TRIALOG is organizing a study visit to German and Austrian expert sending organizations. The study visit initially planned for October has been cancelled and merged with the second study visit in spring 2008. The new date is March 2-8, 2008 and it is open to development NGOs from all 12 new EU member states who are in the process of founding a department of development worker/expert sending within their organisations.
After an introduction into the topic and the possibility to discuss different terms and definitions but also the image that one has about the own organization, the participants will be visiting AGEH (Germany), DED (Germany) and HORIZONT3000 (Austria). On Thursday, March 6, it is planned to hold a high-level roundtable with representatives from new member states and the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vienna. The last day of the study visit will be used as a reflexion day.
What are the main topics to be tackled during the Study Visit:
In every organization the group will get information about the advertisement of open positions, the selection process of possible candidates (so called experts or development workers), the preparation before the stay abroad and the monitoring of these missions. Additionally the legal context in different countries and social security aspects will be touched upon - e.g. how to deal with political or natural crisis situations. Both will be looked at on an organizational and individual level.
Who is the target group of the Study Visit?
The Study Visit is targeted to decision makers from NGDOs from all 12 new EU member states, but also from the relevant Ministries or other state agencies. The NGDO-participants should represent organizations which are within the process of founding a department of development-worker/expert-sending within their organizations. From every country, max. 3 participants will be accepted, ideally each country delegation would include at least one NGO and one state representative.
What are the objectives of the Study Visit?
At the end of the Study Visit, having visited 3 NGOs and met international experts, the participants will have a broad perspective and basic knowledge of (dis-) advantages of different expert-sending systems applied in other European and non-European countries. According to the principle “the more we know, the more questions we have …” – the participants will also have a better idea which aspects they still have to clarify in their home countries.
For more information on the agenda, the application, reimbursement and travel arrangements, please refer to the following documents:
Invitation Letter: http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/invitation-letter_studyvisit_march08.pdf
Tentative Agenda: http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/agenda_studyvisit_march08.pdf
Application Form: http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/application_for_events_2007.doc
TRIALOG Reimbursement Scheme: http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/trialog_reimbursement_scheme_april07.pdf
The deadline for application is Friday, October 19, 2007.
For further information please contact TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer Petra Kreinecker at p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at
Friday, 5 October 2007
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Successful TRIALOG FDR Preparation Seminar
The TRIALOG seminar “Added Value for new member states (NMS) organizations” in preparation of the next CONCORD FDR meeting (Funding for Development and Relief) took place in Brussels from September 25-26.
“Whenever the government in my country is trying to address some issue, it is setting up a new committee”, stated one of the participants and turned to the EC-representative, asking him with that expression, why the Commission is elaborating so much paper and changing every year important regulations without consulting and without using the lessons learnt from the past.
13 participants from all NMS (except Estonia) had the exceptional opportunity to join the FDR-preparation meeting, organized by TRIALOG with Maria Winnubst, Izabella Toth and Alwin Loeckx as resource persons. It was highly appreciated by the group that spontaneously Pieter Bangma, EC representative and responsible for Civil Society Liaison, was able to join.
Apart from information given on the structure of FDR and its subgroups and a description of the most important activities, the two day seminar in Brussels was dominated by sharing and explaining the current discussions and strategies regarding the new Thematic Programmes and Financial Instruments.
The group made a big step forward towards reaching the ambitious aim of creating an aware, informed, competent and motivated FDR NMS expert group. During the seminar, the main critical points and comments on the Annual Action Plan of the thematic programme “Non State Actors -Local Authorities (NSA-LA)” have been collected and formulated from a NMS perspective. They will now be used as a basic tool in the lobby work on a national level and will help to explain the civil society arguments vis a vis the national representatives in the Member State Committee.
TRIALOG would like to say again a sincere thank you to Maria Winnubst - the main speaker. Thanks to her some participants considered the seminar as the best they ever attended in the development cooperation framework.
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer
For further information please contact her at p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at
“Whenever the government in my country is trying to address some issue, it is setting up a new committee”, stated one of the participants and turned to the EC-representative, asking him with that expression, why the Commission is elaborating so much paper and changing every year important regulations without consulting and without using the lessons learnt from the past.
13 participants from all NMS (except Estonia) had the exceptional opportunity to join the FDR-preparation meeting, organized by TRIALOG with Maria Winnubst, Izabella Toth and Alwin Loeckx as resource persons. It was highly appreciated by the group that spontaneously Pieter Bangma, EC representative and responsible for Civil Society Liaison, was able to join.
Apart from information given on the structure of FDR and its subgroups and a description of the most important activities, the two day seminar in Brussels was dominated by sharing and explaining the current discussions and strategies regarding the new Thematic Programmes and Financial Instruments.
