NEWSLETTER Black Sea NGO Newsletter, no. 6 winter 2012-2013 In this issue you can read about: Glimpses
of
the
Black
Sea
The Black Sea NGO Newsletter is part of the Black Sea NGO
Forum
2012…………………………………………………............................2
NGO Forum’s follow up activities. The newsletter will be available
once
every
3
months
on
www.blackseango.org/forum/ and distributed to the News: countries in focus………..….............................…….4
participants at all the editions of the Black Sea NGO Forum or other relevant stakeholders in the region with
ARMENIA
the purpose of helping to improve our common work,
AZERBAIJAN
communication and engagement.
BELARUS GEORGIA REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA RUSSIA TURKEY EUROPEAN UNION Documentation & Information: reports, documentaires, books, photo projects…..……………………………………………....6 Capacity building opportunities: events &trainings, sharing best practices…...............................................8 www.blackseango.org www.fondromania.org
Funding opportunities………..………….........................….....9 Highlights…………………………………........................…….......9
We encourage you to send your contributions on
The Secretariat of the Black Sea NGO Forum is
current & future activities, events, partnerships and
currently ensured by the Romanian NGDO Platform –
funding opportunities that you would like to share to
FOND: www.fondromania.org. Contact person: Ms.
oana.perju@fondromania.org
Oana Perju -oana.perju@fondromania.org, Address: Calea 13 Septembrie St, no. nr. 85, bl. 77C, ap. 74, sector 5, Bucharest, Romania
This material is elaborated in the framework of the Black Sea NGO Forum, which was launched in 2008 by FOND (Romanian NGDO Platform) with the support of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Representation of the European Commission in Romania, as part of the Black Sea Synergy. The Forum aims at increasing the level of dialogue and cooperation among NGOs in the wider Black Sea Region, strengthening the NGOs capacity to influence regional and national policies and to increase the number and quality of regional partnerships and projects.
Black Sea NGO Trimestrial Newsletter Winter 2012
GLIMPSES of BLACK SEA NGO FORUM 2012 as well as the multilateral dimension of EU external policies. The Black Sea NGO Forum was launched in 2008 and is complementary to and entails different objectives from other regional initiatives (for instance the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum). It looks for creating synergies, avoiding overlapping activities and making full During 24th - 25th of October, the Romanian NGDO
use of the civil society potential in the region.
Platform (FOND), in partnership with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Representation of the
There are three main defining elements of this Forum,
European Commission in Romania organized the 5th
within the Black Sea Synergy framework:
edition
of
the
“Participation
Black and
Sea
NGO
inclusion
Forum, for
entitled
responsible
1. The focus of the Black Sea NGO Forum is
development�. Among the guests invited were Staffan
on non-governmental
Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social
transformative force throughout the region, bearers of
Committee, representatives from the Romanian Ministry
democratic values and advocates of open societies, human
of Foreign Affairs, European Commission, Governments,
and social rights, peace and solidarity throughout the
civil society representatives from the region, mass-media.
region.
organizations as
a
particular
This year around 160 participants from Armenia,
Azerbaijan,
of
Forum aims to bring together
Moldova, Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, Russia attended the
NGOs from all the countries in the
plenary and workshop sessions of the 5th edition of the
wider Black Sea region (Armenia,
Forum. The discussions were structured around 3 main
Azerbaijan,
topics:
Bulgaria,
social
Georgia,
Greece,
entrepreneurship
Republic
and
community
2. The Black Sea NGO
Georgia,
Belarus, Greece,
Bulgaria,
Republic
of
development in rural areas; transparency and public
Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey,
integrity; youth policies and youth development. The
Ukraine), as a forum for specialized
main recommendations were related to a new Black Sea
regional dialogue and cooperation
Strategy and the need to prioritize the main issues
and with other non-governmental
concerning this region on the agenda of the European
organizations and institutions active in the region.
Commission.
