Towards building a viable partnership between NGOs and public authorities on social inclusion issues

The project addresses the lack of influence that the NGO sector has upon strategic planning and decision-making processes at all levels, particularly in the social field, due to a very poor participatory manner of governance put into practice by the public authorities in Romania. Most active NGOs have the necessary strength, capacity, outreach and visibility to be able to positively influence to some extent, given their experience and expertise, the lives of many socially excluded/disadvantaged people. However, in order to really be able to make a difference, to become a viable partner for the public authorities, to have an impact on the social inclusion policies, there is a need of an informed, powerful and unique voice from the part of the NGO sector. On the other hand, from the part of the public authorities there is a need of openness towards transparency and stakeholder participation and involvement, as pillars of good governance.

The need for the NGO sector to actively participate in the formulation of social inclusion policies has been addressed through the project “Promotion of debates on Social Inclusion in Support of the Reinforcement of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) on Social Protection and Social Inclusion” carried out by PACT Foundation (Partnership for Community Action and Transformation) in partnership with Ce-Re (Resource Centre for Public Participation) and CRONO (Resource Center for Non-profit Organizations in Oltenia), financed by the European Commission through the PROGRESS Program run by the General Division for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. In the framework of this project, in September 2009 a working group on Social OMC was established, being made of 30 NGOs active in the social inclusion field and 3 external experts. This group, currently functional, has as main goal to promote partnership between stakeholders on social inclusion, taking advantage from the framework of Social OMC that recommends integration and coordination of social inclusion policies and a transparent and participatory manner of governance. Therefore, the group envisaged to make pertinent proposals for the current National Strategic Report (NSR) (2008 – 2010) and to become a valuable partner for the Romanian Government in the elaboration and implementation of the next NSR that the Romanian government is supposed to hand in to the European Commission this year.

Taking in account the context described in the above paragraph, the main goal of this project is to support the strengthening of the capacity of the existing working group composed of NGOs active in the social inclusion field to work with the responsible governmental institutions in the area, as a vehicle for stakeholder participation in the policy and decision making processes

To increase the level of NGO participation in the formulation of social inclusion policies.

Objective 1: Increasing the intervention capacity of the existing NGO working group on the OMC regarding the social inclusion policies
Objective 2: Increasing awareness on the opportunities offered by the stakeholder participation for developing social inclusion policies

Objective 1: Increasing the intervention capacity of the existing NGO working group on the OMC regarding the social inclusion policies

Activity 1: Management meetings of the working group

- 2 management meetings of the working group (in Bucharest) - Both meetings will be attended by the members of the working group and the partners’ coordination team (1 day each, 30 participants/meeting)

- The 1st meeting will open the project and will have the aim to renew the agenda of the group and to establish shared responsibilities regarding the activities in the project and deadlines for sharing information with the group. During this meeting, two domains/themes related to the social inclusion policies will be selected to be debated with the authorities’ representatives during thematic workshops and a theme for the Future Search Conference - an event that will be organized during this project.
- The 2nd meeting will end the project and will have the aim to evaluate the activities of the working group in the frame of the project and to establish next steps of the working group (the group will be prepared, for example, to take part in the programming period of the ESF - SOP HRD in Romania, next year; this will increase the efficiency of European aid and national interventions in the social field).

Activity 2: Thematic activities of the working group

- Small thematic group activities of the working group members taking into account the responsibilities established in the first management meeting. The members of the working group will work either independently or organized in small thematic groups, communicating via the existing e-group moderated by project partners. These activities will be carried on during the entire period of the project, thus preparing the input of the working group to the thematic meetings or the events organized during the project. The way the group will work and the responsibilities regarding the centralization of the information inside the group will be decided as well during the first management meeting. Group members will:

- analyze the social policies and the related strategies led at national level in order to be up to date with the information about the system and be able to formulate viable proposals to forward to the authorities
- keep up to date with technicalities and EC recommendations related to the new Social OMC design in the frame of the EU 2020 Strategy
- monitor the policy making agenda in Romania in order to be able to take part in the most important decision making processes
- draft documents of proposals or improve and update the documents of proposals elaborated by the working group in the period November 2009 – June 2010, following Romania’s programmatic documents related to Europe 2020 Strategy, to forward and support vis-à-vis the responsible authorities.

