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Description
Students'' unions have been among the main structures of civil society for the last 30 years, fighting for an open society, participatory democracy, transparency and integrity at all levels. Although students'' unions have obtained through advocacy campaigns or protests the right to participate in decision-making processes at university and local level (according to the National Education Law or the Youth Law) in fact, over 80% of our network of 111 students'' unions that are currently members of ANOSR do not acquire enough capacity to effectively exercise advocacy and monitor activities corresponding to the rights obtained.
According to our internal studies, over 2/3 of unions possess incomes below 2,500 euros per year, and the involvement of students in unions decreased due to the pandemic context, the unions being fragile structures, influenced directly by the dynamics of the members. The human resources issues and organizational capacity have been also highlighted by a diagnosis made by an external expert of FDSC.
The project will give support to 80 student unions to develop the necessary tools to monitor public institutions and get involved in local public policies, by drawing 80 organizational diagnoses, learning activities, developing support materials, conducting advocacy campaigns, submitting 240 applications based on Law 544/2001, assistance in the elaboration of 80 strategies for increasing the impact of student organizations in the watchdog activity and involvement in the decision-making process at the local and university level.
At national level, the project will support National Alliance of Students Organisations in Romania (ANOSR) to develop public policies in three major areas of intervention that represent a priority, according to the needs of ANOSR members.
Summary of project results
The project Increasing the capacity of student organizations to be active stakeholders of civil society was an ambitious approach carried out by the promoter NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS FROM ROMANIA through which it was desired to strengthen the national network of student organizations members of ANOSR (organizational development) and carrying out advocacy actions to increase the role of member/local organizations in their relationship with the academic environment, statutory institutions, the business environment, beneficiaries and other actors with a decision-making role and influence in the educational system. In identifying the need, the project was based on an internal diagnosis that revealed the need for these measures among the student beneficiaries and the management bodies of the member organizations.
Through this project, the promoter managed to (a) train internal student monitors in the field of decision-making transparency and influencing decisions, (b) develop procedures for evaluating the decision-making transparency of universities, (c) pilot such procedures in universities and encourage dialogue between students and university management. Moreover, (a) developed a sustainability, organizational development, and community involvement manual for member organizations, (b) trained students from member organizations to carry out advocacy campaigns, and (c) supported students to apply organizational diagnoses for the member organizations involved. As a result of the above results, he carried out a public campaign on 3 topics regarding students'' rights: the internationalization of Romanian higher education from the perspective of student mobility; environmental and sustainability policies at the level of higher education institutions in Romania; the equity of the accommodation facilities offered to students from higher education institutions in Romania.
To achieve the strategic development objective, the Promoter consolidated the 80 member organizations, supporting them in the diversification of income sources, specific assistance, training sessions, mentoring, and the development of strategic plans.
During the project, training sessions were held on various topics (transparency, human resources management, influencing public policies, fundraising, NGO accounting) and there were taken various steps to increase the watchdog capacity of student organizations in Romania. Numerous materials were also developed: - Human Resources Management Guide - Good practice guide on local watchdog activity of organizations - Transparency Index - an analysis of the responsiveness of public institutions to requests submitted under Law 544/2001 by students, student organizations and federation - 3 analyses as public policy proposals in the following areas: internationalization, equity, environment and sustainability - 1 manual on sustainability and organizational development - 1 fundraising guide At the same time, a web section dedicated to the project was developed and 2 international events were held in order to promote the actions of the project also among national student federations in other European countries. In addition, a broad advocacy campaign was conducted, based on the conclusions of the 3 analyses elaborated, which included meetings with various actors at national level. Also it has been organized a coaching process for a leadership position in ANOSR, in order to stimulate continuity within the structure. Additionally, there were significant efforts regarding the strategic planning process and the transparency of student associations'' activities: - developing strategic plans for conducting watchdog activities and community involvement - developing fundraising campaigns - preparing and publishing activity reports - developing a strategic and operational plan for the federation.
Summary of bilateral results
ANOSR''s cooperation with AIESEC Iceland was limited, with only a few online working meetings being held.