1st candidate of professional training programme awarded traineeship!

In the framework of the EU-funded project “Improving the provision of Social Service Delivery in South Eastern Europe through the empowerment of national and regional CSOs”, implemented by the consortium of SOLIDAR, LIR CD BiH, OGI Croatia, EDC Serbia, SOS TELEPHONE Montenegro, CLARD Kosovo, ARSIS Albania, ASYD FYROM – led by ASB Germany, SOLIDAR is organizing a Professional Staff Training Programme open to staff members of CSOs providing social services in the Western Balkans, that are part of the IRIS Network. Upon publication of the call for professional training, SOLIDAR received significant number of quality applications that has been thoroughly evaluated and decided on single participant of the programme.

Jasmina Hasanagic, graduated Journalist, currently pursuing PhD in Gender Issues and Human Rights in University of Sarajevo is our first distinguished candidate who will have opportunity to participate in 4 week traineeship in Spain. Ms. Hasanagic is pursuing career in civil sector, in past eight years she has been active as direct service providing. Currently, she is project manager in NGO Women from Una based in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As of 26th January 2016 selected candidate will spend 4 weeks in the premises of Movimiento por la Paz (MPDL) in Madrid (Spain).  Traineeship will be learning experience on the provision of social services and civic movement in Spain, as well as insight into how the provision of services and the policy advocacy is shaped.

MPDL is an independent, secular and progressive NGO working since 1983 to promote human rights, democracy and solidarity. In particular, the NGO works in the following sectors:  migration, socio-economic integration, awareness-raising activities for students, teachers and family groups to promote a Culture of Peace, volunteering and training to promote various activities that symbolize and encourage citizen participation.

As part of the capacity building efforts SOLIDAR and IRIS Network will organize 4 additional individual traineeships for the Network members at EU-based social service providers in 2016.

Small grants for 13 local advocacy initiatives in SEE

Out of 34 received project proposals, IRIS Network awarded 13 grants under 2nd CFP Support to projects of civil society organizations (CSO) – social service providers in SEE in scope of the projects “Improving the provision of Social Service Delivery in South Eastern Europe through the empowerment of national and regional CSO networks”. IRIS network Project Evaluation Committee decided to support total of 13 projects in 6 project countries: three in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, two in Serbia, Kosovo, and FYROM and one in  Montenegro. 

Implementation of all supported project starts on 4th January 2016 with the duration of four to six months. Each project deals with important social issues and strives to strengthen civil society organizations role in  the creation of social policies and social protection programmes. Overall objective of the SGF is to achieve a more dynamic civil society actively participating in public debate on democracy, human rights, social inclusion and the rule of law and with capacity to influence policy and decision making processes.

 

The projects assessment criteria included: organisational performance; comprehensiveness of information including relevance of the proposal to objectives of the fund, objectives of the project and addressing identified need; capacity of identified activities to achieve defined objectives; the relationship between the proposed actions and the financial plan; the intended impact of the project and future sustainability.

Main output of this Call is implementation of 13 small advocacy initiatives.

Iris network would like to congratulate all of its member organizations who received grants, but also to thank all applicants who sent us their project proposals. Final list of all organizations who received grants can be found in the following table.

Improving social services delivered by CSOs in Albania

In order to transfer strategic guidelines adopted at the strategic planning of the regional IRIS network to the national level, partner organisation ARSIS will organise an Annual Congress of the national IRIS network in Albania. The event will take place in Tirana on 15 and 16 December 2015.  Congress will be opportunity to set strategic goals of the national network, but also as an advocacy tool to present policy standpoints of the national network to the decision-makers in their respective country.

Detailed agenda can be found here.

 

Voice of IRIS Network in Brussels

IRIS Network together with Solidar  on 10th November 2015, organised a roundtable debate at the European Economic and Social Committee titled “Migration and Fundamental Rights: Will the EU live up to its values?”.

