The Romanian NGDO Platform – FOND organized between the 2nd and 3rd of November 2015, in Tbilisi, Georgia, the VIIIth edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum. This important event was developed with the financial support of the European Commission, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in partnership with the UNDP Regional Centre for Europe and Central Asia, and CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness – CPDE.
This year’s edition continued the previous edition’s discussions, aiming to finalize a strategic framework with thematic and cross-cutting cooperation areas for civil society at the Black Sea that would consolidate regional cooperation and provide focus and sustainability to regional initiatives. To this end, we relied on participants’ valuable input and expertise to identify and prioritize the most important cooperation areas for civil society in the region, through a facilitated participatory process.
The official opening session began with a video recorded message from Mr. Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement. This year we had the honor of having as guest speakers at the opening session: Mr. Edward Iosiper, Director at Analysis and Policy Planning Directorate within the Romanian MFA, Mr. Gigi Gigiadze, Deputy Foreign Minister within the Georgian MFA, Mr. Carlo Natale, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Georgia, H.E. Michael Christides, Secretary General of BSEC and Mr. Justin Kilcullen, Co-Chair of CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness.
The 2015 edition of the Forum presented participants with a combination of plenary sessions, workshops and working groups. With this occasion, the Report on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development in the Black Sea Region was officially launched. The report was developed in the period May-July 2015 by a team of experts from the Balkan Civil Society Development Network – Ms. Tanja HafnerAdemi and Ms. Milka Ivanovska, with the support of the Romanian NGDO Platform – FOND.
The second day of the Forum was dedicated to a dynamic and participatory process facilitated by International Consultant for Organization Futures, Mr. Ken Phillips, through which participants identified the thematic priorities that should be supported in the future by the Black Sea NGO Forum. At the end of this process, participants voted the top 5 thematic priorities and 5 emerging priorities that will be part of the strategic framework for civil society cooperation in the Black Sea Region.
Nearly 140 participants attended the event, representing a wide range of national and international stakeholders from the Black Sea region – CSOs, regional and international organisations, regional and international donors, local authorities, academia and media.
The report of the event, as well as the strategic framework will be soon available on our website.
For more information about the VIIIth edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum, please see:
- The agenda of the event;
- The concept of the event;
- The speakers’ presentations made during the event;
- Pictures from the event.
Contact information: forum@blackseango.org
