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Summary
Jørn Holm-Hansen, Aadne Aasland and Elena Dybtsyna Building Neighbourhood: Evaluation of the Barents Secretariat’s grant programme NIBR Report 2008:4 On behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) the Barents Secretariat distributes public funds to bilateral, regional projects between Norway and Russia within the Barents EuroArctic Region. Altogether, 2800 projects have received funding through the Barents Secretariat since 1993. The overall objective of the Barents Secretariat’s grant programme is to create crossregional trust and welfare. In the early years of the Barents cooperation cross-regional interaction in itself was highly valuable. This evaluation covers the years 2002 – 2006, a period in which the project co-operation has become more focused on attaining particular goals set by the project holders. The co-operation concentrates on five areas of work: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Business development Competence-building and education at all levels Environmental protection Welfare/Culture Indigenous people
The evaluation made use of two major methodological approaches, a quantitative electronic survey among project leaders and participants, combined with qualitative case-studies of 14 projects.
NIBR Report 2008:4
