The title statement above is no empty programme hype. Rather, it is the reflection of simple, real-life experience that found its way into words in reply to a 'lessons-learnt' questionnaire on December 14, 2010.
07/01/2011
::
Bucharest, 14 December 2010
That was a regular day when more than 75 Norwegian and Romanian stakeholders in the Norway Grants Romania programme - promoters, partners, fund administrators and their peers, lawyers, auditors, media representatives and other important public officials and guests - gathered together for an experience-sharing workshop based on almost two years of practical project implementation in the 'Norway Grants' formula in Romania.
The event itself was no regular experience. Bringing together topics such as programme administration, project implementation, business clustering, anti-corruption, (corporate) social responsibility and publicity, the event was enriching, generous and challenging in its diversity and depth of coverage. One of the hallmarks of the event was its participatory/interactive approach, which enabled experience to be not only exposed but really shared.
As with all sharing, it is the transformations following the digestion of information and sedimentation of personalities in interaction that matter the most and give meaning to the experience of sharing. Underlying forthcoming transformations is ample material available in questionnaires which all participants answered during the event. The diversity of experience (outliers) but also the relevant silimarities (common denominators) as experienced during Norway Grants Romania project implementation have been captured in an executive summary of all the replies to the relevant questionnaire available below. While experience has been positive overall, there are areas where improvements could be made and apposite recommendations have been supplied for effective action in the future.
Interest was equally high in cross-cutting issues, with all entities alert to the latest changes in terms of social responsibility (the ISO 26000:2010 standard) and also to the latest data in terms of anti-corruption in EU fund management (100 cases sent to court over 2004-2009 amounting to approximately EUR 14 million worth of proceeds from fraud with EU money). Other fund managers presented their administration experience (the EEA NGO fund) and provided useful advice for donors to base their choice of actions in a country on thorough research of local realities. With multi-disciplinarity and networking now high on the innovation agenda, clustering among businesses, research, public and other entities as practised in Romania was also of much interest in the current economic context. All the relevant presentations are available below.
All participants were generally satisfied with the initiative for, and outcomes of, the event and called for similar experiences in the future.
Executive summary Questionnaire
Full Questionnaire (click on the number): 1 2 3 4 5 6
Seminar Presentations:
1 Norwegian Cooperation Programme Results To Date
2 Programme Publicity
3 The EEA NGO Fund Results To Date
4 Social Responsability
5 Anti-Corruption
6 Practical Information: Completion report