TRIALOG Information Service (TIS)

Thursday, 17 December 2009

February 15-17, 2010: 2nd Edition of the Partnership Fair in Vienna: Apply now!

Due to the significant success of the previous edition of the TRIALOG Partnership Fair held in October 2006, when many of the later EC-funded development education projects under the Non State Actors and Local Authorities (NSA-LA) budget line were conceived, TRIALOG in partnership with DEEEP and CONCORD will host the second edition of this even

t on February 15-17, 2010. Reserve the dates now and apply the latest by January 15, 2010!

The partnership fair is a learning, networking and project-designing event, gathering more than 150 participants mainly from development CSOs from across Europe coming from different sectors (development education, human rights, environment, gender etc). The Partnership Fair facilitates partnerships, cooperation, learning and exchange at an international level for joint projects for development. Many key development actors (representatives of the EC, universities, local authorities, and trade unions) will contribute either as speakers, facilitators or participants.

Find more information (incl. agenda, description and application documents) at: http://www.trialog.or.at/start.asp?ID=209 Send the Application form (http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/applicationform_de_partnershipfair.doc) to TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Andra Tanase a.tanase@trialog.or.at by January 15, 2010 the latest! Note that applications will be processed on a rolling basis.

Important information regarding financial assistance and reimbursements:
Financial Assistance for travel and accommodation in the Partnership Fair is available to successful applicants from New EU Member States only. Applicants needing financial assistance should also fill in the Application Form for Participation in an Event: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/application_for_events.doc (in addition to the Partnership Fair Application Form above) .

Information provided by Andra Tanase, TRIALOG

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

Documentation of Expert Seminar on the Future of CSOs

Around 40 participants met at the TRIALOG-CONCORD Expert Seminar on November 10-11, 2009 to deepen the discussion on the future role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in development, in times when the overall political environment for the work of genuine CSOs is getting less and less favourable.

The seminar sessions and working groups touched on various relevant aspects regarding the work of CSOs, such as e.g. the role of Southern CSOs versus the role of European CSOs, the values and factors that motivate and influence our work, faced dependencies and how to avoid them, similiarities and differencies between new EU member states (NMS) and old member states (OMS) in the development cooperation processes, hindering and helping factors for the work of CSOs, the influence of the current crises, the CSO development effectiveness and other topics. Last but not least the question around the necessity of a Code of Conduct for CSOs provoked a vivid exchange of views.

The discussions showed that there is an interest and clear need to confront each other with the topics and different opinions around the role and future of CSOs. Such kind of clarifying discussions and productive debates are needed to find out which approaches drive our day-to-day work and what do we really want to jointly achieve in future. The debates are interlinked to the processes which are going on in the CONCORD family of organisations in the frame of the CSO Development Effectiveness agenda and its global CSO Forum as well as the 2nd CONCORD strategic aim of "Promoting the rights and responsibilities of civil society".

The recent Expert Seminar was a preparatory event for a further conference planned in autumn 2010 in Managua, Nicaragua (November 24-26, 2010). The idea of continuing a dialogue and self-reflection on our role as development actors in a conference in the South was an outcome of the 2008 Prague conference "Are we on the right track? Paradigm Review by CSOs as Development Actors" (see http://www.trialog.or.at/start.asp?ID=155). At that time, many of the participants felt that an open dialogue between CSOs from „West", „East" and „South" should be intensified for reflecting together upon the principles which underlie our work and that such a dialogue should take place in the South. As for the recent expert seminar, participation in the Managua conference will not be limited to those who have been involved in the process since the Prague conference. The process is open for everyone who is interested to reflect on our collective approaches and responses to poverty and global inequalities and to work on practical orientations for the CSO community.

Find the documentation of the November Expert seminar on the TRIALOG website at:

http://www.trialog.or.at/start.asp?ID=208

Information provided by Anita Bister, TRIALOG

Provisional Results of last EC development education call

The EC made available the first results of the 2008 call for proposals on “Public Awareness and Education for Development in Europe.” Please note that slight changes could still be possible as these are provisional results and the final ones should be released shortly.

