Sustainable Development of Cross Border Partnerships

 

Project Presentation
“Sustainable Development of Cross Border Partnerships”

The project has as main objectives: The general objective: Developing the organizational capacity of the nongovernmental sector from Suceava and Chernivtsy in order to develop joint programs and activities.   Specific objectives: Training the leaders of the NGOs from both cross border communities in order to improve the organizational capacity of this sector; Initializing and developing on long term the communication and cooperation frame between the NGO sector from both cross-border regions from Suceava County and Chernivtsy Region; Promoting the NGOs sector at the level of the local communities, as an important premise of local development. The target group of the project is represented by 26 NGO leaders from Suceava and Chernivtsy who will be selected by the project’s implementation team according to the established criteria. The project suggests the organizing and unfolding of a training course for the leaders of the local NGOs regarding the methods of organizational development within the sector (the management of human and financial resources within an NGO, the relationship between NGO- local community- SWOT analysis, cost benefice analysis, internal and external communication techniques, strategies for promoting volunteering, fundraising strategies, the growth of the NGOs’ visibility at the communities’ level, the relationship local administration- associative sector as a premise for organizational development, notions of project management). The training course will be structured in 2 parts which will unfold at Chernivtsy and Suceava. The participants will benefit from the training offered by a specialized trainer who will also create a kit within the project, kit containing methods and tools used in the organizational development of the NGO sector. The kit will be a manual in electronic format, an informational manual destined both to the participants and to other representatives of the NGOs from Suceava and Chernivtsy. After the ending of the training course the participants will operate on the results of the training by writing future cross border cooperation project proposals. These will be debated within an evaluation visit made by the trainer. The action of the project will be implemented by the applicant in partnership with the Youth Organization “Volunteer” from Chernivtsy, Ukraine and will unfold during 12 months.  
At the level of the cross border region, there are few communication and collaboration bridges between NGOs, despite the fact that for a long time many have tried to get them closer. After the project PHARE CBC unfolded by our organization together with its partners from Ukraine, there was noticed a first opening and the need for an intense collaboration of the participants from both countries. The lack of relations between the NGOs from both countries was due both to political instability and to the lack of a coherent development strategy in the cross border regions. Moreover, through this project we want to bring our contribution to the concretization of European strategies in the cross border regions. The activities of the project support the development of the NGO sector from Suceava and Chernivtsy, as a factor of local development. The initiative of the project also promotes the development of a communication and cooperation frame between the NGO sector from the two cross border communities involved in the project, frame which will be a tool for good practices exchange and know how between the representatives of Romanian and Ukrainian NGOs. The training course within the project comes to support the reduced number of such programs unfolded for the representatives of NGOs. The making of the kit of tools and methods of organizational development for NGOs will support the improvement of their activity, leading to the growth of the importance of the role played by the associative sector at local level. This project’s initiative promotes and sustains at the same time the growth of cross border projects’ visibility as a premise of local development. 

 

            On the 4th of December 2006 the European Commission launched the document “Strengthening the European Neighborhood Policy” which focuses the attention on the intensification of collaboration actions at the level of the civil society through activities which encourage local and regional initiatives with the view to settle and develop a collaboration on each side of the border. In the document EU/UKRAINE ACTION PLAN the development strategy between the EU and Ukraine focuses on the effective improvement of programs and projects in the field of regional cooperation creating activities of support and involvement at the local and regional level of the civil society.
Moreover, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from Romania considers as priorities: the hypostatization of the European Neighborhood Policy, which becomes not only a catalyst for promoting the EU’s values and standards in the eastern regions, but also a tool used for promoting a strategic, ample and flexible approach for the respective regions.
The project proposal identifies the following needs: Supporting the permanent development of the organizational structures from local NGO sector; Investments in training human resources who are part of and activate within NGOs with the view to involve them in the development of feasible strategies for the NGOs which they represent; Developing a communication frame between the NGOs from the cross border communities; The exchange of good practices and know how between the local NGOs from the cross border region with the view to unfold future successful projects; The growth of the associative sector’s visibility at the level of local communities as a development premise.
            The target group of the project: 26 NGO leaders from Suceava and Chernivtsy;
            The beneficiaries of the project: 25 representatives of the local authorities from Suceava and Chernivtsy; 75 representatives of the local NGOs from the two communities.

