2.13 Concluding remarks

The survey among project leaders and participants shows that the Barents Secretariat fills a niche for project collaboration among Russian and Norwegian actors. The co-operation funded by the Barents Secretariat has given opportunities for increased interaction between Russian and Norwegian partners that otherwise would have been unlikely to take place. The major achievement, according to the survey respondents, has been the networks established between a large number of Russian and Norwegian partners. These networks appear to have been strengthened and broadened throughout the project period. Project owners as a rule appreciate the possibility to learn about practices on the other side of the border, and the mutual learning aspects are stressed by project participants in both Russia and Norway. Although competence development has been most prominent from Norway to Russia than the other way around, there has been considerable exchange and perceived mutual benefits for all the partners involved. The survey gives evidence of a number of important additional achievements, some of the most noteworthy being:

• a large number projects have been supported within all priority areas; • the vast majority of projects are co-funded by other institutions, and a large number have Russian as well as Norwegian or international co-funding; • the programme appears to be run efficiently, in a flexible and transparent manner, thanks to solid work by Barents Secretariat staff, who are also considered to be very accessible by survey respondents; • the co-operation has an adequate gender balance; • improved economic conditions in Russia have contributed positively to the project collaboration for a vast number of projects; • projects involving humanitarian aid and material support have been reduced to a minimum.

The survey results, however, also point to a number of challenges or areas that need to be taken into account when developing the co-operation scheme for the future:

• there appears to be a certain geographic imbalance, in Russia characterized by very much focus on Murmansk and less on parts of the Barents region further from the NorwegianRussian border; • rather few projects involve partners from other Barents region countries, including projects that undoubtedly would benefit from such multilateral participation; • dissemination activities are perceived to be less developed than other project activities; • there is room for a higher degree of equality between project partners, and imbalances in resources is perceived as an obstacle by many survey respondents; • many Russian project participants experience bureaucratic obstacles in the implementation of their projects; • although there appears to be a good collaborative climate in most projects, many project participants experience delays or obstacles on the other side of the border that are not sufficiently explained to them, most likely due to insufficient partnership and lack of full transparency between partners.