Activity 3: Thematic workshops of the working group and relevant stakeholders on social inclusion

-  2 thematic workshops organized by the working group (in Bucharest) – 1 day each, 30 participants/meeting

– The workshops will be attended by the working group members who have the most interest on the themes selected, by the relevant public authorities’ representatives and by specialized media. The general aim of the workshops is to provide public authorities with the NGOs’ input on specific social policies developed. The workshops will also prove the efficiency of participation in analyzing and formulating social inclusion policies, taking into account the direct link between the NGO sector, its experts and the final beneficiaries of the social policies measures. Participants will analyze the challenges and weaknesses of the previously selected domains/themes and will formulate solutions in a participatory manner. 

Objective 2: Increasing awareness on the opportunities offered by the stakeholder participation for developing social inclusion policies

Activity 4: Future Search Conference (2 full days, 50 participants) – Partnership for Social Inclusion

- The event will reunite representatives of the working group, relevant public authorities and final beneficiaries of social inclusion policies, media representatives and external experts. The conference will aim to further develop the partnership between public authorities, the NGO sector and other relevant stakeholders, by bringing all of them in the same space for 2 full days, in order to analyze the context of one domain or theme of interest regarding social inclusion policies, to share a common vision and to plan common actions for the improvement of the issue at stake; the domain/theme will be chosen by the working group during the first management meeting (i.e. it could be one of the social inclusion domains – such as child protection, or related themes such as the partnership between public authorities and the NGO sector, or consultation mechanisms etc.). 

Activity 5: Elaborating a conference report and disseminating it to relevant stakeholders

- The Future Search Conference will be thoroughly documented beginning with its preparation activities and following all the related activities carried out by the project team for organizing this event. The report, together with photo and film documentation, will be copied to DVD and posted to the participants, to the national, regional and local authorities (especially local authorities from South Romania) and to the relevant media.

Activitity 6: Regional Meeting on OMC and Partnership on Social Inclusion (1 day, 30 participants)

- This activity aims to promote the Social OMC and the Partnership for Social Inclusion to the most active Community Based Organizations from South Romania that PACT Foundation is working with and to the relevant regional and local authorities. The participants will be informed on the utility of the Social OMC, as an efficient framework to integrate and coordinate Social Inclusion measures and as an opportunity to establish real partnerships at regional and local levels for improving the elaboration, implementation and evaluation processes of the Social Inclusion policies. The event will be organized by CRONO in Craiova.

The final event within the project, “The Future Search Conference on Integrated Social Inclusion Services – 2020 Horizon”, took place in Sinaia, Hotel Sinaia, between 3 and 5 February 2011. The event reunited 48 participants, representing stakeholders all over the country who manifest a real interest in the improvement of the social services field in Romania. 
As shown by the title, the event was designed in a specific format – the Future Search Conference – which has a participative approach that facilitates building common vision and ground of action for all relevant actors, regarding the issue at stake. The main aim of the event was to facilitate the elaboration, in a participative manner, of a set of proposals meant to improve the field of social services in Romania.
According to the participants, the event attained its aim and, furthermore, it offered the opportunity for social services professionals all over the country representing public authorities, social services providers or social NGOs to think together, to exchange ideas and success projects. You can find more details in the FSC Report and the FSC movie.
The second workshop within the project, with the theme “Integrated Social Services”, took place in Bucharest, Hotel International Triumf, on the 26 of November and it was attended by 18 participants representing NGOs from the working group on OMC and central authorities with responsibilities in the Social Services domain.  The participants debated on “The Volunteer Quality framework in Social Services”, a document proposed by the Committee of Social Protection from Brussels, they compared the proposed standards with the reality of delivering social services in Romania and worked in small groups on study cases to identify the gaps between the Romanian legislation and the harsh realities and problems which are faced by the final beneficiaries of these services. The conclusion of the workshop was that authorities should be more open and transparent with NGOs and beneficiaries when designing measures in the domain of social services.

