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| Title: |
Promotion of Debates on Social Inclusion in Support of the Reinforcement of the OMC on Social Protection & Social Inclusion |
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| Description: |
As a reaction to the EU’s economic
integration, the need to harmonize policies in the field of social
inclusion and social protection emerged. The European Union intervenes
in these matters through a less restrictive mechanism, known as the
Open Method of Coordination (OMC).
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| Location: |
Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium |
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| Duration: |
15th December 2008 to 15th December 2010 |
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| Aim: |
Raising awarness of European citizens on the Open Method of Coordination process and on EU and national policies on social inclusion and active inclusion. |
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| Beneficiaries |
- National governments, which will gain the partnership of NGOs actively involved in social inclusion programs to help them implement the national action plans; - 15 Romanian NGOs to be trained, which will gain an understanding on the OMC process and will be able to become the Government’s partners in implementing the national action plans; - Any other persons reached by the project (in the case of Romania, student participants in the workshop and journalists trained to become watchdogs are target groups that the information will be disseminated to); - Beneficiaries of the social inclusion policies are the final beneficiaries of this program; - The larger public. |
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| Activities: |
Kick-off meeting of the project and of the Belgian campaign (1st meeting of the Steering committee)
The aim of this activity is to implement the project steering committee and to start the project. The steering committee will be made of all project coordinators: Pour la Solidarité ASBL, PACT Foundation and PODKREPA. DIESIS will also take part in the steering committee. Discussions on the general methodology and the transnational dimension of the project will be possible during this meeting. Kick-off meeting in Bucharest, Romania The three Romanian partners will organize a working meeting. A European expert will be contracted to enable the Romanian partners to understand how the OMC works both at the European and national level. The meeting will aim to the definition of work methodology and discussion on the concrete implementation of the campaign (administrative and financial aspects). The Romanian team will draw the OMC research outline, define the concrete methodology – for both research and project, discuss the content of the OMC training seminar, and establish the criteria for the 15 NGOs’ selection in view of the OMC training. The partners will discuss the way each activity will be implemented along project stages, establish activity indicators, determine administrative and financial details for efficient project implementation, refine and organize specific tasks of each partner and also establish a concrete dissemination and promotion plan (newsletters, website, press releases etc.). The kick off meeting is also to synchronize the activities with those carried out in Bulgaria and Belgium. Launching the National wide campaign in Romania This first part of the project will be based on research about the way the Open Method of Coordination has been applied by the Romanian Government in the process of creating The National Reform Plan and the active Measures designed for its implementation. The research will also focus on how the indicators have been produced and how the implementation of the plan is being monitored. The report of this research will become available for various categories of actors – NGOs, the media, social partners, interested citizens, thus increasing the visibility and knowledge on the method. Selection and training of 15 NGOs on the OMC topic The second part of the project will be the mobilization part. It will be based on training for interested NGOs on the Open Method of Coordination. 15 NGOs based all over Romania, apart from the project partners, will be selected in order to participate in a training seminar on the topic of OMC. During the training NGOs will be informed about measures designed and indicators established and deadlines for reporting for the Romanian Government in front of the Council. The training also aims to encourage the NGOs to form a functional network that will be in charge with monitoring the way National Action Plans will be implemented on various topics and how indicators will be attained. The European expert on OMC will be delivering the training seminar. The NGOs will decide upon one or more measures to be addressed, according to their direct interests and area of activity. Formation and meetings of a mixed working group made of the 15 NGOs and government representatives The 15 NGOs will inform the Government about their intention to monitor the process and will offer support to the government for achieving the indicators. The NGOs will make themselves available for the implementation together with public authorities. A meeting between the NGOs and government officials will be set in order to chose and agree upon the working methods. Following this agreement, the mixed working group will go through 5 complex working meetings along the project. Presentation to journalists and students and citizens consultantion An information session will be organized for journalists, in order to train them to become watch dogs of OMC together with other NGOs. A workshop will be held for students within Bucharest University in the field of policy analysis and policy making. Discussions will be carried with the Romanian