The data shows that compared to the previous call, no single trend can be identified, the picture is complex with some clear advances but also spaces to make some improvement.

If we were to compare the number of concept notes received, only 4 out of the 12 New Member States submitted more concept notes than in the year before, which shows rather low productivity in terms of participation in this call for proposals. Numbers only, the average number of concept notes submitted by Old Member States is 21.13 compared to only 5.25 in New Member States.

However, the success rate shows a different picture. The vast majority of New Member States improved significantly the success rate. If in the 2007 call, 9 out of 12 had 0 next to the success rate, this year it seems like only 4 countries among the 12 New Member States did not manage to secure any projects as main applicants. Development Education projects have this time lead applicants in Bulgaria (2), Cyprus (2), Czech Republic (6), Hungary (2), Latvia (2), Poland (3), Slovakia (1) and Slovenia (2). Numbers are this time favourable, with an average success rate of 29.5% in New Member States compared to ´only´ 15.7% in the Old Member States (Full Applications selected / Concept Notes received). Thus, quality instead of quantity seems to be the way forward. Furthermore, although not visible in this information sheet, the number of successful applications in which New Member States are involved as partners in a consortium is thought to be high.

Download the preliminary results at: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/prov-results-ec-decall2008.pdf
For comparison with the previous 2007 statistics see: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/stakeholders-meeting-25-02-09-final.pdf; http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/ed2007-preliminary-results.pdf

But certainly numbers do not tell the entire story, and certainly there is no score to be kept like in a sports competition. Deeper processes need to be investigated. We need to look more on whether receiving easier conditions from the EC (such as the 10% versus the 25% of co-financing) made the New Member States more attractive and thus more likely to be main applicant in the consortium. We also need to look more on whether the EC was influenced by the voices asking for more countries being beneficiaries of development education calls (in the 2007 call only 11 countries received contracts, compared to 21 countries in the 2008 call).These are just some hypothesis inviting further analysis. What seems to hold true is that the results of the capacity building activities are starting to show and now there are more solid applications.

TRIALOG will continue to support the New Member States in finding partners, improving project writing skills and also having a stronger voice vis-à-vis the European Commission. Awaiting the next Call for Proposals, expected to be released in the spring of 2010 TRIALOG organizes the 2nd Edition of the Development Education Partnership Fair to be held in Vienna between the 15th and the 17th of February 2010. To read more about the event and the application process please see the Events section of TIS or visit http://www.trialog.or.at/

Information provided by Andra Tanase, TRIALOG

Coordination meeting between CONCORD, DEEEP and TRIALOG

In early December 2009, the secretariats of the European NGO confederation for relief and development CONCORD and of the two projects DEEEP and TRIALOG met in Brussels to coordinate their activities for the upcoming year 2010.

The timing was right for such a coordination meeting: Both the DEEEP and TRIALOG projects have recently entered into their new 3 year project phases and a number of new staff members have started their work within the CONCORD secretariat. The objectives of the meeting included information sharing as well as the identification of specific synergies with regard to the action plans 2010. It was also an opportunity to get to know each other and share the objectives of our work in order to get a better understanding of our specific tasks as well as of our joint mission. In smaller thematic groups, the coordination procedures for each working field were discussed in more detail in order to ensure that the dialogue will go on on a regular basis.

Search for partners in NMS for joint actions on Colombia

OIDHACO, the International Office for Human Rights - Action on Colombia (a network of more than 30 civil society organisations), is inviting NGOs from new member states (NMS) to join or support the coalition which works to improve human rights, promote democracy and the search for peace in Colombia.

Possibilities for cooperation range from becoming members or observers to organising advocacy and awareness raising activities on Colombia or any kind of support in terms of organising meetings, inviting Colombian representatives who are travelling to Europe, sending on key messages proposed by OIDHACO to NMS governments and MEPs or exchanging newsletters etc.

Find more information at http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/oidhaco-partner-search.pdf. For further details please contact Emmanuel Raison at emmanuel.raison@oidhaco.org, oidhaco@oidhaco.org or visit http://www.oidhaco.net/.