The group made a big step forward towards reaching the ambitious aim of creating an aware, informed, competent and motivated FDR NMS expert group. During the seminar, the main critical points and comments on the Annual Action Plan of the thematic programme “Non State Actors -Local Authorities (NSA-LA)” have been collected and formulated from a NMS perspective. They will now be used as a basic tool in the lobby work on a national level and will help to explain the civil society arguments vis a vis the national representatives in the Member State Committee.
TRIALOG would like to say again a sincere thank you to Maria Winnubst - the main speaker. Thanks to her some participants considered the seminar as the best they ever attended in the development cooperation framework.
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer
For further information please contact her at p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at
Slovenian EU presidency to push for further Balkan integration
"Keen on pushing forward EU integration of the Balkan countries during its presidency of the bloc from January to July next year, Slovenia has sent a letter to EU leaders and the European commission calling for 'brave decisions' regarding the region", the EUobserver reports. Read more at: http://euobserver.com/9/24880/?rk=1
Source: EUobserver.com - 02.10.2007
Source: EUobserver.com - 02.10.2007
CONCORD Working Groups newsletter
The latest CONCORD Working Groups newsletter reports on the work of the Working Groups for the first semester of 2007, January to June. Also the work of the TRIALOG and DEEEP projects in this period is covered.
From the content:
CONCORD is moving forward. The Assessment and Adjustment process is drawing to an end, with some implications for CONCORD working structures. On the invitation of the Board of CONCORD, most of the working structures have broadly discussed and reviewed their terms of reference and submitted amended versions to the Board for approval. Some groups have decided to move forward without major changes, other groups prefer to evolve, taking up new challenges. The most notable being the former policy group, now called the “policy forum”, which strives to ensure an overview and coherence within CONCORD advocacy work, and the former Enlargement working group, now called “Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood” working group (EPAN).
A communication network has also been set up. Communication Officers gathered in early June in Brussels for the first Communication Seminar with nine workshops offering training and peer-to-peer exchanges of experience and knowledge. The central theme was how to use new techniques better in order to increase the impact of NGOs when campaigning, advocating, raising funds or dealing with the media.
Read more on: http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=6582
Information provided by Pierre Mathieu, CONCORD Assistant
From the content:
CONCORD is moving forward. The Assessment and Adjustment process is drawing to an end, with some implications for CONCORD working structures. On the invitation of the Board of CONCORD, most of the working structures have broadly discussed and reviewed their terms of reference and submitted amended versions to the Board for approval. Some groups have decided to move forward without major changes, other groups prefer to evolve, taking up new challenges. The most notable being the former policy group, now called the “policy forum”, which strives to ensure an overview and coherence within CONCORD advocacy work, and the former Enlargement working group, now called “Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood” working group (EPAN).
A communication network has also been set up. Communication Officers gathered in early June in Brussels for the first Communication Seminar with nine workshops offering training and peer-to-peer exchanges of experience and knowledge. The central theme was how to use new techniques better in order to increase the impact of NGOs when campaigning, advocating, raising funds or dealing with the media.
Read more on: http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=6582
Information provided by Pierre Mathieu, CONCORD Assistant
New issue of Development Education Times
Download the latest DE Times, the newsletter of DEEEP, the Development Education Exchange in Europe project, from: http://www.deeep.org/english/news/de_times/2times4/detimes2_04_en.pdf
DE Times now has a new design and provides information on development education and development cooperation issues, conferences, seminars, meetings, NGO funding opportunity, job vacancies, DE resources and more. Read in this issue reports on the Development Education summer school, reflections on how young people can make a difference, on policy and practice, an article on the Teleproject "Global Education Week at School in Slovakia" and more.
Information provided by Chiara Tripepi, DEEEP Information Officer
DE Times now has a new design and provides information on development education and development cooperation issues, conferences, seminars, meetings, NGO funding opportunity, job vacancies, DE resources and more. Read in this issue reports on the Development Education summer school, reflections on how young people can make a difference, on policy and practice, an article on the Teleproject "Global Education Week at School in Slovakia" and more.
Information provided by Chiara Tripepi, DEEEP Information Officer
Latest Development and Transition newsletter
The July issue of Development and Transition is available online at http://www.developmentandtransition.net/. The theme of this issue is the Private Sector and Poverty Reduction, with a special focus on microfinance. This issue examines the current state of the region's private sector, and how development agencies can strengthen its pro-poor characteristics.
