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Public Report in support of community projects in Constanta sustained by PACT through Community Fund Pontus Euxin In early June 2011, PACT launched Community Fund Pontus Euxin, totaling 32.600 RON, under its management. The Fund was established by selling tickets at the conference-event, held up by actor Dan Puric in Constanta, on November 20th 2010. The event was organized by a group of citizens in Constanta (constituted as an Initiative Group for Community Fund Pontus Euxin), with support from PACT Foundation, in order to attract funds to sustain local community projects. The main purpose of the fund is to stimulate initiative groups and NGOs in Constanta to develop projects that contribute to producing positive changes in different urban communities in the city of Constanta.

PACT Foundation held Wednesday, December 7th, from 19.30 at Café Godot Theatre, a medieval theme party, which is the second fundraising event from private sources for the Community Fund for action and transformation of villages in southern Romania. The total amount collected at this event, of 8754 lei, from selling tickets, "all pay" auction (everyone pays) for special objects donated and classic auction for works of art offered by artists, will be used to support projects initiated by groups of citizens in rural communities in southern Romania.

Citizens’ participation in decisions-making – good local governance practice

16/10/2008

On the occasion of finalizing the “Participation, Strategy, Democracy” project, financed through the PHARE 2005 program – Strengthening the Democracy in Romania, Component 2 – Democracy, Human Rights, Rule of Law, Independence of Justice and Fight against Corruption, PACT Foundation and CeRe, the project partner, organized yesterday, October 15th, 2008, at Perinita Restaurant in Craiova, Dolj county, a World Café addressing “Citizens’ participation in decision making - good local governance practice”. The event aimed at disseminating the public participation methods used in the project, identifying the ways in which the results of the project have improved local governance in the communities involved, as well as debating over the access to resources that they have gained due to the local development strategies elaborated with citizens’ involvement.

Along the representatives of the commune and city halls and the members of the community based organizations that have participated in the project, the event also hosted representatives of other community based organizations and local authorities coming from other localities where PACT Foundation has previously developed projects and programs. Representatives of the Roma offices within the prefectures in the region, along with representatives of county and regional institutions, as well as other relevant NGOs in the area and mass-media representatives have also been present in the event. In the opening of the event, the prefect of Dolj county gave a speech in order to give an impulse to the discussions among the participants, starting from the necessity of a real dialog between the local public administration and the citizens, in view of elaborating local development strategies adapted to the local realities.

The World Café was chosen as an active dialogue method, meant to create a suitable participatory environment for reflection and analysis over the results of the project and to allow the participants to debate, in a less formal manner, the impact that citizens’ participation in the public decision making may have over the development of local communities. The guests carried on discussions at the tables, over 5 major development areas that came out from the local development strategies in the communities involved in the project: traditional crafts and local heritage; tourism, agrarian tourism and rural tourism; culture, education, civic participation; infrastructure; agriculture, animal breeding, alimentary industry. Representatives from each work team that participated in the project were designated as hosts for every discussion table, given that they had previously organized and facilitated similar events during their own strategic planning process. The discussions at the tables were meant to facilitate the exchange of ideas, experiences and good practices exchange between the participants, in order to find viable and efficient solutions for developing the mentioned domains, thus contributing to the improvement of the public participation process in the local governance practices. The results of these discussions have been centralised and sent to all the participants, in order to support them in the enrichment and improvement of the local development plans elaborated during the project.

The “Participation, Strategy, Democracy” project was implemented in 10 rural and urban communities in Arges, Calarasi, Dolj, Gorj and Ialomita counties. PACT Foundation and CeRe offered support to the community based organizations in all the 10 selected communities in the process of facilitating the dialogue between the local public administration and the citizens, aiming at their involvement in the public decision making and in the elaboration of viable local development strategies, in conformity with the local needs. The project represented a response to the present context where the elaboration of local development strategies by involving the citizens constitutes an important condition in the process of accessing European funds. In order to disseminate the methods and results regarding the involvement of citizens in the local governance process, 3 numbers of the Public Participation Bulletin have been edited and distributed to other communities as well, presenting the public participation experiences that took place during the project. The 3 numbers of the Bulletin are available for consultation here, Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, only in the Romanian version.

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