Government in view of organizing a citizens’ jury as a means of citizens’ consultation (under CeRe coordination). Citizens will be mobilized for consultation according to the topics tackled by the working group, thus the citizens’ jury will be organized on a particular theme chosen by the working group. Transnational meeting in Craiova, Romania This action aims at sharing experiences and difficulties and discussions with experts; at analyzing steps for designing participatory national action plans; at evaluation of the project during its implementation. The Steering committee will take part in these meeting and invite relevant experts. The 15 NGOs of the working group will be invited in order to be encouraged and to strengthen their motivation. CRONO will coordinate the organization of the meeting, and try to involve also prefectures and local governments, along with the national government representatives. The event will be a good opportunity to disseminate the OMC research report. Representatives of the Belgian partners will participate in this conference in order to enable Romanian partners to understand how OMC works at the European and national level and to present results of the previous Belgian OMC campaign. Best practices guide The Romanian partners will be working on a best practices guide, as part of the dissemination plan; some good practices will be presented and analyzed by the project partners, and some will be selected for the realization of this guide; the guide will be available on all partners’ websites and on the project website (translated in English). Final event in Bucharest, Romania The final event will enable the opportunity to launch the best practices guide and present the final report of the Romanian campaign and the monitoring process. The objective will be to analyze the project and its outcomes and also to disseminate outputs to an important range of relevant actors. Final European Conference in Brussels, Belgium The aim of this action is to finalize the project with the presentation results of the three national campaigns. During the final conference, a focus will be set on general recommendations and discussions between the three countries in order to contribute to reinforce the OMC process. Peer reviews are part of this process, so this conference will be organized as a kind of peer review between three Member States. Good practices and experiences will also be presented during the conference. As it will be a European conference, relevant actors at the European level will be invited to discuss project results together. The final conference will therefore be part of the awareness-raising strategy and of the dissemination strategy. It will be a good way to reach relevant actors at European level.
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| Current Stage: |
Final Conference in Bucharest
The final Conference of the Romanian project took place at Hotel International Tiny Club, in Bucharest, on the 6th of December, 2010. The main objectives of the event were, firstly, to disseminate the results of the project - the activities of the OMC working group and the papers that the members of the OMC working group had elaborated during the project – and, secondly, to debate, in a broader environment then between the members of the working group, on the participation of the NGO sector to the social inclusion policy process. In order to better prepare the event, the project partners met on the 27th of October, 2010, to establish the design and the agenda of the event, as well as the list of participants. On this occasion, a plan of action for the implementation of the activity and clear responsibilities for each partner were established. The communication between partners on the preparation of the Final Conference continued via e-mail and Skype. The host of the event was Mrs. Mihaela Lambru – researcher within the Romanian Institute for the Research of the Quality of Life, and one of the Romanian external experts most preoccupied in her scientific work of the Social OMC. The event was attended by 30 participants – representatives of central authorities, NGOs active in the social field, members of the working group. The first part of the event comprised a series of presentations: Social OMC and the activity of the OMC working group, “Code of good practice for civil participation in decision making” adopted by the Council of Europe, Study about the NGO sector in Romania (launched this year by the Civil Society Development Foundation). This session was followed by intense debates among the participants on the issues at stake and it was closed by the launching of the project Publication called “Partnership for Social Inclusion – Recommendations for the improvement of public policies and successful projects in the field of social inclusion”. The second part of the Final Conference had the design of a “World Cafe” event, having the general theme “the stakeholders’ participation in the policymaking process”. The participants debated on the following challenges: o How to stimulate the participation of the citizens belonging to vulnerable groups to the social inclusion policymaking process? o How to increase the participation of the NGO sector to the social inclusion policymaking process? o How to increase the participation of the academic sector and mass media to the social inclusion policymaking process? The general conclusion of the Final Conference in Bucharest, which could be extended as a conclusion of the Romanian project, is that in Romania the NGO sector needs a common vision and serious efforts of coordination from the part of its members in order to put in place a real mechanism of stakeholder participation, to the benefit of all the Romanian citizens and of the country democracy. The project closed by this Conference represents a small, yet strong step towards building this common vision of the sector.
