Center for Development of NGOs organized a Re-granting forum “My community – Strong Communities” on 30 November 2018 in Podgorica. This event is one of the activities of the project, “My community-strong community,” which is financially supported by the European Union through the EU Delegation to Montenegro, within the IPA program for the development of civil society 2016.
Forum was opened by the Executive Director of the Center for Development of NGOs (CRNVO) Ana Novakovć who in his speech said that the Re-granting procedures have become an important mechanism to support local civil society organizations. Therefore, the CRNVO decided that in order to assess the effects of past and ongoing process of awarding grants to organize a one-day forum that will address the theme of re-granting and to be used as a platform for the exchange of information, success stories, but also to create recommendations for future calls in this authorities.
Forum was opened by the Executive Director of the Center for Development of NGOs (CRNVO) Ana Novaković who in his speech said that the Re-granting procedures have become an important mechanism to support local civil society organizations. Therefore, the CRNVO decided that in order to assess the effects of past and ongoing process of awarding grants to organize a one-day forum that will address the theme of re-granting and to be used as a platform for the exchange of information, success stories, but also to create recommendations for future calls in this authorities.
“This is the first Re-granting forum in Montenegro, which is tightly focused on just this subject and will address the advantages and disadvantages of Re-granting of civil society organizations. Re-granting procedures are an important mechanism to support primarily the local civil society and becoming increasingly important tool for addressing issues in local communities, providing services to citizens and launching important initiatives at the local level, “said Novaković.
Attendees had the opportunity to hear the experiences that the organization awarded Re-granting funds and those who implemented projects through this mechanism. What is the effect of the project in the community, the extent to which citizens were involved in the preparation and implementation of these projects and that these projects have the support of the media are just some of the questions that the participants tried to answer the representatives of non-governmental organizations.
In front of the EU Delegation to Montenegro experiences with re-granting procedures transferred Maja Marković who pointed out that in the future should be more work to Re-granting funds received medium organizations to strengthen the capacity of these organizations and preparing them for the implementation of major procedures and projects.
His experience with Re-granting funds attendees conveyed Anto Janković, Program Manager of Philanthropy in Fakt-in. “The focus of the program is to provide financial support to non-governmental organizations for projects in the following areas: empowerment and social inclusion of young people; economic and political empowerment of women; empowerment of disadvantaged and marginalized communities; social entrepreneurship; environmental protection and sustainable development; prevention of violent extremism.
And it is precisely in these areas we have allocated funds for six of the 59 applications received, “said Janković.
Program Coordinator at the Center for Civic Education Petar Đukanović pointed to the work of NGOs, their past experiences and lessons learned in the previous two years.
“We have so far conducted four cycles of awarding grants to civil society organizations in Montenegro and that we started in 2014 through a regional program which is aimed at networking society in the role of endangered human rights in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. There are two dominant themes of discrimination and human rights and the fight against corruption at the local level. From the beginning, re-granting, we supported 28 organizations in Montenegro with the amount of 168 000 euros, “said the prime minister.
The event was organized in order to introduce, as an organization that awards grants and grantees with all the obstacles, procedures and rules to funds received for projects distributed in the best possible way and activities implemented consistently application forms.
The Forum was attended by representatives of civil society and institutions in Montenegro.