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Description
The purpose of the project is to build the capacity of BOLD (Bulgarian Community for Liberal Democracy) for a more effective response to new challenges created by the war in Ukraine. BOLD is an innovative membership organisation for citizen participation that makes use of digital deliberative decision making to develop and communicate policy positions related to democracy. This project will empower BOLD to reset its priorities on issues resulting from the war in Ukraine as the war is a threat to democracy in Bulgaria and Europe. Through the project, BOLD will mobilise citizen support for consistent Euro-Atlantic positioning of Bulgaria in the context of the war in Ukraine; identification and resistance to disinformation; and solidarity with people inside Russia who oppose the Putin regime. The project contributes to countering current challenges including: the risks of constructing the Bulgarian “national interest” in a way that undermines the country’s Euro-Atlantic orientation; the increased disinformation; the increased Russophobia. The project’s expected outputs are: influential policy positions and events of BOLD; regular multimedia messages including video, blogs and articles, issued by a specially trained group of fact checkers; a conference on disinformation; publication of materials authored by Russian citizens opposing the war. The beneficiaries of the project include BOLD members, other civil society organisations, and the general public.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project was to build the capacity of BOLD to mobilize civil support for consistent Euro-Atlantic positions of Bulgaria in relation to the war in Ukraine; to identify and counter disinformation; to develop solidarity with opponents of Putin''s regime living in Russia. Thus, the project contributed to solving problems such as: the risk of constructing the Bulgarian "national interest" in a way that diverts Bulgaria from its Euro-Atlantic orientation; increased disinformation; increased Russophobia.
BOLD''s capacity-building goal was achieved through: influential BOLD positions and events related to Bulgaria''s Euro-Atlantic orientation and the new challenges of the war; regular multi-format messages refuting disinformation - video, blog, articles, etc., by a group of fact-checkers after advanced training; training of BOLD members and supporters on tools to refute disinformation; a conference on disinformation; and publication of materials by Russia-based opponents of the war. By the end of the project, BOLD has built capacity to combat the new challenges of Russia''s war in Ukraine.
The project identifies issues that are important to civil society organizations, including BOLD, and the general public. By forming and disseminating influential positions, events, conference and issue papers in video and text format on the internet, BOLD reached out to the general public through traditional media and social networks. Throughout the project, beginning with fact-checking training, BOLD members gained skills and experience to combat new challenges. By collaborating with other organisations in organising some of the events (Ukrainian Prism, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and Access to Information Programme) and BOLD members collaborating with other like-minded organisations (in the fact-checking training and the Facebook group), the project was able to contribute to influencing other civil society organisations.
The project has contributed to developing the skills of BOLD to combat the new challenges resulting from the war. Thanks to the experience gained from organising events and creating influencer positions, the conference, the training and the group on countering disinformation, as well as the creation of multi-format messages (video, article, blog, etc.) in relation to disinformation and opponents of Putin''s regime in Russia, the BOLD team built sustainable skills that will be useful after the project.