3. The Forum brings around the same table a broader
This
year,
the
Representation
of
the
European
constituency: civil society, EU and international donors
Commission in Romania awarded for the third time, the
and officials from the region or involved in the region, thus
Black Sea NGO Award for Excellency. The winner was the
supporting capacity building for these actors in order to
Black Sea NGO Network from Bulgaria, a network
overcome current gaps in access to information and funds,
dedicated to sustainable development, European politics
as
well
as
in
implementation
practices.
and environment issues. The aim of this award is to enhance the profile of the Black Sea Synergy and its role in proposing a regional, cooperative approach in the region,
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Black Sea NGO Trimestrial Newsletter Winter 2012
Results of the selection for the Black Sea NGO Fellowship - 2012 The Civil Society Development Foundation launched the 3rd phase of the Black Sea NGO Fellowship. The initiative was first launched in 2010 with the financial support of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.The main goal of the 3rd phase of the program is to contribute to confidence building in the Black Sea region, to encourage mutual understanding and cooperation, to strengthen capacity and coordination of civil society organizations in the region. The program aimes to bring together 12 young civil society leaders from the wider Black Sea region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine. The specific objectives are:
- To engage young civil society leaders
from the countries of the the wider Black Sea region
in
the
framework
of
regional
cooperation;
- To support bilateral and trilateral common initiatives addressing confidence building targeting civil
society in the countries of the wider Black Sea region;
- To develop the capacity of young civil society leaders and NGOs to engage in regional bilateral
cooperation;
- To further support the development of the Black Sea NGO Forum through continuing the creation of a
network of young civil society leaders promoting regional. From 58 applications from all countries eligible for the program, 12 fellows were selected as follows: ANUSH GHAVALYAN (Artsakh State University, Armenia) AYSEL ISMAYILOVA (Caritas Azerbaijan) MARIANA TRIFONOVA (Economic Policy Institute Sofia, Bulgaria). MIKHEIL GABELIA (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia) . ANASTASIIA DOBROVOLSKA’s (Republic of Moldova) LILIT MAKUNTS (Yerevan State University, Armenia) ELIZAVETA PANKOVA (Lomonosov’s Moscow State University, Russia) ONUR TAHMAZ (Community Volunteers Foundation , Turkey) MARIANNA MYKHAYLYUK’s (Ukraine). YARINA ZHURBA (Centre for Political and Legal Reforms., Ukraine). INA DODICA (State University, Republic of Moldova) . SEPTIMIUS PARVU (Pro Democracy Association, Romania) Source:http://www.blackseango.org/forum/home/articles/results-of-the-selection-for-the-black-sea-ngo-fellowship-2012
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Black Sea NGO Trimestrial Newsletter Winter 2012
COUNTRIES IN FOCUS ARMENIA & AZERBAIJAN & GEORGIA
The young women’s peace award in the Caucasus 2012
Democracy Today organisation, Association for the Protection of Women's Rights (Azerbaijan) and Women`s Information Centre (Georgia) with support of the British Embassy in Yerevan are happy to announce The Young Women’s Peace Award in the Caucasus. The Young Women’s Peace Award in the Caucasus has been established to acknowledge the exceptional role and leadership potential of young women in building peace, empowering their communities and working to prevent conflicts and to restore and protect human rights. It has been inspired by the work of famous peace and human rights activist Anahit Bayandur (1931-2011), winner of Olaf Palme Peace Prize. The award will be given to a young woman between the ages of 25-45 or alternatively an organization that invests in peace building in their community. The person or organization has to be known in the community for her/their peace building activities and for her/their promotion of peace, justice and protection of human rights. This can be through civic activism, academic research, journalism, writing, using social media as tool etc. This work should have lasting impact on the processes of peace and confidence building. Source: http://ukinarmenia.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=835358082
AZERBAIJAN & ARMENIA No movement in Karabakh peace process expected prior to elections in Armenia and Azerbaijan No crucial movement was registered in the Karabakh peace process in 2012, Voce Chairman of Heritage Party Armen Martirosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am. It is conditioned by the level of readiness of the parties and international community to recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence, he said. “At the moment, neither Armenia, nor Azerbaijan or international community is expressing willingness,” he emphasized. Martirosyan is confident no changes in the peace process should be expected prior to the 2013 presidential elections in Armenia and Azerbaijan. After the election, parties to the conflict will try to budge the talks but one should not expect significant results. Source: http://news.am/eng/news/132805.html