As the title suggests, Development and Transition aims to be a forum for policy-oriented discussions and debates about how the nature, evolution, and challenges of development and transition intersect in Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and also Turkey. The aim is to discuss and think differently about policy frameworks by bringing together a variety of viewpoints and analytical approaches from researchers and practitioners to explore and explain the core issues and problems, and to extract the best practices.
Previous issues can be also downloaded from: http://www.developmentandtransition.net/
The newsletter on Development and Transition is published three times a year as a joint enterprise between UNDP and LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science).
Information provided by James Hughes and Ben Slay, Development and Transition
As the title suggests, Development and Transition aims to be a forum for policy-oriented discussions and debates about how the nature, evolution, and challenges of development and transition intersect in Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and also Turkey. The aim is to discuss and think differently about policy frameworks by bringing together a variety of viewpoints and analytical approaches from researchers and practitioners to explore and explain the core issues and problems, and to extract the best practices.
Previous issues can be also downloaded from: http://www.developmentandtransition.net/
The newsletter on Development and Transition is published three times a year as a joint enterprise between UNDP and LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science).
Information provided by James Hughes and Ben Slay, Development and Transition
WIDE News from August and September
WIDE News, Number 8, covering news from August and September 2007 is now awailable online at: http://62.149.193.10/wide/download/2007_News_8.pdf?id=505
From the content:
- Accra High Level Forum on aid effectiveness: where has the process got so far?
- Civil Society Conference on effective democratic governance and the aid effectiveness agenda
- Launch of EU Gender Watch Report – Losing women’s issues through gender mainstreaming?
- Alternatives to the direction of the European Union
For more information please turn to: http://www.wide-network.org/
Information provided by Gea Meijers, WIDE Network Officer
From the content:
- Accra High Level Forum on aid effectiveness: where has the process got so far?
- Civil Society Conference on effective democratic governance and the aid effectiveness agenda
- Launch of EU Gender Watch Report – Losing women’s issues through gender mainstreaming?
- Alternatives to the direction of the European Union
For more information please turn to: http://www.wide-network.org/
Information provided by Gea Meijers, WIDE Network Officer
UNCTAD: The Least Developed Countries Report 2007
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD published The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Report on Knowledge, technological learning and innovation for development. The Report gives a comprehensive insight into the development objective of technological learning and innovation capacity-building in LDCs. It is intended to increase awareness of this issue and enrich the policy dialogue toward the new "paradigm shift" on poverty reduction through productive capacity-building.
For more information and to download the report turn to:
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/WebFlyer.asp?intItemID=4314&lang=1
Source: oeza aktuell Nr. 83/ September 2007
For more information and to download the report turn to:
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/WebFlyer.asp?intItemID=4314&lang=1
Source: oeza aktuell Nr. 83/ September 2007
Bled Strategic Forum: EU 2020 - Enlarging and Integrating
The second Bled Strategic Forum, organized by the Center for European Perspectives in Bled/Slovenia, was dedicated to the question of future EU enlargement and the future of the EU integration process. The conference was held from 26 to 27 August 2007 and brought together high level decision-makers - mostly from the public and private spheres as well as academics -to discuss on the topic "European Union 2020: Enlarging and Integrating" and some major challenges the European Union is facing today such as energy and environment. The issues of global warming and energy security have been addressed as problems that concern not the EU alone, but will have to be dealt with on a global scale. Europe has a leading role in the fight to curb global warming, but much remains to be done and the participants posed the question whether an enlarged Europe has also become a management challenge.
The four panels of this year’s Bled Strategic Forum dealt with the following topics:
The Next EU Enlargement Energy and Climate Change Global Preponderance The Future of EU Integration Process
The four panels of this year’s Bled Strategic Forum dealt with the following topics:
Two breakout sessions in the afternoon on 27 August focused on ”Economic and Political Trends in the South Caucasus and Central Asia: The Role of the EU and the OSCE“ and ”Turkey in Europe".
The Conference Background Paper and some of the speeches can be downloaded from: http://www.bledstrategicforum.org/index.php?id=4&lang=en
Source: http://www.bledstrategicforum.orgDecember 4-5, 2007: TRIALOG Time Management Seminar; Vienna
The target group of this participatory TRIALOG seminar are new EU member states' NGDO platform coordinators, their assistants and substitutes. The event will be held in Vienna as a two-day seminar on the 4th - 5th of December 2007 (9:00 - 17:00).
For the first day we have invited a theatre pedagogue to work with the technique "statues" of the methodology "Theatre of the Oppressed", originally developed in Brazil. During the second day we will focus on practical working tools, to organize ourselves taking into acount all the needs and requirements of the different stakeholders.
If you are interested, please send your Application Form (see link below) to p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at by Monday, October 15, 2007.
