The Open Forum activities have been gaining pace, everywhere in the world, as the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) in Busan, South Korea at the end of this year 2011 is getting nearer. On the 14th and 15th of April, the Open Forum regional consolidating workshop for Europe took place following up the national meetings and the thematic consultations in different parts of the world. This meeting, which took place in Brussels, served as a key event for giving recommendations for the policy paper that will serve as an advocacy tool for the next steps of the…
Author: anja
On 30th and 31st of March, the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) organized a coordination conference on the EU’s Europe 2020 strategy in Brussels The meeting brought together representatives of over 30 regional initiatives (RIs) and task forces, 15 leading international financial institutions and bilateral donors, as well as representatives of the European Commission (EC) and the European Parliament. Among the civil society representatives, the Balkan Civil Society Development Network and the Igman Initiative attended the meeting. Over 100 participants of regional initiatives and international donors concluded that the RCC is the institution most apt to help align regional programmes with…
The Balkan Civil Society Development Network participated on the Closing Conference of the project Sharing the experiences of Visegrad Cooperation in the Western Balkans and the Eastern Neighbourhood, which was held on March 9-11, 2011 in Budapest. Ilina Nesik presented BCSDN at inovations and best practices panel discussion. This event was the final part of a two year program, implemented in close cooperation with a variety of governmental and civil society stakeholders from the Visegrad Group, the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership countries. Core activities of the project were organized around four inter-regional workshops in the partner regions in…
Twenty-five representatives from civil society organizations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia gathered on February 28 and March 1, 2011 in Skopje to discuss the challenges of CSOs as well as the needs for creating enabling environment during conflict situations and in the post conflict period. The Thematic Consultation “CSOs working in situations of conflict” was held within the Open Forum on CSO Development Effectiveness, organized by MCIC, BCSDN, Civicus and Open Forum for Development Effectiveness. The conflicts change the focus and the activities of the existing civil society organizations, simultaneously encouraging the establishment of…
On the 9th of November, the European Commission presented its annual assessments of the progress made by the potential and candidate countries from the Western Balkans and Turkey in membership towards the EU. Apart from the Enlargement Strategy Paper 2010-2011, which outsets the Commission’s enlargement agenda for the period, it also comprises the Opinions on the membership applications by Montenegro and Albania and seven Progress Reports on potential and candidate countries. To date, civil society is considered an important part of the Enlargement strategy and is a regional benchmark, which the Commission continues to realize through support to civil society…
On the 9th of November, the European Commission presented its annual assessments of the progress made by the potential and candidate countries from the Western Balkans and Turkey in membership towards the EU. Apart from the Enlargement Strategy Paper 2010-2011, which outsets the Commission’s enlargement agenda for the period, it also comprises the Opinions on the membership applications by Montenegro and Albania and seven Progress Reports on potential and candidate countries. To date, civil society is considered an important part of the Enlargement strategy and is a regional benchmark, which the Commission continues to realize through support to civil society…
To date, civil society is considered an important part of the Enlargement strategy and is a regional benchmark, which the Commission continues to realize through support to civil society organizations (CSOs) in form of the Civil Society Facility (CSF). Following the publication of the reports BCSDN has prepared a short analysis available now for download.
BCSDN participated to the Strategic partners’ co-ordination meeting on the Council of Europe (CoE) Code of Good Practice for civil participation in the decision-making process. The meeting was organised by the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe (Civil Society and Democracy Committee) with a view to identify its strategic partners for the implementation of the Code of Good Practice. It took place on the 3 of December in the Council of Europe Liaison Office with the European Union in Brussels. A large number of European networks and national organizations were recognized as possible partners and participated to give…
The DG Enlargement Unit organized the IPA Donors meeting to present the multi-annual plan for 2011-2013. The general objective was to discuss and elaborate the project fiches for 2011, which are now open for consultation till the 15th of November. The speakers included members of the DG Enlargement Unit and the meeting was moderated by Mr Engstroem, Head of Unit of the Regional Programme. For the first time the Commission has this year invited the representative of local stakeholders, in this capacity, the TACSO Local Advisory Groups (LAGs) were invited as well as the TACSO Programming Committee. The BCSDN has…
On the 30th of September the EU Programming Committee met discussing the second phase of the IPA Civil Society Facility Technical Assistance project as well as the outcomes of the first year of implementation. The second part of the project, as it was formally announced, will start without an external evaluation due to the lack of time and due to the lack of internal capacities in the DG Enlargement. An external evaluation at this stage is considered not necessary and therefore the contract with the current contractor, SIPU from Sweden will be extended. The Regional Needs Assessment Report, which is…