Description
The project need is to reduce the gap in education initiatives on Public Sector Governance between Romania and the other states from the European Economic Area. Project objective: Leading Higher Education Initiatives and Integration into the Global Knowledge Society by forming interdisciplinary skills and Participatory Democracy transversal competences. Outcomes: improved English skills, improved confidence in accessing a carrier in public sector, an increased number of publications, the provision and the assessment of key-competences, including transversal skills, particularly official languages and social skills - developing civic competence. Outputs: The expected outputs are a learning module/training in public governance and advocacy. Target group: - Students, Teachers, youth/students and NGOs representatives, Marginal Communities with higher risk of exclusion The donor partner: University of Iceland. Role: to add value to the socio-economic research through information, experiences, project results and good practices exchange Partnership achievement: future sustainability through the gap reduction in education initiatives, all the partners having partnership benefits.
Summary of project results
The main scope of the ActiveGovEdu Project is that in both, Romania and Iceland, is a need for consolidating the academic educational sector towards dimension of promoting good governance and sustainable participation (the research–policy–practice interface) through an improved interaction between academic environment, public authorities and civil society in the field of citizenship and participatory democracy.The main objective of the project was to lead higher education initiatives towards its integration into the global knowledge society by forming interdisciplinary skills and participatory democracy transversal competences. First of all, the project offered staff and students the opportunity to participate to an organizational framework where international mobility ensured the development of personal and professional abilities, facilitating their social and economical inclusion on an international job market related to governance and advocacy, as well as an increasingly internationalized academic world. The latest impact mentioned is more relevant for students and young people who want to continue their studies in public administration field or abroad, where an international dimension is often required, or can at least represent a plus in their application. Although many project outputs are not quantifiable, such as skills development for the participants in project events and activities, the activities implemented offered a multitude of concrete results: methodologies and procedures which ensured the correct implementation of the project and its monitoring, scientific and technological cooperation agreements (concluded between the project beneficiary and NGOs and organizations with important impact on the society), joint scientific publications, a study on the proliferation of new risks and threats, a syllabus/curriculum and handbook on Public Sector Governance, internships and applied portfolios realised by students, and various visits and events organized during the project implementation period (field visits in disadvantaged communities, study visits during internships, learning and training modules in Advocacy, an International Conference dedicated to youth people, Joint Summer School on Public Sector Governance
Summary of bilateral results
The project contributed to good governance, gender equality and bilateral relations development, having a direct impact on the social dimension of development. The human capital development of the staff involved in the organization of project activities and events reduce the educational and social gap, raising the level of international competitiveness supporting the Romanian academic and social system. In terms of the institutions involved, the project facilitated composing a more sustainable framework for institutional development through which the partner institutions share good practices.More project proposals will be jointly written by the members of this project team, or between them and other experts with whom relationships were build and strengthen during the project implementation stage. New articles or studies will be developed over time and presented and/or published in the international knowledge flow, increasing the visibility of the researchers involved in their development.One of the project activities focused on developing common principles for conducting international activities on the grounds of theoretical, methodological and instrumental perspective through a series of Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement concluded during the project implementation period. These agreements came as a first step in the collaboration between two organisations, establishing a framework through which cooperations may develop in the future. The partnership was chosen to reach the main goal of the project, i.e. develop a new training framework aimed at empowering students with skills for participatory democracy and to promote an educational methodology for diagnosis and produce intervention solutions in order to improve good governance and participatory democracy of Romanian civil society. This project aimed to enhance understanding of democracy and governance, and also the core of the research based on practical foundation, as it was intended to generate educational and training modules, particularly for participatory democracy for youth and disadvantaged communities (with Roma population).