Application Form for Participation in Events:
http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/application_for_events_2007.doc
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer
For the first day we have invited a theatre pedagogue to work with the technique "statues" of the methodology "Theatre of the Oppressed", originally developed in Brazil. During the second day we will focus on practical working tools, to organize ourselves taking into acount all the needs and requirements of the different stakeholders.
If you are interested, please send your Application Form (see link below) to p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at by Monday, October 15, 2007.
Application Form for Participation in Events:
http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/application_for_events_2007.doc
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
New structure of EuropeAid
In summer 2007 EuropeAid has been restructured. The new Direction F has four departments: F1/Relation with civil society and co-ordination (headed by A. Bouratsis), F2/programming RELEX (mainly human rights and democracy budget lines, under the responsibility of External Relations Directorate General - DG RELEX), F3/ programming DEV (thematic programmes under the responsibility of the Directorate General for Development - DG DEV), F4/Contracts and finances (former 05). The former service 04 is replaced by the departments F2 and F3 which now manage the thematic budget lines. The staff responsible for NGO co-financing is now working in F3. The department F1 is responsible for the general communication with NGOs.
View the new EuropeAid Organigramme at:
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/general/pdf/organigramme_europeaid_en.pdf
Find more information in the "Who we are"-section of the EuropeAid website:
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/who/index_en.htm
Information provided by bengo, eu-mail-info Nr. 195-17.07.2007 and CONCORD/FDR.
View the new EuropeAid Organigramme at:
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/general/pdf/organigramme_europeaid_en.pdf
Find more information in the "Who we are"-section of the EuropeAid website:
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/who/index_en.htm
Information provided by bengo, eu-mail-info Nr. 195-17.07.2007 and CONCORD/FDR.
Provisional Data on the 2006 EC Calls
The first provisional results on the 2006 EC NGO Co-financing Calls for Proposals have been communicated by EuropeAid recently. Both 2006 calls of the budget line 21 02 03 (ED, PVD) have been two stages calls for proposals (1st stage: concept note, 2nd stage: full proposal).
The final selection of development education and awareness raising projects (ED) has not taken place yet, the provisional statistics contain the number of full proposals that were submitted. Out of the total of 150, 35 full proposals were submitted from new member states NGOs. A decision is expected not earlier than for the end of October 2007. It will show how the extra 10m EUR for actions in new member states (NMS) have been assigned.
The provisional data on selected NGO projects in developing countries (PVD) shows the following picture regarding new member states results: only 1 Czech NGO was successful in getting a PVD project approved. Hungarian and Lithuanian concept notes did not pass into the second stage, Polish and Slovak full applications did not succeed in the second stage. For the moment, the reasons for this are unknown.
To compare with the previous years:
In 2005, 1 Czech and 1 Slovenian NGO were successful as applicants in ED versus no new member states contracts in PVD.
In 2004, the year of the EU enlargement and first possibility to apply, no NMS NGO received a contract within the NGO co-financing budget line.
However, since 2004 many NMS NGOs have participated as consortium members or partners in EC funded projects.
View the PROVISIONAL 2006 NGO Co-Financing Calls for Proposal data at:
http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/provisional_statistics_2006pvd_sept2007.pdf
The final selection of development education and awareness raising projects (ED) has not taken place yet, the provisional statistics contain the number of full proposals that were submitted. Out of the total of 150, 35 full proposals were submitted from new member states NGOs. A decision is expected not earlier than for the end of October 2007. It will show how the extra 10m EUR for actions in new member states (NMS) have been assigned.
The provisional data on selected NGO projects in developing countries (PVD) shows the following picture regarding new member states results: only 1 Czech NGO was successful in getting a PVD project approved. Hungarian and Lithuanian concept notes did not pass into the second stage, Polish and Slovak full applications did not succeed in the second stage. For the moment, the reasons for this are unknown.
To compare with the previous years:
In 2005, 1 Czech and 1 Slovenian NGO were successful as applicants in ED versus no new member states contracts in PVD.
In 2004, the year of the EU enlargement and first possibility to apply, no NMS NGO received a contract within the NGO co-financing budget line.
However, since 2004 many NMS NGOs have participated as consortium members or partners in EC funded projects.
View the PROVISIONAL 2006 NGO Co-Financing Calls for Proposal data at:
http://www.trialog.or.at/docs/provisional_statistics_2006pvd_sept2007.pdf
TRIALOG support to the Slovenian platform SLOGA
Slovenia will host the EU-presidency from January to June 2008 and will be therefore the first new member state fulfilling that crucial task. It is a big opportunity for the Slovenian NGDO platform SLOGA to raise awareness on development issues and to launch important campaigns, targeting national and European politicians and the broader public. But it is also a big challenge, as SLOGA is a young platform which only became CONCORD member in 2006.