Presentation of the OMC to students
The presentation of the OMC to students took place within a meeting at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Bucharest, on November 30th, 2010. Surprisingly, this University does not provide any course on European Institutions or European Policies. Only during the last year of the cycle students are offered an optional course on European Regulations, teaching the basics of Community Laws. However, the project team found a teacher at this Faculty willing to host the project team to present the OMC, even if she taught research methods in political sciences. There were 20 students present, from the 2nd year in Political Sciences. After a brief presentation of the OMC, of the project and of the research report on the implementation of the Social OMC in Romania – elaborated and published during the project, a small debate started. Some of the questions asked were: “what is social inclusion?”, “what is the European social model?”, “what can you do in the absence of coercion or political will?”, “how can we engage more in the making of public policies?”, “how do we make sure we represent all the categories of stakeholders in the final public decision?”, “who represents poor people, the elderly, the disadvantaged?”, “how do you actually coordinate such a diversity of policies and social and welfare systems at EU level?”, “how are public institutions dealing with a diversity of interests in the policy making?”, and the list could go on. The students had never heard before of the Open Method of Coordination and after the first presentation they just started to grasp all the implications of the method at national and local level. It was for the first time that they were introduced to public policy documents such as National Reform Plan, National Strategic Report and Joint Reports. The meeting ended with the promise that the discussions will continue in 2011. More meetings will take place with the students from the Faculty of Political Sciences in January 2011, and more students from different years and courses will be invited. It is possible that CeRe and the Faculty of Political Sciences will further develop a partnership in order to offer information on different subjects of interest to students, OMC included, in areas not covered by the university curricula. At the meeting in November, 50 copies of the study of OMC in Romania were distributed: 20 in the class where the presentation was delivered and the rest were distributed by other professors in another class where public policies were taught
Presentation of the OMC to journalists
CeRe organized the meeting with journalists for a presentation of the Social OMC on 24th of November, 2010, during a public event held at the headquarters of a national association - APH Sporting Club Galati - a member of the NGO working group on OMC, whose members are disabled persons. On this occasion, the association announced the results of their campaign to obtain support from local public authorities for the creation of a social economy unit. From CeRe’s point of view, the relationship between the beneficiaries’ association and the local authorities is an example of best practice in how to achieve inclusion for disabled persons. The event’s programme included: - work on Christmas decorations together with disabled children and other guests in the offices of the association (this kind of work is intended to generate jobs and income for disabled persons once the social economy unit is in place); - tour of the neighbourhood in the wheelchair, with the help of APH Sporting Club Galati staff, in order to experience hands on different aspects of social exclusion; - discussion on social inclusion programmes at local level for disabled persons and the link with the Open Method of Coordination. At the event, among those present, there were: a representative of the business sector, a representative of the County Council (elected locally), together with 3 local journalists (2 daily newspapers and one local TV station), and 1 journalist from a national daily. The entire event was marked by the experience in the wheelchair; none of the participants was able to overcome obstacles in the way of the wheelchair. This led to the conclusion that indeed, integrated programmes are needed for disabled persons’ social inclusion: access ramps in the streets, buildings and means of public transportation and their inclusion on the labour market through special programmes (such as the social economy units), within a complete and comprehensive legal framework at national level. The experience was reflected in 2 of the local newspapers, through the eyes of the journalists present at the event. The other journalists stated that they would write extended articles describing the experience in Galati and linking it to policies at national and European levels in the future, once the European Commission will publish documents relevant for the Social OMC and the subject of the debate. The two articles from local newspapers can be downloaded from: http://www.viata-libera.ro/articol-Reporter_al_„Vietii_libere”_–_calatorie_de_cosmar_in_scaun_rulant___2.html http://www.adevarul.ro/locale/galati/Experiment-_Persoana_cu_dizabilitati-pentru_o_zi_0_378562415.html The article of the national daily newspapers can be downloaded from: http://www.cotidianul.ro/130607-Viata-pe-roti http://www.cotidianul.ro/133349-Europa-si-saracii-ei
Research report on the use of the Social OMC in Romania
The final version of the research report on the implementation of the Social OMC in Romania was first presented to the public on the occasion of the Final Conference in Bruxelles, on the 9th of November, 2010. The research report was then made public in Romania, as well, on the occasion of the presentations of the Social OMC to journalists and to students (24th and 30th of November, 2010) and on the occasion of the Final Conference in Bucharest, on the 6th of December, 2010. Main conclusions of the research on the use of the Social OMC in Romania: - The functional institutional infrastructure in Romania has a low capacity to meet the Social OMC objectives; the capacity built during the pre-accession period was lost by re-organizing the responsible institutions. - The responsible authorities seem to be more focused on the reporting process and on how reporting documents are assessed at EU level than on how the Social OMC could benefit vulnerable groups. - The three types of Social OMC indicators remain insufficiently exploited resources and have no relevant impact on the social policy spectrum. - The participation of all stakeholders in the process of generating social policies in Romania is very low as compared to the coordination framework established at European level through the Social OMC. - The functionality of Romania’s strategic reports can and should be substantially improved.
