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Annual Report 2006

Citizens in Action Program

The program aims to support democratic changes and the development of civil society in Belarus and Ukraine. We cooperate with non-governmental organizations from Belarus and Ukraine that support grass-root initiatives, engage in building partnership between non-governmental organizations and public administration sectors and undertake civic education activities. The program involves grantmaking to Belarusian and Ukrainian non-governmental organizations, selected on the basis of open competitions or individually invited to apply for grants. Our grantees are also invited to participate in study visits, meetings and trainings organized in Belarus, Ukraine, Poland and other countries.

Regional partners competition

Our aim is to build a network of non-governmental organizations in Belarus and Ukraine engaged in supporting local civic initiatives and developing partnership between non-governmental organizations and private and public institutions. In years 2004-2006 we ran three open competitions for the program's regional partners addressed to organizations operating locally in different regions of Belarus and Ukraine. Within the competition we offered organizations interested in becoming the program's partners one and two-year grants for program activity and institutional development. With the part of the grants designated for program activity our partners launch small grants competitions for grass-root initiatives, organize information and legal counseling for citizens, engage in protection and execution of individual rights, provide civic education of young people, set up local civic activity centers, undertake efforts to secure access to information and transparency of the government administration, implement strategies aimed to boost the growth of philanthropy. Funds for institutional development are used to enhance staff, board and volunteers' skills, streamline organization's management and operations.

In the effect of all three grant competitions, 55 regional partners were selected (14 from Belarus and 41 from Ukraine). The last, third partners recruitment took place in 2006. This time the call for proposals was addressed to the organization operating in 5 regions of Belarus: Hrodna, Gomel, Minsk, Mogilev, Vitebsk and 18 regions of Ukraine: Kherson, Khmelnytskyy, Cherkassy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Kirovograd, Lviv, Lugansk, Mykolayiv, Odessa, Poltava, Sumy, Ternopil, Volyn, Zakarpatia, Zaporozhye and Krym. Out of 115 organizations that sent in the letters of intent 31 were invited to the consultative-information meeting in Warsaw designed for presentation of the goals and rules of the program and individual consultations with program's coordinators. The meeting was accompanied by the financial-accounting training and a conference on different aspects of the third sector operation in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine, attended by about 70 participants, experts and representatives of NGOs from the three countries. Next, each of the applicant organizations were visited by external experts who audited its system of financial management and accounting. On the basis of final proposals submitted by the organizations and the results of financial audit the competition jury made up of representatives of grant-making organization operating in Belarus and Ukraine, selected 22 new program's partners.

Representatives and local partners from all three competitions took part in 2 study visits in Poland and 6 trainings devoted to experience sharing and development of good practices in organization of small grant competitions, financial management and bookkeeping in NGOs. They participated also in 7 meetings aimed to discuss jointly identified problems: cooperation with local government, public administration and business, operation of Citizens Advice Bureaus, work with small informal groups, evaluation of projects' effectiveness, cooperation with volunteers, safety of the Internet users.

Advocacy

The goal of this grant scheme is to promote the idea of advocacy as an efficient tool of joint action to solve important social problems and protect the rights of individual citizens or social groups. We offer grants to Belarusian and Ukrainian organizations involved in different advocacy efforts, from grass-root initiatives to nationwide campaign. Grants are made primarily in open competitions, though individual organizations may also be invited to submit applications. We also offer trainings that prepare organizations to undertake advocacy efforts.

In 2006, we developed a concept and program of the advocacy training and selected a partner organization to coordinate and organize the course. Trainers include experts from Ukraine and consultants from Central and Eastern Europe.

The trainings are addressed to all regional program partners as well as the grantees of our Credibility and partnership competition of 2005 in which 54 organizations received grants for promotion of their activity in the local communities and among their potential local and regional partners. The main aim of the training is to learn about the methods and instruments of advocacy and the rules and principles of planning effective advocacy campaigns. We will particularly focus on developing the skills of free use of advocacy instruments in carrying out grass-root initiatives which enable the organizations to participate in the processes of shaping and monitoring the implementation of local politics in the domains they have competence and expertise.

Civic education

As part of support of civic and European education we made grants to 5 organizations from Ukraine and Belarus to carry out projects of development of informal initiatives in the field of European education for young people, promotion of European integration and third sector research. In co-operation with International Renaissance Foundation we co-financed also two open grant competitions for local education and information initiatives on EU and development of training programs concerning European integration. Out of 81 applications submitted in the competition 14 received grants.

Program was financed from the Ford Foundation's grant.

Program costs

Grants: PLN 2 093 176,5
Visits, meetings, consultations, monitoring: PLN 297 968,03
Operational costs: PLN 158 008,52
TOTAL: PLN 2 549 153,06

Grants

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