Information meeting for civil society actors in Oslo

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Thursday, 01 September 2011 13:23

Information meeting for civil society actors in Oslo

An information meeting about the EEA grants and Norwegian support to civil society in the beneficiary countries was arranged yesterday at the House of Literature in Oslo. There was a great interest for the meeting, and 120 representatives from different sectors of civil society attended.

The meeting was co-arranged by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and aimed at showing the Norwegian civil society the possibilities that exist for organisations and other civil society actors in Norway under the new mechanisms.

Steinar Hagen from the MFA focused on the EEA grants and NGO funds in general in his introduction. - The main goals of the new mechanisms is to reduce the economic social and economic disparities in Europe and to increase the bilateral relations between Norway and the benificiary states, and both these goals are in Norway's interest as well, said Hagen. - A new approach in the next period is the program-model. This will replace the project-model used from 2004-2009. The program-approach will hopefully lead to a more effective use of the €1.8 billion that is made available to the 15 beneficiary countries under the EEA Grants 2009-2014. 10 % of this will go to support civil society. Building strong civil societies and sustainable democracies in the new EU member states is an important goal for Norway, and with this substantial support to the civil society in the beneficiary countries, we hope to achieve this goal.

From the Financial Mechanisms Office in Brussels Patrizia Brandellero gave a presentation of the Guideline for NGO Programmes. - The previous fund was broad and general. Now we are working more towards result-based activities, with a strenthening of the sector itself and with a focus on increasing sustainability of the civil society sector as main goals, said Brandellero in her presentation. With this new approach, we will avoid over-bureaucracy. It will be simpler for both the program-perators and for organisations involved in projects, Brandellero continued.

Ragna Fidjestøl from the FMO focused on the possibilites for cooperation between Norwegian civil society and civil society in the beneficiary countries under the new mechanisms. - It is very important to underline that it is the entity in the beneficiary country that can apply. The applicant needs to be officially registered as a legal entity and must be defined as an NGO. These rules does not apply to a potential Norwegian partner, said Fidjestøl. - For a partnership to work it is important to be very clear when setting up the partnership contract. All costs need to be taken into account in the budget. The good news for Norwegian NGOs under the new mechanisms is that it will be possible to apply for seed money for covering the cost related to setting up a partnership and a partnership contract. Hopefully this will be of help for the Norwegian organisations and entities active in establinshing partnerships, Fidjestøl stated.

Vanja Bentsen Kleven and Anders Nielsen made a presentation about the Norwegian Helsinki Committee's involvement in the EEA grants, and the information and coordination role the NHC have had in the previous mechanisms and will continue to have in the next period. The ngonorway.org partnership portal was relaunched, and in the future this webpage will be updated with relevant information about the NGO funds in all the beneficiary countries, how to become a partner, and guidelines for civil society in both Norway and the beneficiary countries.