Elaboration of the Good Practices Guide
The discussions and the planning activities for the elaboration of the Good Practices Guide started from the 9th of June, 2010; it was the last subject discussed during the 5th meeting of the OMC working group. On this occasion, the members who attended the meeting decided that the Guide should outline both the working group’s activity, as well as the working group member’s activity in their specific field of expertise. During the summer and the beginning of the autumn of 2010, the Romanian project partners coordinated the work of selecting the suitable documents from the projects sent by the members and from the working documents of the OMC group, in order to draft the final version of the Guide. Because it was difficult to show the way the good practice examples could be replicated, the group decided to avoid the term “good practices” and to name the Guide “Partnership for Social Inclusion – Recommendations for the improvement of public policies and successful projects in the field of social inclusion”. It was an important task for the members of the OMC working group to work together on this document and this contributed a lot to the cohesion of the group. Thus, in order to plan and better coordinate the activities, a team gathering the project partners and three very active members of the OMC working group periodically met via Skype and when the first draft of the guide was ready, a meeting was organized in order to revise it and to agree on the final version (on the 16th of September, 2010). The “Partnership for Social Inclusion” guide was launched during the Final Conference of the project that took place in Bucharest (on the 6th of December, 2010) and it has been mailed to all project collaborators in Romania (working group members, central authorities, journalists etc).
During July-October 2010, the Romanian partners of the project have worked closely with members of the OMC working group to prepare activities to be carried out in October and November, namely: the launch of Good Practice Guide which will include good practices and challenges collected from the projects made by the working group members to illustrate proposals to improve social inclusion policies made by the Working Group; presentation of the OMC and the working group in front of Bucharest University students interested in public policies and journalists. Between 8-10 November 2010, a delegation of representatives of Romanian partners and working group members will participate in the project Final Conference, organized by Pour la Solidarite in Brussels.
The fifth meeting of the working group on OMC – the last one in the framework of this project - was organized on the 9th of June 2010, in Bucharest, at InfoEuropa Centre, in collaboration with the Department for European Affairs of the Romanian Government. The meeting has been attended by 19 representatives of the working group. The main objective of the meeting was to draft a SWOT analysis of the group’s activity from November 2009 to June 2010 (5 meetings) and to identify the most important action vectors for the working group.The group worked in four smaller groups and than they debated in planery on themes related to the group structure and it’s common vision. The second objective of the meeting was to introduce the new project developed by PACT Foundation, CeRe and CRONO, and financed by the Balkan Trust for Democracy; this new project continues the activities of the OMC working group and has the final purpose of increasing the group’s capacity to influence public policies in the field of social inclusion. The first meeting in the framework of the new project was established on the 28th of July. Please find here the summary of this meeting.
On 26th of March 2010, the Transnational Conference ”Partnership for Social Inclusion” was organized in Craiova, in the framework of the 2010 ”European Year of Fighting Poverty and Social Exclusion”. The Conference was aimed at:
- Promoting debates and best practices on Social Inclusion themes in the framework of the EU 2020 Strategy and the 2010 ”European Year of Fighting Poverty and Social Exclusion” - Informing participants with regard to the Open Method of Coordination in the framework of social inclusion and promoting the results of the Working group on OMC in the Social Inclusion domain The participants who attended the Conference were representatives of national, regional and local authorities, regional and local civil society and working group members. The participants considered the event a successful one; they appreciated the interactive working methods used, the best practices in the domain of social inclusion presented, the general setup of the Conference and its visual identity.
The fourth meeting of the working group on OMC was organized on the 25th of March 2010, in Craiova. The meeting has been attended by 14 representatives of the working group and it was meant to evaluate the working group activity to date and to identify the main directions of actions and priorities, in the short run. With the support of the the project’s consultant, the irish expert Candy Murphy, the working group identified possible actions to be undertaken in the next six months.