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Black Sea NGO Trimestrial Newsletter Winter 2012
BELARUS Index on Censorship - Belarus: Pulling the Plug [PDF] –January 2013 New legislation gives the authorities wide powers to censor online content, in particular on the catch-all grounds of “distribution of illegal information”, and to implement mass surveillance of citizens’ activities online. The government is spending heavily on the development of software that will allow the tracking of nearly all the activities of every internet user in the country. Western firms have been instrumental in providing equipment that has facilitated state surveillance. Since the growth in use of social networks, there have been several waves of arrests of moderators of popular online opposition groups and communities. Journalists and activists who express their opinions online have found themselves subject to criminal prosecutions for libel. Denial of service attacks have been used frequently against independent online media and opposition websites, especially on the occasion of elections and other major political events. Source: http://digitaldissidence.tumblr.com/post/39666106010/index-on-censorhipbelarus-pulling-the-plug
Republic of Moldova EU is the largest donor in Moldova The European Union is the largest donor of Moldova. As of 1st October 2012, EU had ongoing projects worth over 336 million dollars. The information was reported by Ruslan Codreanu, the head of the Policy Coordination, Foreign Assistance and Central Public Administration Reform Department of the State Chancellery during a meeting of the Interministerial Committee for Strategic Planning. According to the Government’s press release, other important donors are EBRD/EIB, the United States, the World Bank, Romania, and the UN. According to the information made public 62% of the funds is in the form of grants. In total, 189 projects are implemented from grants, while 25 projects from credits. During the meeting it was also tackled the issue of Chinese Government’s assistance program for Moldova. There were approved the projects that will benefit from financial assistance based on the last financial agreement signed with the Government of the People’s Republic of China in December 2011, worth US$9.5 million. Source: http://economie.moldova.org/news/eu-is-the-largest-donor-of-moldova-234739-eng.html
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Black Sea NGO Trimestrial Newsletter Winter 2012
TURKEY & EU & RUSSIA The year 2013: Turkey –EU – Russia; the crisis and integration pendulum In these last days of 2012, during a speech given at the International Cooperation Platform (ICP), Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan emphasized that Europe’s economic crisis has turned into a political crisis and has become a dead-end street. There are two possible routes that can be followed. Strategies that will emerge from this basic crisis will correspond to restructuring politically and economically not only the EU but globally as well. To summarize briefly: The front seeking to emerge from the crisis through strategies bearing traces of the “Clash of Civilizations” thesis, led by traditional German capital and finance, defends the contraction of the EU into a rich, German-based nation-state community. To enable this, they are working on a strategy for southern European countries to exit the euro zone, starting with Greece, bringing up the subject from time to time by means of the press. Europe’s second strategy to overcome the crisis would clearly be in politically completing its union: in other words, a journey beyond an alliance of nation-states. […] with the ending of Greek Cyprus’s EU term presidency, the Turkey-EU relationship will warm up again at the beginning of 2013. Actually, what the EU wants is this: the integration of strong countries such as Turkey to overcome the crisis. Then, we can say that the dynamics of the crisis have impeded the front seeking to discontinue the EU union and to continue it as a “rich” Christian club. Source: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-302565-the-year-2013-turkey-eu-russia-the-crisis-and-integrationpendulum.html
DOCUMENTATION & INFORMATION: REPORTS, DOCUMENTARIES, BOOKS, PHOTO PROJECTS, CONTESTS
REPORT EU democracy promotion in the Eastern neighbourhood: a turn to civil society? Since 2009, the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) has tried to introduce new tools to enhance the involvement of non-governmental actors. The motif has been one of more bottom-up and locally-driven democracy support. One of the main novelties of the Eastern Partnership was the EU’s attempt to reach out beyond state institutions and tighten modes of engagement with non-state actors. In 2011 the EU unveiled a new concept of ‘partnership with society’, offering enhanced assistance to non-state actors in the neighbourhood. Under the Eastern Partnership the EU has gradually become a more engaged and unified actor in democracy promotion in the Eastern neighbourhood.