Information provided by Emmanuel Raison, OIDHACO

Parliamentary debate: Current Challenges of Czech Development Cooperation

On 3 December 2009, the Czech Platform for Development Co-operation (FoRS) organised a parliamentary debate on “Current Challenges of Czech Development Cooperation“ in the course of the historically first meeting of the Subcommittee for Development Cooperation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security of the Senate of the Czech Republic. The debate was attended by Czech Members of Parliament, representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Czech Development Agency, Business Platform for Foreign Development Cooperation and representatives from Czech NGOs.

On this occasion, NGO representatives introduced the position document “What kind of Czech Development Cooperation do we want? – Contribution of FoRS to the new conception of the Czech Development Cooperation.” In addition, topics discussed at the debate included the importance of development cooperation including the legitimacy of particular goals and interests, financing, effectiveness and political coherence.

For related information, see also the article “Study: Czech Development Cooperation at a Crossroads" in this TIS.

Information provided by Katerina Gabrielova, FoRS

Promoting development in Europe: Conference and Toolkit on HRBA

"Promoting development in Europe: Towards a critical mass and beyond" was the title of a conference on the role of the civil society campaigning for International Development in New EU member states which took place in Budapest, Hungary, on 19-20 November 2009.

The event was organized by the Minority Rights Group International and their project partners within the 2-year Promoting Development in Europe project. It attempted to promote a Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) to development cooperation and to build the capacity of NGDOs from New Member States and other actors (teacher training institutions, teacher associations, universities, journalists etc) on raising public awareness mainly on the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and incorporate or advocate for the implementation of HRBA in their development work.

About 30 participants attended the Conference, the agenda of which included a good balance between workshops (How to Use the Media, Strategic Planning and Campaigning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Development Education) and plenary sessions (presentations of the project and project outcomes, of what a HRBA to development is, of the situation of development education in New Member States, and concrete development problems in the field).

An interesting take-home item and also a good resource to be used is the Toolkit on HRBA to campaigning and development education in the new member states downloadable at: http://www.minorityrights.org/9380/toolkit/development-education-toolkit.html (or direct link: http://www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=729) The toolkit is supposed to soon become available also in Hungarian, Latvian, Polish, Slovak and Slovenian language.

Information provided by Andra Tanase, TRIALOG

CONCORD welcomes two new members: Cyprus and Estonia

At the CONCORD General Assembly in November 2009, the national platforms of development NGOs in Cyprus and Estonia were accepted as the newest members of the confederation.

24 of the 27 member states of the EU are now officially represented in CONCORD, with Bulgaria, Romania and Lithuania the only platforms to still join in future. TRIALOG will continue to support the active participation of the New Member States platforms in CONCORD working groups and activities.

We congratulate CONCORD’s newest members: the Cyprus Islandwide Development NGO Platform (CYINDEP) and the Estonian Roundtable for Development Cooperation (AKÜ)!

Link to CONCORD members: http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=17

Information provided by Rebecca Steel-Jasińska, TRIALOG

Towards Global Education in Slovenian schools?

More than 100 teachers, university professors, researchers, NGO and governmental representatives gathered on 17th November 2009 at the City Hall of Ljubljana in Slovenia where the seminar "With global education to global solidarity: building intercultural competencies and global citizenship in schools" took place. The seminar, organised by the Platform of Slovenian NGOs for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid SLOGA and supported by the North South Centre of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, focused on inclusion of global education into Slovenian formal and non-formal education. The introductory speaker - Slovenian minister of education dr. Igor Lukšič – emphasized the necessity of teaching youth values of solidarity, equality, justice, freedom as key values of global education. During two panels and three workshops, which also included international guest speakers from Great Britain, Czech Republic, Norway and the North South Centre, participants discussed why there is a need for global education in Slovenia, what is already included into the Slovenian school curricula, what could be improved and how, and what roles various stakeholders play in systematic inclusion of global education into school curricula.

Participants moved beyond differences in definitions of global education but emphasized that there is unclearness which leaves global education ‘hanging’ between Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Slovenian Ministry of Education. A strong point was made on the necessity of including global education into school curricula as a horizontal dimension,

which relates to all school subjects. It was mentioned that “global education is not an extra curricular but a cross-curricular activity”.