- „Watch dog” activities, monitoring the way the national targets of the EU 2020 Strategy will be established (in the summer, the EC will present the detailed parameters of the EU 2020 Strategy, including the integrated guidelines and the national targets) - Elaborating a map containing the institution holding responsibilities in the domain of Social Inclusion - Analyzing the activities of Antipoverty and Social Inclusion County Commissions - Analyzing the revised strategies of Romania in the domains of Poverty and Social Inclusion - Analizyng the way the data colletion is realized in Romania, at all levels
As a result of the third OMC working group meeting, on 5th of March 2010 the director of the Social Inclusion Programs Department within the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection invited OMC working group representatives to discuss in detail the main proposals of the group meant to improve the Social Inclusion measures and, furthermore, to find together new ways to improve collaboration between sectors.
The third meeting of the working group on OMC was organized in collaboration with the Department for European Affairs of the Romanian Government and took place on the 24th of February at InfoEuropa Centre. It was the first meeting attended not only by the working group members, but also by representatives of some of the Romanian authorities holding responsibilities in the area of Social Inclusion: the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection, the National Agency for Family and Child Protection, the Ministry of Education Research Youth and Sports (Public Policies Unit) and the National Council for Fighting Discrimination. The meeting was a good opportunity for debating on the working group proposals regarding the improvement of the Social Inclusion measures and of the communication between NGO sector and authorities. The Ministry of Labour representative invited interested members of the working group on OMC to join an existing Ministry working group on Social Economy legislation and showed openness to find, together with her colleagues and superiors, more ways to collaborate with the OMC working group, in the spirit of better governance principles of transparency and stakeholder participation in the decision making process. More details here .
On 14th of January 2010 a two hours planning meeting attended by 6 NGOs from the working group took place at PACT quarters; it was aimed to plan the next meeting of the working group – proposed for 10th of February - and to decide on the documents that will be presented to the authorities, taking in account that representatives of authorities with responsibilities in Social inclusion are invited to attend the next meeting. The group decided to prepare two documents: a short, comprehensive and applied document, with no more than 15 proposals, aimed to improve the inclusion policies in Romania (based on the work already done by the working group); a proposal of a consultation mechanism with the NGO sector – this one will be the research work of Ce-Re and PACT. Both documents will be discussed on the forum by all the members of the working group, will be sent in advance to the Ministry of Labour, and will be open for debates with all the participants, on 10th of February.
The second Meeting of the working group on OMC regarding the social inclusion took place on 8th of December at Siqva Hotel in Bucharest. First session of the meeting was aimed to inform the new members of the group and the special guests – Regional Romanian structures called PACTs for Social Inclusion and Employment – about the general frame of Social OMC and its development in Romania. The second session was dedicated to new members and guests presentations about their areas of interest and their activities in the field of social inclusion. The next two sessions, representatives of the smaller working groups, created last meeting with the purpose to analyzing the programmatic documents elaborated by the Ministry of Labour in the frame of OMC, presented their team work – assessments and proposals in order to improve social inclusion public policies. Interesting debates took on all the social inclusion subjects developed during the meeting.
The first meeting of the working group on OMC regarding the social inclusion took place on the 3rd of November, 2009, at AidROM headquarters in Bucharest. Around 20 NGO representatives active in the area of social inclusion attended the meeting. As a first issue on the meeting agenda, the participants elaborated and signed a common position document announcing the Ministry of Labor – Department for Social Inclusion Programs - regarding the creation of the working group, its objectives and, most importantly, stating the full commitment and availability of the group to collaborate with the Ministry of Labour and other partners, in order to elaborate an efficient mechanism for public consultation on social inclusion, to ensure an active involvement of all the stakeholders. Further, the discussions focused on internal issues such as the need to enlarge the working group in order to achieve a higher visibility and legitimacy and to largely represent the sector of the NGOs working on social inclusion, the way the working group will communicate or work together. For the following meeting, the group proposed to analyze the programmatic documents elaborated by the Ministry of Labour in the frame of the OMC and to organize members in smaller working groups, taking into account the area of expertise of each member. The summary of the group meeting discussion here. The following meeting will take place in Bucharest on the 8th of December, 2009.