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Black Sea NGO Trimestrial Newsletter Winter 2012
This paper presents empirical data which show that the EU has genuinely turned over a new leaf its support to democracy through civil society development. However, it argues that the EU still needs more fundamentally to review the way it implements civil society support in the Eastern neighbourhood it its new initiatives are to contribute effectively to demand drive, bottom –up reform. Source: http://www.fride.org/publication-newsletter/1088/eu-democracy-promotion-in-the-eastern-neighbourhood:-aturn-to-civil-society
BOOK Offside: Football in Exile — The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Viewed Through Soccer With 2012 having dashed many hopes for peace in the South Caucasus, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh remains one of the most intractable in the region. Over 20,000 people lost their lives in the war waged in the early 1990s and a million were forced to flee their homes. Around 3,000 have been killed in cross-border skirmishes and sniper incidents since a 1994 ceasefire effectively put the larger war on hold, but organizations such as the International Crisis Group (ICG) warn that the danger of an ‘accidental war’ breaking out increases with each passing year. But while negotiations to resolve the conflict through the OSCE Minsk Group continue to falter, and not least as both Armenia and Azerbaijan preparing for presidential elections in 2013, a new book by Dutch writer Arthur Huizinga and photographer Dirk-Jan Visser hopes to examine the conflict through the prism of football. Offside: Football in Exile tells the story of two football teams, FK Qarabağ Ağdam and FK Karabakh Stepanakert, and was published earlier this year by YdocPublishing/Paradox. Source: http://www.peace.oneworld.am/blog/2012/12/offside-the-armenia-azerbaijan-conflict-through-football/
PHOTO CONTEST
Eastern Partnership Culture programme: Photo contest around diversity in Ukraine and Armenia, Deadline – 1st of June, 2013 Photographers in Ukraine and Armenia have been invited to take part in a photo competition around the theme of 'Diversity in my community', organised by a project funded under the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme. The contest is part of the ‘Equal opportunities for national minorities and disadvantaged groups in realising cultural rights: richness through diversity’ project
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Black Sea NGO Trimestrial Newsletter Winter 2012 financed by the European Union under the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme. The aim of this contest is to reflect and raise awareness of the importance of cultural diversity in local community development in Ukraine and Armenia. Community leaders, bloggers, professional and amateur photographers are invited to present photos of any genre. The deadline for submitting entries is 1 June 2013. The best photos will become part of an international mobile exhibition in Ukraine and Armenia. The â‚Ź12 million Eastern Partnership Culture Programme aims at assisting Partner Countries in their cultural policy reform at government level, as well as capacity building and improving professionalism of cultural operators in the region. It seeks to strengthen regional cultural links and dialogue within the Eastern Partnership region, and between the EU and ENP Eastern countries' cultural networks and actors. (EU Neighbourhood Info) Source: http://www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=30998&id_type=1&lang_id=450
CAPACITY BUILDING OPPORTUNITIES: EVENTS & TRAININGS, SHARING BEST PRACTICES
2nd Pan-European Strategic Forum (Brussels, 06/02/2013). Registration until 18th January 2013 SEAS-ERA regional Strategic Research Agendas for three sea basins (Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Sea) to be presented together for the first time. The Forum will present Strategic Research Agendas from three regional sea basins (the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic), which have been developed as part of the FP7 SEAS-ERA project. The research strategy of the Baltic Sea BONUS initiative will also be presented. The presentations of the research agendas will be followed by a number of structured presentations from key stakeholders and the event will conclude with a panel discussion (see preliminary agenda here). As an important stakeholder, the SEAS-ERA partners cordially invite you to attend the 2nd SEAS-ERA Strategic Forum. By attending this event, you will have an opportunity to learn about and discuss the key research priorities which have been identified for the four regional seas basins. You can also contribute to the debate on how these research agendas can be best utilized in guiding regional and pan-European science policy. For registration send an email (including your full affiliation and contact details) to European Marine Board Secretariat (nchu@esf.org) by 18th January 2013. More information: http://www.seas-era.eu/np4/202.html
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Black Sea NGO Trimestrial Newsletter Winter 2012
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES Erasmus Mundus Partnership for Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova EMP-AIM EMP-AIM is a Partnership of 17 Universities from European countries, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, which aims to build a structured and sustainable cooperation between the involved universities and thus to strengthen academic, cultural, economic collaboration between the European and Eastern Europe region countries. The project EMP-AIM is coordinated by Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania). EMP-AIM offers scholarships for undergraduate, master, doctoral, post-doctoral students and staff mobilities: • from Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine to study, teach or research at 8 European Partner; • from 8 European partner universities to study, teach or research at 9 partner universities in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. The EMP-AIM scholarships are funded by the European Commission under Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Programme and will cover subsistence allowance, travel, insurance and participation fees (if applicable). EMP-AIM call for applications for the academic year 2013/2014 is open from 19 November, 2012 to 25 January, 2013. Scholarships are available for study, research and professional visits at all mobility levels. Applicants are requested to get acquainted withthe application instructions and use the on-line application system. Source: http://emp-aim.mruni.eu/
HIGHLIGHTS 2013 UN International Year of Water Cooperation The United Nations declared 2013 as the UN International Year of Water Cooperation with a view to raise awareness, both on the potential for increased cooperation, and on the challenges facing water management in light of the increase in demand for water access, allocation and services. The year will highlight the history of successful water cooperation initiatives, as well as identify burning issues on water education, water diplomacy, transboundary water management, financing cooperation, national/international legal frameworks, and the linkages with the Millennium Development Goals. It also will provide an opportunity to capitalize on the momentum created at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, and to support the formulation of new objectives that will contribute towards developing water resources that are truly sustainable. Source: http://www.unwater.org/watercooperation2013/about.html
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