There was a clear recognition that a national strategy for global education is needed; and this topic was further elaborated in the workshop "Slovenian national strategy for Global Education". The workshop was also attended by various ministry representatives although unfortunately the representative from the Ministry of Education who had planned to attend this particular workshop had to be excused at the last minute. Nevertheless the initiative for a multistakeholder group was taken up and actions for its establishment were ageed which will hopefully lead to concrete steps in the year 2010.

Information provided by Barbara Vodopivec, SLOGA

Study: Czech Development Cooperation at a Crossroads

On 13 November 2009, the Czech Forum for Development Co-operation (FoRS) launched the new evaluation study on the Czech Official Development Cooperation between the years 2008 and 2009. The publication is entitled “Czech Development Cooperation at a Crossroads.”

The study “Czech Development Cooperation at a Crossroads” is a follow-up to the publication “How the Czech Republic helps—Study on the Czech Official Development Cooperation” in 2007 published by FoRS in 2008. The aim of both studies is to provide an outlook on the content and form of the Czech Official Development Cooperation from the NGOs' perspective. The publication represents the FoRS effort to point out what development cooperation should be about: increase of the standard of living of poor people in developing countries.

The study “Czech Development Cooperation at a Crossroads” analyses the present process of transformation of the Czech Official Development Cooperation and focuses on the structure and the amount of the development aid in 2008 as well as on the planned budget for the future period of 2010 -2012. The study also focuses on the impacts of the financial and economic crises on the development countries and how the crisis influenced development aid of other donors.

A summary of the study can be found at http://www.fors.cz/en/news/news/czech-development-cooperation-at-a-crossroads
Direct link: http://www.fors.cz/assets/files/Dokumenty%20k%20ceske%20ZRS/AWSum.pdf

Information provided by Katerina Gabrielova, FoRS

20 Years of Czech Development Cooperation

On 9 November, 2009, the Czech Platform for Development Co-operation (FoRS) and the organisation People in Need launched the media campaign "20 years of Czech Development Cooperation". The campaign not only brings attention to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain but at the same time evaluates successes and falls of the Czech Republic during the past 20 years. On this occasion, Czech non-governmental organisations would like to point out that besides increasing the GDP or the membership in important international organisations, there is still one more thing which Czechs can be proud of and that is the Czech development cooperation.

Between 1989 and 2009, Czech non-governmental organisations helped in more than 60 countries in the world. Czechs have shown their solidarity not only in a number of countries troubled by natural disasters or wars but have also directly or indirectly supported many long term development projects focusing on education, health care, infrastructure and other fields.

The campaign shows that even though we live in times of economic crisis, we should not forget that in many parts of the world people still live in much worse conditions than we do and thus they need our help.

The campaign has launched a website which presents all FoRS members and successful projects, media articles, and promotion materials. The internet site of the campaign is http://www.ceskapomoc.cz/

Information provided by Katerina Gabrielova, FoRS

FOND launches research paper "It's our turn to help"

On the 6th of November 2009 the Romanian NGDO Platform (FOND) organised a conference to launch a research paper regarding development cooperation issues in Romania. The paper was prepared by Mirela Oprea (FOND Board Member / World Vision Romania) and Rodica Novac (ADO SAH Romania). Among the guests invited at the event there were representatives of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Romanian Ministry of Interior and Administration, the European Parliament, FOND members, embassies in Bucharest, mass-media, private sector, academia and students. The event was part of a project currently implemented by FOND and financed by the Presidency Fund.

The research paper “It’s our turn to help” not only reflects the present state of affairs, but it also considers the past, drawing our attention on Romania’s pre-’89 policy towards the developing countries. Other issues taken into consideration revolve around the current Romanian institutional framework for development cooperation (local capacity building, the role of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the coordinator of this policy, the Romanian National Strategy on Development Cooperation) and the Romanian ODA projects and initiatives (including the creation of the Romanian NGDO Platform, cross-border co-operation and NGO awareness and development eduction campaigns).

