On September 25th, 2013, the Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) is organizing a policy workshop on Aid modalities for civil society support under IPA 2014-2020 in Brussels. The objective of the workshop is to focus discussion on implementation mechanisms and aid modalities, which according to BCSDN Donor Strategies and Practices research from 2011 seem to be the real bottleneck in achieving the overall objective of the IPA CSF in “anchoring democratic values and structures, human rights, social inclusion and the rule of law”.

EU has the potential to use its hegemonic power as the main civil society supporter and donor to determine the focus of democracy promotion agendas and assistance in Enlargement countries. For this reason, BCSDN will bring both practitioners (CSOs and donors) from Enlargement countries and EU to testify about the current support and best practices in terms of support to CSO capacity-building, grant-making, support to grass-root and informal civic groups and networks. In sum, we will provide food-for-thought on how partnership with CSOs could be increased making them the primary actors (and not objects) of democracy building and promotion in the next IPA cycle.

A draft agenda can be accessed below. Please RSVP to bst@balkancsd.net if you would like to attend.

Date: 25th September, 2013

Place: Brussels (EESC JDE 63, Jacques Delors Building, 6th floor, RueBelliard).