The training seminar on OMC took place on the 5th and 6th of October, 2009, at Minerva Hotel in Bucharest. The purpose of the seminar was to set up a mixed working group for the strengthening of the Open Method of Coordination in the field of social inclusion in Romania. There were 31 participants from 23 NGOs on social inclusion, as well as 9 representatives from the government holding responsibilities within the OMC framework and 4 external Romanian and foreign experts. The first part of the seminar was dedicated to the attending nongovernmental organisations for a common position to be known and built. The project team suggested a discussion on the common topics on social inclusion, as well as on the influencing of the public policies in this area. The second part of the seminar was dedicated to the description of the principles and mechanisms of the Open Method of Coordination. The public authorities and the external experts presented valuable information regarding: the OMC in Romania and Ireland, social inclusion indicators, recommendations of EAPN Ireland (European Anti-poverty Network) on how NGOs could efficiently collaborate to public authorities in the context of the OMC. The main results of the research completed in the frame of our project were presented. The NGO representatives were interested in the project’s idea to create a working group on the OMC regarding the social inclusion; the working group was created with the main goal to promote dialogue, collaboration and active partnership both between the NGOs on inclusion and between these and the public authorities responsible of OMC process implementation. The summary of the group meeting discussion here On September 2nd, 2009 PACT Foundation launched the call for applications to the NGOs working on the social inclusion area. The call for application included also an application form and a brief overview of OMC. The package was uploaded on several websites: www.stiriong.ro, www.fdsc.ro, www.ce-re.ro. To ensure a wide reach, project partners put together a list of main NGOs on social inclusion in Romania and sent direct emails of information on the call for applications. There have been 25 NGOs that sent applications for the project, out of which only one organization was rejected as it did not meet the required criteria. It should be mentioned that although the project partners initially decided to select only 15 NGOs, this has been lately reconsidered in order to ensure a wider reach of OMC due to the novelty of the subject among NGOs in Romania. Hence, all the 24 organizations were invited to take part in the seminar. During August – September 2009, the main activities within the project were focused on the completion of the research on the way the OMC has been applied by the Romanian Government in the process of creating the National Strategic Reports and the active measures of implementation. For the research, 12 interviews were held with representatives of Romanian public authorities as well as external experts that have been previously involved in the elaboration of social policies. PACT Foundation has widely contributed to the process of identifying and contacting government representatives. A second draft of the research report was handed in to the team on the 22nd of September, 2009. Main conclusions of the research would be presented within the training seminar on OMC in the beginning of October 2009 and the final research will be made public in the beginning of 2010. By the end of July 2009, PACT Foundation contracted a European expert on OMC. The expert is a Board member of the Irish European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), a member of the Social Exclusion network of the European EAPN (European Anti Poverty Network) in Brussels and a private consultant, owner and managing director of CMAdvice Ltd. Her main areas of expertise include: research (social and economic research; developing monitoring and evaluation systems and monitoring and evaluating national, local, and organisational programs; preparation and dissemination of research and planning reports; demographic and labour market analysis; socio-economic impact studies; analysing issues of poverty and social exclusion), policy (preparation of policy papers in a wide range of areas, working with different stakeholders, government departments, state agencies, social partners and representatives of the NGO sector; analysing a wide range of issues relating to equality and non-discrimination in Ireland, covering gender, poverty, disability issues, the labour market, anti-racism, social exclusion) and human rights (training material, submissions to shadow reports). She has worked on OMC issues in Ireland, primarily through the EAPN for the last 4 years, contributing to policy briefings, seminars and networking/training sessions with local NGOs. She is also very involved in the EU social inclusion agenda under the OMC and its implications for vulnerable groups. She has also been involved in the development and evaluation of the Irish NAPincl. She has been Ireland's representative on the EAPN Social Inclusion Group in Brussels for the last two years. This again involves contributing to the OMC process and to responding to EU proposals in this area. She attends 2-3 meetings in Brussels annually which review in detail OMC-related issues and which also involve ensuring that all member state representatives have a clear understanding of the OMC process and how best they can feed into it. The research process started in June 2009; the entire process would take 3 to 4 months and it will focus on how the indicators have been produced and how the implementation of the NRP is being monitored. The researcher would deliver the first draft by the end of August 2009, followed by the final research document after another month since that date. The partners would discuss on the content and shape of the draft report presented by the researcher and would provide feedback and recommend next steps to be taken for the final delivery of the research to match the standard requirements as stated in the Terms of Reference. In the meanwhile, PACT Foundation undertook research activities of an expert on OMC to