TRIALOG facilitated during the last months the networking process within the platform member organizations to develop the joint presidency project “Difference is our Strenght” on Development Education and Awareness Raising in Slovenia. Although SLOGA has not received until now the written contract from EuropeAid, the platform got positive feedback and is looking forward to sign the formalities during the nearest future.
To prepare the big Conference in June 2008 in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana – planned as the main activity of the presidency project - will be the dominating topic of the planning session this October between SLOGA, the Development Education Forum (DEF), DEEEP (Development Education Exchange in Europe Project) and TRIALOG.
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer
For more information on SLOGA, turn to: http://www.sloga-platform.org/
TRIALOG facilitated during the last months the networking process within the platform member organizations to develop the joint presidency project “Difference is our Strenght” on Development Education and Awareness Raising in Slovenia. Although SLOGA has not received until now the written contract from EuropeAid, the platform got positive feedback and is looking forward to sign the formalities during the nearest future.
To prepare the big Conference in June 2008 in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana – planned as the main activity of the presidency project - will be the dominating topic of the planning session this October between SLOGA, the Development Education Forum (DEF), DEEEP (Development Education Exchange in Europe Project) and TRIALOG.
Information provided by Petra Kreinecker, TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer
For more information on SLOGA, turn to: http://www.sloga-platform.org/
GCAP Europe meeting in Rome
GCAP Europe (Global Call to Action against Poverty) held its annual meeting in Rome between the 13th and 15th of September 2007, with the aim of constructing its vision for political change for the coming three years. The new EU member state GCAP campaigns from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Romania and Slovenia were present. The participation from BG, H, MT and RO was made possible through TRIALOG support.
The main question tackled during the meeting was: “What are our objectives for change in the next three years?” Participants noted that GCAP Europe had no roadmap for the future, and during the three intense days of workshops and discussion set out to agree what changes to make in the next few years and what GCAP Europe might set out to achieve together. In particular the meeting set out to explicate what additional framework to Montevideo we as Europe believe is useful. It was made clear from the start that all the demands need to be made within the resources that we have i.e. within what is achievable and within what is in our power.
Participants agreed to find ways to measure the changes they aspire to and to create attainable indicators of success. Participants also agreed to more action at a European level, in particular in view of the forthcoming 2009 Elections to the European Parliament. Recurring key words were Governance, More and better Aid, Trade Justice, Debt Cancellation, Gender Equality, Climate Change, Corporate Accountability and the Europe – Africa partnership.
Participants also shared their plans for the forthcoming International Day against Poverty (October 17), agreeing that the main objectives of the day will be to raise awareness, put pressure on political decision makers, mobilise mass numbers of people, ensure wide media coverage, and demonstrate the ever growing number of people that agree with the main aims of GCAP.
The meeting concluded with participants agreeing to set a deadline to improve the strategic framework by January 2008 in view of having in January 2008 a GCAP Europe Strategic Framework 2008 - 2010.
Information provided by Vince Caruana, Kopin Malta
For more information on GCAP, please go to: http://www.whiteband.org/
The main question tackled during the meeting was: “What are our objectives for change in the next three years?” Participants noted that GCAP Europe had no roadmap for the future, and during the three intense days of workshops and discussion set out to agree what changes to make in the next few years and what GCAP Europe might set out to achieve together. In particular the meeting set out to explicate what additional framework to Montevideo we as Europe believe is useful. It was made clear from the start that all the demands need to be made within the resources that we have i.e. within what is achievable and within what is in our power.
Participants agreed to find ways to measure the changes they aspire to and to create attainable indicators of success. Participants also agreed to more action at a European level, in particular in view of the forthcoming 2009 Elections to the European Parliament. Recurring key words were Governance, More and better Aid, Trade Justice, Debt Cancellation, Gender Equality, Climate Change, Corporate Accountability and the Europe – Africa partnership.
Participants also shared their plans for the forthcoming International Day against Poverty (October 17), agreeing that the main objectives of the day will be to raise awareness, put pressure on political decision makers, mobilise mass numbers of people, ensure wide media coverage, and demonstrate the ever growing number of people that agree with the main aims of GCAP.
The meeting concluded with participants agreeing to set a deadline to improve the strategic framework by January 2008 in view of having in January 2008 a GCAP Europe Strategic Framework 2008 - 2010.
Information provided by Vince Caruana, Kopin Malta
For more information on GCAP, please go to: http://www.whiteband.org/
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