On October 31st – November 2nd, the Romanian NGDO Platform (FOND) organized its IX Edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum in Varna, Bulgaria. The event gathered circa 130 representatives of national and regional civil society organizations, intergovernmental organizations and relevant state institutions from the countries in the Black Sea region and beyond, including, Sanja Bogatinovska – BCSDN’s Junior Policy and Advocacy Officer on Civil Society Development and Simona Trajkovska – Junior Project Assistant, colleague from BCSDN’s member Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC).
This year’s event is organized with the support of the European Commission, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with UNDP Regional Centre for Europe and Central Asia, and CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness – CPDE. The aim of the ninth edition is to contribute to the implementation of the “Strategic Framework for Civil Society Cooperation in the Black Sea Region” by promoting an enabling environment for civil society development as a prerequisite for regional cooperation and by supporting the Black Sea NGO Forum’s Working Groups actively engaged in the thematic cooperation areas identified and endorsed by the participants during last year’s edition.
The Black Sea NGO Forum is an annual regional event organized since 2008 by the Romanian NGDO Platform (FOND) in the context of the Black Sea Synergy, a European policy launched at the initiative of Romania, Bulgaria and Greece with the purpose of consolidating the regional cooperation at the Black Sea. Since its first edition, the Forum has been a driver of change in the region, reuniting more than 900 participants from NGOs working in various activity areas, international and multilateral organisations, international donors, experts and government representatives from the region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, the Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Ukraine, Romania and Russia.