deliver a series of activities within the project (e.g. the training on OMC to a mixed group of NGO and government representatives, assistance regarding the OMC method). During May 2009, the main activities within the project were focused on the activities regarding the research on the way the OMC has been applied by the Romanian Government in the process of creating the National Reform Plan and its active measures of implementation. CeRe leads the planning and concrete implementation of this activity and therefore was responsible for drafting terms of reference for the researcher to be employed (focus on experience on public policy and social inclusion issues), managing the recruitment and selection process for the researcher and monitoring throughout the whole process. By the end of May 2009, CeRe contracted a researcher to do the field research following a recruitment process based on CVs analysis and selection procedure pursuing criteria of specific training and field experience in the area. On April 7th, 2009, the kick off meeting of the Romanian campaign took place. The general aim of this meeting was the definition of work methodology and discussion on the concrete implementation of the campaign (administrative and financial aspects). Topics discussed during the kick off meeting included: clarifying activities for all partners; zooming into the first activity – the research to be undertaken in Romania on the state of the art of the Open Method of Coordination; the training seminar organized for the national working group; launching the research report and press conference for journalists; other project activities; administrative aspects and financial requirements; analyzing the National Strategic Report regarding social protection and social inclusion and extracting elements that could be useful for the implementation of the project in Romania; positioning the project in the context of other initiatives; establishing clear tasks and responsibilities for each partner and a common working manner. In conclusion to this meeting, Romanian partners decided to focus the project activities on the area of social inclusion, considering the gaps in the Strategic national report regarding social protection and social inclusion, as well as the expertise of each organization involved in the project. The Romanian partners also decided that the research should be carried out by an external researcher experienced in doing policy based research, under the direct supervision of CeRe. From February till March 2009, PACT team prepared the Terms of Reference (ToRs) for contracting a European expert with solid experience on OMC, to be sent to potential candidates, in view of selection. The ToRs would be discussed over at the kick off meeting of the Romanian national campaign. In the meantime, the Romanian partners performed a desk research regarding the way the OMC has or should have been applied by the Romanian Government in the process of creating the National Reform Plans and the active measures for implementation. As a result of the desk research, CeRe drew a research outline that was sent to all Romanian partners, in preparation of the Romanian kick off meeting discussions. CeRe estimated a schedule by hours/days to determine whether an external researcher should be contracted to do the field research, due to the large amount of information and the human resources and time span to be dedicated. On the 18th of February 2009, the first planning meeting of the Romanian OMC project team took place; partners established a draft calendar and an outline of activities, in accordance with the larger project agenda. On January 28th, 2009, the project kick off meeting took place in Brussels, Belgium, bringing together all the project partners from Belgium, Romania and Bulgaria. Thus, the steering committee was reunited as well, being made of the European Think Tank Pour la Solidarite (PLS) – Belgium, PACT Foundation – Romania and PODKREPA – Bulgaria, as well as DIESIS – Belgium. The partners carried out discussions regarding the general project methodology, preparation of specific activities to be implemented by the project partners, and the transnational dimension of the project. |
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| Funders: |
The European Commission through DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities – Social Protection and Integration – Inclusion, Social Policy Aspects of Migration, Streamlining of Social Policies, within the European Community Program for Employment and Social Solidarity (2007 – 2013), the “Promotion of Debates on Social Inclusion in Support of the Reinforcement of the OMC on Social Promotion & Social Inclusion” Project VP/2008/015/176
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| Partners: |
- European Think Tank Pour la Solidarité (PLS) – Belgium – General Project Coordinator and National Coordinator for Belgium
- Foundation King Baudouin – Belgium - Service for the fight against poverty, insecurity and social exclusion – Belgium - National Labour Council – Belgium - DIESIS – Belgium - Confederation of Labour PODKREPA – Bulgaria – National Coordinator - The Confederation of Employers and Industrials – Bulgaria - The National Union of the Worker Producers’ Co-operatives – Bulgaria - Foundation PACT – Romania - National Coordinator (in charge of observing and implementing the working plan for Romania) - CeRe - Resource Centre for Public Participation – Romania (has expertise in organizing advocacy and awareness raising campaigns; in charge of coordinating the research on the knowledge and the estate of applying the OMC in Romania) - CRONO - Resource Centre for non-profit organizations in Oltenia – Romania (in charge for organizing the transnational partners meeting in Craiova)
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| Contact persons: |
Madalina Ene, Program coordinator |
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| Documents: |
Research Report on OMC On Open Method of Coordination.pdf Presentation_OMC_in_Ireland.pdf Craiova International Conference - presentations.zip Candy_Murphy_Recommendations_25March2010_ppt.zip
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