The conference opened an interesting debate on Romania’s past experience with international development matters; for the first time sources showing that before 1989 Romania ‘was by far one of the biggest donors of foreign assistance in Eastern Europe’ were brought into a public debate. This new approach may help define better Romania’s role as a “new” donor.

The paper is available on the FOND website: http://www.fondromania.org/eng/library/research.rar. For further information please contact Adela Rusu: adela.rusu@fondromania.org. Feedback is very much welcome as well!

Information provided by Adela Rusu, FOND

Black Sea NGO Forum 2009: „NGOs in Times of Crisis”

The second edition of the Forum was organized by the Romanian NGDO platform FOND in Bucharest, on 29-31 October 2009. Over 180 participants from 21 countries attended the event. The topics of the Forum were selected based on a consultation process that was launched in early summer 2009. Based on the first edition’s evaluation and suggestions, the second edition of the Forum included more space for discussion and participation: 2 series of 5 parallel panels, on the following topics: democracy, human rights, environment, children rights, social protection, strengthening civil society, advocacy & policy, financial sustainability & fundraising, legitimacy of the sector & relations with governments, volunteering & citizen participation.

Study visits to Romanian NGOs were organized for the participants in order to help them become better acquainted with the contribution of local civil society to the process of transition and reforms before and during the accession to the EU. Participants had the possibility to choose to visit NGOs in their specific field of work (democracy and good governance, human rights, freedom of expression and mass media, environment, child protection, social services, health).

The Black Sea NGO Forum was launched in 2008 by the Romanian Federation of Development NGOs (FOND) and its partners throughout the region with support from the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation in the framework of the Black Sea Synergy. It has continued in 2009 in cooperation with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Commission and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.

For more information please visit: http://www.blackseango.org/

Information provided by Adela Rusu, FOND

Round Table to conclude the Presidency Fund project in Bulgaria

On October 30, 2009, the Bulgarian Platform for International Development (BPID) organised a Round Table on the “Participation of Bulgarian Civil Society in EU Development Cooperation”. The Round Table was the closing event of a Presidency Fund supported project which aimed at building the capacity of the Bulgarian National NGDO Platform BPID and its member organisations to engage in policy work.

While the opening remarks of Mr. Kostov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, showed a picture of Bulgaria as engaged member of the European Union in the field of international development cooperation, the following speaker, Mr. Belev, Head of the Department “Development Policy” in the MFA, brought the audience back down to earth and the poor reality of Bulgarian O

fficial Development Assistance (ODA). Despite the years of preparation of his unit for becoming an important donor country of ODA and many efforts to create a strategy for Bulgarian ODA, Mr. Belev had to commit that the quantity of ODA is very poor and perspectives for 2010 are even worse. In the draft national budget the amount foreseen for ODA was zero (version end of October). This limits not only the governmental bilateral development cooperation but also any attempts for supporting civil society engagement in this field.

The Bulgarian NGDO platform BPID was legally established in January 2009 and is not yet member of the European confederation of NGDOs – CONCORD. Annamaria Kekesi, board member of CONCORD participated in the Round Table and presented the confederation and its role on European level. TRIALOG supported the creation and establishment of the Bulgarian platform since the very beginning in 2005 with seminars, conferences, tr

ainings, study visits, advocacy, advice and other support. Christine Bedoya, director of TRIALOG, explained the role of TRIALOG in establishing partnerships between the 15 old EU member states, the 12 new member states and the Global South.

The second part of the Round Table was dedicated to presentations of examples of national ODA systems of other countries, explained by the Ambassadors or Deputy Head of Missions from the Netherlands, Hungary, Japan, Czech Republic and Great Britain. All these presentations showed not only a profound knowledge of the speakers on their national ODA but confirmed also the importance of the active participation of Civil Society Organisations in development cooperation.

Links:
Information on the Presidency Fund supported project: http://www.presidencyfund.org/wcm/projects-supported-by-the-presidency-fund/call-5/103-ecip-foundation.html
Bulgaria country information on the TRIALOG website: http://www.trialog.or.at/start.asp?ID=75

Photos: BPID

Information provided by Christine Bedoya, TRIALOG