Summary Jørn Holm-Hansen, Aadne Aasland and Elena Dybtsyna Still building neighbourhood: Mid-term evaluation of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat’s grant programme NIBR Report 2020:24 The Barents Secretariat’s grant programme is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in line with the overall aims of building trust and people-to-people cooperation in the Russian and Norwegian regions forming part of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region. The programme’s thematic fields are culture and sports, education and competence, business and entrepreneurship, media and information, civil society, environmental protection, indigenous peoples, and children and youth. Youth and indigenous peoples are cross-cutting priorities across all thematic fields. Only Norwegian applicants are invited to apply, but they must have a Russian partner to receive funding. The programme aims at including a wide variety of public and private as well civil society institutions and organizations on both sides of the border. In addition, and in line with the agreements with the MFA, the Barents Secretariat is to be a competence centre for Norwegian-Russian relations in the North, take part in the public debate and call attention to the regional people-to-people cooperation. This mid-term evaluation covers the first two years of the ongoing programme period (20182020) but includes 2020 to account for the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on project implementation. Results – a comparison of the current state of the programme as compared to 2007 The evaluation team did a similar evaluation of the programme in 2007-8 which has made it possible to do a systematic comparison and identify developments. The context in which the programme is carried out today differs in significant ways from those in 2007-8. The 2014 events in Ukraine have led to a new geopolitical environment that poses a challenge to the idea of cross-border trust and people-to-people cooperation. Moreover, internal political developments in Russia have led to more centralized power structures and control, among others of civil society. Both factors may raise doubts about the prospects of the grant programme. Nonetheless, the number of project applications submitted to the Barents Secretariat has been relatively stable every year since 2013. The approval rate for applications is around 60 per cent. The programme funds relatively small but numerous project activities. The comparison of the findings from the survey carried out among project leaders in 2007 with those of the survey we carried out in 2020 indicates that the programme has improved. The survey respondents are more likely to assert that their projects have been successful now than in 2007. Moreover, the changes to the positive are most pronounced on some of the issues that directly concern the core programme objectives, which are to develop trust and genuine cooperation. There is a significant increase in those considering relations between Russian and Norwegian partners to be based on equality and those who hold their project to be successful in reaching lasting Norwegian-Russian networks. Professional differences and diverging views on project implementation have decreased significantly since 2007. Lack of
4
