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Description
The Project Generation Facility (PGF) is a special facility of the Open Society Institute – Sofia for supporting CSOs which work on equal Roma inclusion to develop integration projects, access financing and effectively implement them with resources provided by available financing programmes. The PGF main target groups include:
- Civil society organisations that work mainly in the field of Roma inclusion;
- Other civil society organisations that develop projects aimed at bettering the situation of Roma and contribute to the integration of the Roma.
PGF provides support through an accessible application process focused on supporting good ideas, including those coming from organizations with limited capacity to fully develop and implement them. In the case of the organisations in the first target group, PGF endorses the sustainability and up-scaling of their activities by assisting their access to programs that are:
- difficult to access because of complicated rules and procedures and documentation;
- very competitive – with many proposals per funded project;
- not directly targeting Roma and require expertise in other fields in order to develop a proposal.
In the case of the second target group, PFG provides incentives to attract more organizations to work for the cause of Roma integration.
The PGF aims to develop at least 100 project proposals out of a total expected number of 250 applications for consultations. At least 40 projects, supported by PGF, are planned to receive funding for a total amount of about 2 million euro. The PGF training program includes delivering of at least 20 trainings on the basics of project development and management and on the socio-economic status of the Roma of at least 150 beneficiaries (incl. 50 from civil society organizations working for Roma inclusion).
Summary of project results
The Project Generation Facility (PGF) is a special facility of the Open Society Institute - Sofia for support by providing free consulting expertise to civil organizations that work for the equal inclusion and participation of Roma in the Bulgarian society.
Through an accessible application process on the PGF online platform, 202 requests for expert support were collected and 115 project proposals were developed and submitted to various donor organizations (with 15 more than the target indicator of 100 project proposals), of which 47 (7 more than the minimum planned number of 40 projects) have been approved for funding. In this way, funding was attracted from various sources for quality projects of civil organizations related to Roma inclusion, in the amount of BGN 12,804,219.0 million or EUR 6,546,693.2 million (more than 3 times more than the target indicator of EUR 2 million). Therefore, for each euro invested in the project, a return value of approximately 22 euros have been achieved.
The platform supported NGOs to attract funds from programs that:
- difficult to access because of complicated rules and procedures and documentation;
- very competitive – with many proposals per funded project;
- not directly targeting Roma and require expertise in other fields in order to develop a proposal.
Within the framework of the PGF, 20 trainings were held on the basics of project cycle management and on the socio-economic situation of Roma for 200 participants (exceeding by 1/3 the planned number of 150 participants), the majority of whom, in accordance with the set indicators, self-identify as Roma).