The Civil Society Development Foundation is launching the 3^rd phase of the Black Sea NGO Fellowship. The initiative was first launched in 2010 with the financial support of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.

The main goal of the 3^rd phase of the program is to contribute to confidence building in the Black Sea region, to encourage mutual understanding and cooperation, to strengthen capacity and coordination of civil society organizations in the region.

The program aimes to bring together 12 young civil society leaders from the wider Black Sea region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine.

The specific objectives are:

• To engage young civil society leaders from the countries of the the wider Black Sea region in the framework of regional cooperation;
• To support bilateral and trilateral common initiatives addressing confidence building targeting civil society in the countries of the wider Black Sea region;
• To develop the capacity of young civil society leaders and NGOs to engage in regional bilateral cooperation;
• To further support the development of the Black Sea NGO Forum through continuing the creation of a network of young civil society leaders promoting regional.

Profile of the candidates:

Young civil society leaders (18 – 27 years old) working with civil society organizations / civil society groups in the targeted countries.

The selected candidates will have strong leadership attributes, a good experience of involvement in civil society initiatives, a strong academic background and openess towards regional cooperation.

The communication language of the program is English. The candidates will have to prove a good command of English as a foreign language in both writing and speaking.

Selection of the candidates:

Phase 1:

Each applicant will provide a letter of motivation, a CV and a support letter from the civil society organization / civil society group where they activate.

Each applicant will also present, briefly, a project idea that she/he plans to develop with support from the other fellows, indicating how the participation to the program will contribute to the project and what type of involvement she/he will propose to the other fellows.

Twin applications will be highly encouraged: joint applications by 2 persons from different countries with prior joint work experience will be taken into consideration.

Deadline: 21 September 2012

Short-listed participants will be officially announced by 24 September 2012.

Phase 2:

Further references on the short-listed applications (persons/sending organizations) may be asked. Phone/skype interviews will be scheduled with short-listed applicants.

Selected participants will be officially announced by 28 September 2012

The program:

The Fellowship Program includes 2 phases: a preparatory phase in Romania, around the 5^th edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum (24-25 October 2012); bilateral exchange visits and implementation of joint initiatives.

Phase 1: 

The Fellows will first meet in Bucharest with the occasion of the 5^th edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum (October 2012). The Fellows will travel to Bucharest on 23-27 October.

The 4-day meeting will include 3 main elements:

• introduction of the fellows with the program and with the general political and civil society context of Romania (focus on several topics: transition period from communist country to EU member state; intercultural and interethnic problems and solutions in Romania; Romanian and European approaches to the Black Sea region);
• participation to the first day of the Black Sea NGO Forum and introduction to the regional cooperation framework(s);
• developing action plans around the joint bilateral/trilateral initiatives proposed by the Fellows.

The program in Romania will include visits at and meetings with representatives of the main political institutions in Romania, Romanian journalists and civil society representatives. Individual appointments (meetings with persons/institutions chosen by each participant or recommended by the project team) will also be arranged.

Fellows will have the possibility to attend the opening day of the Black Sea NGO Forum, 5^th edition.

The working program in Romania will be focused on developing joint bilateral/trilateral initiatives proposed by the Fellows. Fellows will develop their ideas with support from local facilitators. During the program in Romania each team will further refine its project idea, develop an action plan for the duration of the program, based on the feed-back from the other fellows. Facilitators/resource persons will provide support to all fellows to refine their project ideas/action plans. The action plans will include clear indicators, deadlines and responsabilities.

Phase 2: 

In the second phase of the program each participant will receive a travel grant to visit and work together with their team colleague(s) on a joint initiative. Each participant will be able to travel to a different country for a least one week. Exchange visit programs will be developed by each team. The visit program will include obligatorily: meetings with local civil society leaders, journalists, public authorities; one public event involving local civil society and/or mass media and/or public authorities and/or other representatives of the community.

The participants will also contribute to developing a blog of the program.

By the end of the program the fellows will:

• have a better understanding of the transition experience and process of EU integration of Romania;
• have a better understanding of the Black Sea region, of various countries specificities and added value;
• be part of a network of young civil society leaders which will provide them with more ooportunities to become engaged in other regional projects and programs;
• develop joint initiatives in their own communities contributing to loal development and to regional mutual understanding and cooperation.

The deadline for application is 21 September 2012. Please submitt your application forms to the following address: [email protected] , mentioning in the subject of the email “Fellowship 2012”.

Further details cand be obtained from Ms. Raluca SIMBOTIN - [email protected] , tel. 0040 21 310 0181

Important!

Before submitting your application forms, please check the “Check list”:

• application form;
• CV;
• recommendation letter;
• you hold a valid passport;
• you are available to travel to Romania in the period 23-27 October 2012.