The roundtable was divided into two panel discussions. The first panel focused on the need to improve the Common European asylum system and putting solidarity and respect of human rights at the hearth of EU migration and integration polices. The second panel titled “How to support CSOs providing humanitarian assistance and services to refugees along the Western Balkans route?” reflected the link between EU Enlargement and EU migration policies and explored tools in order to support CSOs providing humanitarian assistance to migrants and refugees along the Western Balkan route.

The second panel was organized in the framework of the EU-funded project “Improving the provision of Social Service Delivery in South Eastern Europe through the empowerment of national and regional CSOs”, implemented by the consortium of LIR CD BiH, OGI Croatia, EDC Serbia, SOS TELEPHONE Montenegro, CLARD Kosovo, ARSIS Albania, ASYD FYROM, and SOLIDAR – led by ASB Germany & in collaboration with TACSO.

Panel was introduced by opening remarks of MEP Tanja Fajon, S&D group, who stated that “it had been a shameless summer for Europe”. Mrs Fajon also expressed her concern on the alleged fact that Member States, although they pledge to, are not enough financing funds.

Ivan Marin, Network Manager of IRIS Network, shared his concerns regarding the criminalization of certain NGOS who provide services to refugees. However, he welcomed the incoming Directive on researchers and students set to avoid brain drain and maximize brain gain whilst enabling young people to access more social opportunities via legal channels.

Other participants invited by IRIS Network, such as Oktay Durukan, Director of Refugee Rights Turkey, Irida Pandiri, Association for the Social Support of Youth (ARSIS)- Greece, Borče Jankuloski, from Preda Plus – FYROM, Zlatar Franci from Slovene Philantropy-Slovenia, Srba Jovanović from Refugee Aid Serbia-Serbia and Nikoleta Poljak, Volunteer Centre Osijek-Croatia, highlighted the work of their respective organizations on migrant crisis relief in Balkan. They noted how it was complex for smaller organizations to access available funds, deemed as too rigid and strict. Cooperation could foster a broader leadership role for civil society, as one of IRIS panelists quoted that “we are more organized than our governments”

In the final part of the roundtable, Liane Adler, DG NEAR (Western Balkans Regional Cooperation and Programs Unit), praised the role of NGOs as service providers and in their assistance to local communities. She argued how the Enlargement process was to be considered as an important political tool for Balkan countries to guarantee respect of fundamental rights of migrants, although this was not considered as a priority in the Enlargement Package in recent years due to the fact that refugee flows stemmed from sea borne routes via the Mediterranean Sea.

Ionut Sibian, EESC, Co-chair of the EU-Serbia Joint Consultative Committee said that he believes the European Commission should improve consultations with civil society before launching a call for proposal in order to assess the real needs of organizations working on the ground. Although supporting projects is a necessity, Mr Sibian argued that operational grants should be provided to networks/ intermediary platforms who deal with complex legal and administrative practices, thus allowing the NGOs to concentrate on actual services they need to provide to refugees.

Full report and conclusions is available in round table debate report.

PPT slideshow on activities of Balkan CSO.

SOLIDAR briefing on social progress in WB now available

This briefing paper provides policy recommendations on how to promote human rights and social investment in the Western Balkan region in response to European Commission’s Progress reports on the Enlargement Strategy and challenges 2014 – 2015. Specific recommendations on how to tackle the ongoing migrant and refugee crisis along the Western Balkan route are also presented in this briefing paper.

Briefing paper

CORRIGENDUM Notice on Grant Scheme

IRIS Network is announcing that GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS published on 29.09.2015. is modified in accordance to the changes published in CORRIGENDUM NO1. 

For additional information please find attached CORRIGENDUM. 

