists are more insistent on holding aid agencies to account than they have been in the past. This is a good thing but often the aid sector has appeared unduly defensive in the face of criticism.

This report seeks to understand what a broad range of journalists – both specialists and generalists – think about aid and the agencies that deliver it. The criticisms are wide ranging but several themes emerge. There’s a consensus that the aid sector as a whole needs to be more open and transparent. Since media reporting of the aid industry undoubtedly has a big influence on public opinion, it’s important that we take the views of journalists seriously. A better understanding of what journalists really think will also enable those working in the aid sector to deal more effectively with media criticism.

The report can be read here.

Source: The International Broadcasting Trust

Why are there still so many hungry people in the world?

This question is the title of an article in The Guardian, looking at the progress made in achieving food security and eradicating malnutrition, as part of the global efforts towards the Millennium Development Goals, as well as the challenges ahead. The greatest challenge for the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is to eradicate poverty and hunger while maintaining sustainable food security for all in a crowded and dramatically unequal world. Although the world has succeeded in reducing poverty in accordance with the millennium development goal (MDG) targets, food security and adequate nutrition have not been achieved. The world produces enough food, the author says, while poverty and hunger prevail because of economics, not scarcity. If the international community is serious about eliminating hunger, a shift is needed from a development model based on charity and aid to one based on human rights, reinforced by accountability mechanisms.

Read the full article here.

Source: The Guardian

The Degrowth Alternative and Debating the Alternative

Giorgos Kallis, a prominent scholar on ‘degrowth’, recently wrote an essay that was the subject of debate among members of the Great Transition Initiative network. Rajesh Makwana, in a blog post on the website of Share The World’s Resources (STWR), responded to the following theme of discussion: is degrowth, as currently formulated, sufficiently rigorous and inclusive to offer the theoretical legitimacy and political unity for a system shift? He goes on to suggest that “as a popular framing that can mobilize a global citizens movement or enable system change on the scale needed, degrowth is limited. Apart from concerns around what might (paradoxically) still need to grow in a degrowth society, which might even include GDP, a key concern is its negative and unappealing framing.”

Read more on his recommendations for reframing the discussion here and Giorgos Kallis’s excellent article here.

Source: Share The World’s Resources

Google Grants – AdWords for Nonprofits

Google Grants is the nonprofit edition of AdWords, Google’s online advertising tool. Google Grants empowers nonprofit organizations, through $10,000 per month in in-kind AdWords™ advertising, to promote their missions and initiatives on Google.com. Every nonprofit has unique goals. Whether you are trying to build awareness, recruit volunteers, or increase donations, Ad Grants can help you utilize AdWords to captivate your audience and tell your story.

More information is available here.

Source: Google for Nonprofits 

OHCHR Minorities Fellowship Programme

Deadline: 20 April 2015 Open to: candidates who are/or working with minority groups
Fellowship: monthly stipend to cover accommodation and living expenses, insurance and travel costs The Minorities Fellowship Programme (MFP) was launched by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2005.

Through the MFP, the OHCHR aims to give persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities an opportunity to gain knowledge on the UN system and mechanisms dealing with international human rights in general and minority rights in particular. The MFP is intended to assist organizations and communities in protecting and promoting the rights of minorities the fellows belong to.

More information and the application form can be found here.
Deadline for submitting applications: 6th of April 2015.

Source: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Open Society Foundations Internship

The main purpose of this position is to research and produce materials for the Privatisation in Education Research Initiative (PERI) website and assist with management of social media profiles and the media dissemination strategy, within the Education Support Program. The Education Support Program works to make the right to education meaningful by combating inequality and discrimination in education and exposing structural inequalities that reproduce education disadvantage and exclusion.

Click here for more information on the required qualifications and application procedure.
Deadline for submitting applications: 1st of March 2015.

Source: Open Society Foundations