General objective: Developing the organizational capacity of the nongovernmental sector from Suceava and Chernivtsy in order to develop joint programs and activities.
Specific objectives: Training the NGOs’ leaders from both cross border communities in order to improve the organizational capacity of this sector; Initializing and developing on long term the communication and cooperation frame between the NGO sector from both cross-border regions from Suceava County and Chernivtsy Region; Promoting the NGOs sector at the level of the local communities, as an important premise of local development.              
Estimated results: A permanent cooperation frame between the two cross border communities; Creating a kit with tools of organizational development of the associative sector; Developing the local NGOs leaders’ capacity of promoting some feasible development strategies within the sector; Increasing the visibility of NGO field at local community level; Promoting the cross-border cooperation initiatives Romania-Ukraine.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

The activity supports and completes the activities with Romanian- Ukrainian character unfolded at a local level, both by the applicant and by other local NGOs and by the public administration (cultural, youth activities, thematic seminars and festivals). The project will strengthen the already existent communication frame between the two cross border communities and will support the multiplication of Romania- Ukrainian cooperation initiatives as a premise for local development. The main way through which the project will accomplish all these refers to the formation specific to human resources within the NGO cross border sector from Suceava and Chernivtsy. Establishing some formation priorities and creating a kit of tools for organizational development of the associative sector represent innovational elements for the projects in the context of the preset financing priorities. Oriented towards the Development of the organizational capacity of the nongovernmental sector from Suceava and Chernivtsy, this project is a part of the actions that Romania, as member of EU, develops in order to accomplish the strategy of a good neighborhood policy.

Activities: 1. Training the project’s implementation team; 2. Study visit- Chernivtsy 3 days; 3. Acquisition of goods and supplies needed for the implementation of the project; 4. Organizing a press conference to launch the project; 5. Preparing visit for training course- Chernivtsy 3 days; 6.Disseminating information about the project at the level of the local associative sector  from the two communities; 7.Selecting participants for the training courses; 8.Organizing training course I; Chernivtsy- 6 days; 9. Organizing training course II; Suceava-6 days; 10. Evaluation visit- training sessions; Chernivtsy- 3 days; 11. Creating a kit of tools for organizational development of the local associative sector; 12. Organizing the final press conference for closing the project; 13. Evaluation and final audit of the project.

The present project will be implemented in partnership with the Youth Organization “Volunteer” from Chernivtsy with which the applicant collaborates since 2002. The partner organization will contribute to the making and implementation of the project, being at the same time a multiplier of information at the level of the Ukrainian community.
The partner will be directly involved in organizing and implementing the following activities:
Activity 1: Establishing the project’s implementation team; Activity 4: Organizing a press conference to launch the project; Activity 6: Disseminating information about the project; Activity 7: Selecting participants for the training courses; Activity 8: Organizing training course I; Activity 9: Organizing training course II; Activity 13: Evaluation of the project’s activities
                The partnership structure consolidated through the implementation of the project will continue to function having at disposal the material basis and the experience necessary in cross border cooperation project implementation. The partnerships realized within the project between the NGOs whose representatives will be present, the future collaborations with the local public administration will all be a tool for strengthening a project initiative. Therefore, in the stage following the closing of the project, the applicant and his partner have in view the following activities: Organizing periodical meetings between the representatives of the local NGOs; Creating a sustainable cooperation strategy as regards the cross border nongovernmental sector from Suceava and Chernivtsy; Disseminating this example of good practice at the level of the local authorities from Suceava and Chernivtsy.
Both the applicant and the Ukrainian partner and the participants within the activities of the project will have the role of multipliers as regards the received information and the model of good practice at the level of the local communities. At the same time, the partnerships created within the project will be a tool which will hold both logistically and financially the strengthening of a sustainable cooperation for the representatives of the associative sector from the two communities.
Since 2002 the “ANA” Foundation implemented many projects, therefore, besides the activities of helping the needy and the donations given to disabled people, regardless of age, it also unfolded cultural artistic activities destined to youngsters and intercultural cooperation activities, especially with Ukraine and the Moldavian Republic.

 

The “ANA” Foundation organized so far meetings and thematic seminars destined to the representatives of NGOs from Suceava and Chernivtsy within some projects implemented at local level. These activities have initiated communication and collaboration at this sector’s level. The experience of the applicant organization regarding the problems approached through the project consolidated in the implementation period of the cross border cooperation project implemented by the applicant in the preceding period, when there were unfolded a series of activities meant to support the promotion of NGOs as a premise for development at a local community level.