Helping refugees in Croatia – activities of Volunteer Centre Osijek

Based on the latest information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs over 130 000 refugees have entered Croatia so far. Hundreds of volunteers have shown great motivation to help save people’s lives and dignity. Many organizations try to help with their resources. From September 18th Volunteer Centre Osijek, in cooperation with CARE International, has organized over 100 volunteers in everyday support activities for refugees in transit centre Opatovac, a place near Croatian eastern border with Serbia, but also border crossings Tovarnik and Bapska. Volunteers are engaged in delivering humanitarian aid (food packages, clothes, raincoats, etc.) in the camp, providing support to refugees, mothers with young children who need medical and social care and helping with registration of refugees. The profiles of volunteers are very different by age, professions, education etc.  Many prominent individuals in communities are taking part in the action: actors, writers, university professors, psychologist etc. This crisis has shown a great potential for solidarity and volunteerism, proving  the need for active and strong civil society.

National Congress of IRIS Network – Konekta

National Congress of Konekta Network was held on 1.10.2015, in Paraćin with the presence of 32 member organisations. Guests on the Congress were representatives of: Social inclusion and poverty reduction unit, Centre for social policy Belgrade, National organization of persons with disabilities of Serbia, Lokalpress network – association of local media in Serbia and media partner Medijacija – Portal Who is responsible that follows the activities of Konekta network in last 12 months.

Following the needs for the positioning and formalisation of national network, members of Konekta decided to start official registration process after three year operations as informal network. The network will be registered as Association of organisations social service providers – Konekta Network.

During the Congress, Statute and Network activity plan for 2016 was adopted. Following Konekta Network Congress will be held in June 2016 for the purpose of expanding membership and Strategic plan development.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR MEMBERS OF THE IRIS NETWORK

In the framework of the project “Improving the provision of Social Service Delivery in South Eastern Europe through the empowerment of national and regional CSOs”, implemented by the consortium of SOLIDAR, LIR CD BiH, OGI Croatia, EDC Serbia, SOS TELEPHONE Montenegro, CLARD Kosovo, ARSIS Albania, ASYD FYROM – led by ASB Germany, SOLIDAR is organising a Professional Staff Training Programme open to staff members of CSOs providing social services in the Western Balkans, that are part of the IRIS Network.

The programme offers to one selected candidate the opportunity to spend 4 weeks in the premises of Movimiento por la Paz (MPDL)  in Madrid (Spain) and provides a learning experience on the provision of social services and civic movement in Spain, as well as insight into how the provision of services and the policy advocacy is shaped. Travel, accommodation and living costs of the selected candidate will be covered.

For more information please see the on the description of the Programme.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS WITHIN SMALL GRANTS FACILITY PUBLISHED

IRIS Network has a great pleasure to announce the continuation of its small grants program, which will provide financial support to the member organisations in: Albania, FYROM, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

This call will support implementation of advocacy initiatives.

Proposed advocacy initiatives should focus on:

  • Improving policies and their practices in the area of social inclusion and provision of social services on local level;
  • Improving policy framework for CSOs providing social services at local level;
  • Introducing of innovative models in provision of social services;
  • Improving policy framework and practices of involvement in decision making process  vulnerable groups and/or beneficiaries of social services.

Total budget of the call is 60 000 EUR.  Funding will be provided for minimum 12 projects lasting up to 6 months maximum. It is anticipated that  maximum of € 5,000 per project will be available.

Project proposals should be written in English language. Applicant must submit filled application package and additional documentation consisted of:

  1. Application form;
  2. Budget proposal;
  3. Scanned copy of Registration of organization;
  4. Scanned copy of Statute of organization;
  5. Scanned copy of Balance Sheet and Income Statement for the previous year (2014.)

In case of partnership, corresponding additional documentation should be enclosed, as well as “Partnership agreement” from the Application form, signed and stamped by the legally authorized representative.

If you have a project which may fulfill the requirements of  above described program, please send your proposals to:  masa.mitrovic@asb-see.org no later than 31.10.2015 midnight, with the email subject  “Call for proposal for the CSO support”.

Supporting documents: Application form; Budget proposal; Guidelines.