SOCIAL ECONOMY SEMINARS

In order to better respond to the multiple needs of the communities it is working with, PACT wishes to have a wider range of objectives and types of intervention. While promoting the civic spirit and encouraging community-based initiatives, we also seek to support income-generation activities and opportunities for economic development for disadvantaged groups and communities. 
At the same time, we wish to offer other organisations and institutions with similar objectives a chance to share their experience with various social economy activities. Hence, PACT will organise a series of seminars and conferences in Romania, which would bring over international expertise and provide a discussion forum for future social economy projects in Romania.

April 2006 - April 2007

Non-governmental and non-profit organisations, public institutions, the business sector.

One-day seminars on various social economy themes, gathering around 40 persons, representing non-profit organisations, governmental institutions and the business environment. These seminars include presentations of international and Romanian experiences, followed by facilitated discussions. An international social economy conference will be organised in September 2007.

On February, the 6^th, there was a seminar regarding “Community Development and Microfinance in Disadvantaged Communities”, organized by PACT in partnership with and Allavida (UK) and the Phare Project for Technical Assistance for SMEs in Romania.

The purpose of the seminar was giving the opportunity for practicians in community development and microfinancing to analyse the local economical development processes and mechanisms throughout microfinancing plans.

The seminar included a series of international and national presentations of microfinancing programs for disadvantaged communities and offered the participants a background for discussions and pondering upon. The presentations belonged to Bernie Morgan (Executive Manager, Community Development Finance Association, www.cdfa.org.uk), Maria Doiciu (Component Leader- Technical Assistance for SMEs in Romania Program), Mircea Onita (General Manager, The Economical Development Center, www.cde.ro) and Florica Chereches (Executive Manager, Integra Romania, www.integraromania.ro).

The seminar tried to find answers at the questions: What is microfinancing/micro lending?, Who are the beneficiaries of microfinancing programs? How accessible are these programs for disadvantaged groups and communities?, The concept of sustainability in microfinance; sustainability for whom?

Partnership between community development organisations and microfinancing institutions: aims, values and instruments.

At the event there were 52 representatives of some non-profit organisations, microfinancing institutions and governmental institutions from Romania with direct experience in community development and microfinancing field.

On 16 June 2006 the first seminar from the series was organised, with the theme: “Social enterprises for disadvantaged groups and communities”. 32 people belonging to the NGO sector and governmental agencies from Romania, Great Britain and Belgium attended and discussed about the development of social enterprises in Romania and good practice examples in Europe. Thus, the seminar allowed the review of a large area of experience in the field of social enterprises and raised a number of questions, such as: Which activities belong to the field of social economy? Where does a social enterprise begin and end? What characteristics should a firm have in order to be called a social enterprise? How should social enterprises be funded – by grants or bank loans? The participants agreed that the field of social economy is only at its beginning in Romania, but has great potential for development. The group manifested its interest in contributing to its development. 

The next 2 seminars are scheduled for January 2007 – “Micro funding and community development” and March 2007 – “The place of social economy at national level and in the operational development plans”

Allavida through the Charles Stuart Mott Foundation

Roxana Florescu

Allavida facilitates the experience exchange with British organisations that are working in the field of social investments. Think Tank Pour la Solidarite mediates the transfer of knowledge and experience from EU countries, Belgium, France, Spain and Italy in particular.