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Description
The project is a solution to the problem of a limited offer of support for NGO operating in Warmian-Masurian Province and their minor institutional potential. This is reflected in e.g. a small share of organizations in the implementation of public tasks (0.5% of the budget of local governments) or a small number of NGO specializing in protecting supervising legal provisions. Non-governmental organizations in the region are weak - this stems from the lack of both funds for their ongoing operations and dedicated training courses for leaders. This is confirmed by a study conducted in 2020 by the Council of NGOs in the province monitoring the activity of the third sector in the region, which showed that 85% of the respondents had reported the need for increasing qualifications of staff. The study conducted by Klon/Jawor indicated that as many as 61% of the NGOs in the region do not employ personnel at all. As a result, non-governmental organizations are not important social partners. We will establish the Regional Network of Social and Civic Activities, whose task will be to provide services supporting the institutional development of NGO, conduct activities with regard to not only strengthening the potential of social organizations, but also monitoring local law, which is stipulated and implemented by local governments. We will also train 45 leaders in the region and establish 3 sub-regional centers for NGO. The main benefit of the project will be increasing NGO in Warmia and Masuria as well as controlling the activities of local and governmental authorities in a better manner. This will translate into more activities undertaken by inhabitants as well. The project is implemented in partnership with the Local Government of Warmian-Masurian Province as it is an institution which has the largest experience in building cooperation between local governments and non-governmental organizations and which has been working on building civil society in the region for years now.
Summary of project results
The project was a response to the need to permanently strengthen the third sector in Warmia and Mazury through professionalization, improved communication with local communities, and especially their specialization and involvement in the processes of creating and applying laws and public policies in particular locally. The need to act to strengthen local democracy and local lawmaking processes, as in many cases local governments fail to deal with a range of issues that are key to citizens. The key problems of recent years were also pandemic - the social sector suffered significantly, could not count on as much financial support as other sectors. Many NGOs suspended their activities, most had financial, personnel problems(NGOs to the pandemic,2020, Klon/Jawor). Another problem was low public knowledge of NGOs, what they do, what role they play, or outright reluctance related, among other things, to the negative narrative carried out in the media.
The main recipients of the project were NGOs and informal groups operating in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (representatives of foundations, associations, informal groups, activists and social activists, etc.). Indirect recipients were residents of the voivodeship and representatives of local governments, who followed the offer and results of the project activities through social media. Activities undertaken in the project included: training, counseling, consultations, training cycles, expertise, mini-projects, community sessions. All of the listed activities were important for the complementarity of the offer to strengthen organizations. The products of the project were: training (328h), consulting (511h), social sessions (27), mini-projects (20), expertise (6).
In the opinion of the project implementer, the project was successful. The benefit of the activities carried out is the strengthening of more than 337 organizations from the region, and substantive and valuable documents in the form of expert opinions were developed that will serve both organizations and local governments in the future. The importance of the activities undertaken can be seen in the activation of the community, their own activities, among other things, by conducting mini-projects, participation in consultations, organized by JST, participation in the developed documents and the increase in the competence of their representatives both in training and training cycles. The results of the project will have long-term positive consequences, including increased knowledge, greater participation of org. in lawmaking, use of access to public inf.