The purpose of the project ”NGO Voice!”
The purpose of the project ”NGO Voice!” was to increase the capacity of strategic development and involvement of the NGOs in the process of elaborating public politics in the field of social services.
We wanted the non-governmental environment to be a strong NGO voice, specialized in the field of social services, a frame of social dialogue with the authorities, in order to increase the investments in the area of social services provided by the NGOs accredited in this field.
On the project “NGO Voice!” we:
- Continued the lobby and advocacy process for contracting social services, initiated in August 2014 by FONSS;
- Invested in the NGO sector, by extending the intervention area from regional to national and by the adhesion of new members – transforming the DIZABNET network into a federation and connected it to FONSS as a specialized resource on disability in the social services;
- Offered an opportunity of training and professionalization of the market – organized training courses in areas of interest for the development of the NGOs (communication, social marketing, fundraising etc.), for 30 people from 15 NGOs members of FONSS;
- Strategically developed the federation and created innovative resources for self-funding and for developing competencies for the FONSS members, by establishing a social enterprise specialized in providing financial-accountancy, social marketing/communication and juridical services.
The direct beneficiaries of the project “NGO Voice” were:
- 30 NGOs providers of social services – FONSS members, by the project activities and the packages of services of the federation;
- 8 resource federations/coalitions/NGOs with experience in the social field will be involved in strategic planning process of FONSS and will sign collaboration protocols for mutual support in fields directly or tangentially connected to social services;;
- 97 NGO representatives of Dizabnet will benefit of the project results, including by founding the Dizabnet Federation and by connecting it to FONSS on the section of social services for people with disabilities;
- 30 professional people of the grassroots NGO sector will be trained in various fields of expertize, such as accessing funds, communication, fundraising, social marketing, lobby and advocacy;
- 50 NGO representatives and 30 representatives of the local and central authorities will participate to the works of the International Conference in the field of social services;
- 25 representatives of the Media, NGOs, authorities and people from the community will participate to the press conference for launching the project.
The project was co-financed through a grant from Switzerland through the Swiss Contribution for the extended European Union and had a total budget of 250.000 CHF. The given grant was 225.000 CHF, and the co-funding ensured by the applicant was 25.000 CHF.