The second Management meeting of the working group took place on the 27th of October and it was attended by 15 members of the working group. This meeting had the main objective to build the structure of the working group, in order to assure its effectiveness. The members analyzed the previous activity of the working group by drafting out a SWOT analysis, established the group short term and long term strategies and then drafted out the member’s profile, a document to be approved by the executives of the NGOs members in the working group. 

Thematic activities of the working group
Small thematic group activities of the working group members taking into account the responsibilities established in the first management meeting were organized via the e-group. The main activities that the members of the working group decided to be undertaken are:
    analyzing the social policies and the related strategies led at national level in order to be up to date with the information about the system and be able to formulate viable proposals to forward to the authorities
    keeping up to date with technicalities and EC recommendations related to the new Social OMC design in the frame of the EU 2020 Strategy
    monitoring the policy making agenda in Romania in order to be able to take part in the most important decision making processes 

The Regional meeting in Craiova (hotel Green House) - was organized September 22, 2010, under the aegis of the European event  - the "Citizens Participation Week." Representatives of local authorities and non-profit sector from South West Oltenia region participated. During the event various local and regional realities were discussed, with emphasis on the importance of democracy and participation, as well as opportunities for active citizenship. The event also approached the initiative, commitment and local action, insisting on good practices in this regard. The themes that were brought into the discussion had as point of convergence the necessity and usefulness of increasing the welfare of communities through direct action of citizens themselves. The organizers brought suggestive examples based on practical experience and realities actually experienced by people in different communities, to inspire appropriate action.

The event was an opportunity to discuss the European Code of Public Participation and to submit joint proposals of the working group on social inclusion with regard to a potential mechanism for consultation between public authorities and NGOs in terms of social inclusion policies. The crucial importance of a real collaboration between NGOs and local authorities was thus reiterated. It was noted that this is the only way, starting locally, in which we can build a national strategy for social inclusion to be effective, viable and realistic (based on the needs of the beneficiaries themselves).

The first workshop on "Integrated Local Social Services" was held in Bucharest at Hotel Capitol, on August 31, 2010 and brought together country local authorities with responsibilities in the social field, as well as members of the working group. The workshop opened up with a series of presentations that were aimed at putting the workshop in a context and then presenting the social and economic trends in Romania (ICCV based study "Romania after 20 years"), and the role of a social worker in the local community (presentation by Ovidiu Haidu). In the second part of the workshop, participants worked in small groups to analyze social services at local level in terms of integrated approach; the result is a list of proposed improvements that shall be used as a working document in the next workshop with central authorities. The workshop ended with presentations on best practices in integrated approach. Presentations where held by guests and members of the working group.

The first management meeting of the OMC Working Group took place on July 28, 2010, at InfoEuropa in Bucharest. 24 people attended, representatives of member organizations or independent experts in the working group. The meeting was organized with the support of the European Affairs Department that provided us a working environment at InfoEuropa room. The main purpose of the workshop was to draft an analysis of the activity of the working group between November 2009 and June 2010. We used a method that enabled us to take into account various personal points of view. In small groups, members drafted a SWOT analysis and listed proposals on improving the structure of the group, its organization and strategic directions that should be taken into account in planning activities of the Working Group.

At this meeting, the Working Group chose a general and comprehensive theme for the next two workshops with public authorities "Integrated Social Services"; the first workshop, scheduled for August 31, shall host a debate on issues relevant to the local level; the second one, will bring into debate the integration of social services at the central level, the level that holds the decision-making power. The two workshops will also count as preparation for the Future Search Conference, a cross-sector conference that will try to bring the same subject to the attention of all stakeholders at all levels, in order to create common action plans and to improve the delivery of integrated social services.

Partners:

The Resource Center for Public Participation, Ce-Re, Bucuresti

The Resource Center for Non-profit Organizations from Oltenia, CRONO, Craiova

Balkan Trust for Democracy

Madalina Ene – Project Coordinator

  BTD_Project_Summary_ppt.zip

Report on Future Search Conference - Integrated Social Services