The October Ambrela Development Forum (ADF) with the subtitle ‚Building Bridges, Building Solutions‘ in Bratislava was attended by a 7-member delegation from Norway. In addition to active participation in panel discussions, deep talks and workshops, the delegation was the driving force behind the networking event for Slovak humanitarian and development organizations from Slovakia. As can be seen in the feedback from Ambrela platform members, the meeting with Norwegian partners brought new ideas and encouragement for further work.
The Bratislava meeting with a 7-member delegation from Norway, led by the Norwegian Forum for Environment and Development – ForUM, was attended by representatives of active member organisations of the Ambrela platform, such as Slovak Catholic Charity (Caritas Slovakia), Integra Foundation, People in Peril (PiP), TENENET and eRko. Slovak development organisations presented their main activities and forms of project financing to their Norwegian colleagues. The cuts in the funding of development projects from the Slovak Republic under the SlovakAid brand and a greater focus on finding other sources of funding were discussed too. However, access to EU funding is often challenging due to the smaller size of Slovak organisations and the consortia they form.
The PiP team mentioned the EU Delegated Cooperation Programmes, the Caritas Slovakia team described the progress of the Lenten Box for Africa campaign and other collections in churches and parishes. The eRko team described how its development activities in Africa are financed through the Christmas collection – Dobra novina (Good News). In April, eRko concluded the 29th year of this caroling event with a historic result – 18,853 carolers joined in the caroling during Christmas, visiting 47,332 families in 1,061 villages and towns across Slovakia, with the final result of the Christmas collection amounting to €1.35 million. Those present agreed that Slovaks have a great willingness to donate money to help the needy at home and around the world. The Norwegian partners identified the strong personal interest of the local population to support charitable and humanitarian organisations as an added value of Slovakia.
Lucia Jantošovičová, project manager of the Dobra novina programme from eRko, described the meeting with representatives of the Norwegian platform of development organisations and its members as valuable in terms of sharing good practice: „Especially in the area of cooperation with the business sector or public administration, it was a stimulating conversation. The reactions to presenting examples of our work in the field or the difficulties despite which we as a non-profit sector are a relevant ‘pulling‘ body / a proxy for the international community, were also encouraging. We thank Ambrela for facilitating such a meeting.“
The Norwegian delegation encouraged the Slovak Ambrela members present not to slacken in their efforts to establish partnerships and identify added value for the private sector. Representatives of Caritas Norway spoke openly that although they have less experience with both EU funding and direct fundraising from the faithful private donors (due to the smaller number of Catholic church members in the country). However, they have both open access to public funds and established strong cooperation with the private sector. They also mentioned the active partnerships within the Caritas network, to which the Caritas Slovakia team responded positively.
Alena Horváthová, Head of the International Cooperation Section of Caritas Slovakia, evaluated the opportunity to share experiences with Norwegian organisations and to establish partnerships very positively: “It was interesting to hear examples of activities and experiences from the Norwegian ForUM platform and its member organisations. I was also interested in how, for example, the Norwegian charity (Caritas Norway) links some of its projects with universities and also with the business sector.”
At the end of the October meeting of Norwegian-Slovak CSOs in Bratislava, a discussion on networking aspects took place, where the important topic was not only the possible access to funding (in the form of EEA and Norway Grants or bilateral funds), but also the creation of new partnerships with an emphasis on capacity building and networking.
“The meeting with the Norwegian organisations gave us a great opportunity to talk about our experiences and challenges within development cooperation issues. Norway, as one of the largest development donors, gives also in GDP terms about 5 times more to development cooperation than Slovakia. So the conditions in which Norwegian development organisations operate are diametrically opposed. It was therefore stimulating to hear how the Norwegian Development Agency NORAD sees the added value of civil society, especially in the knowledge of local conditions, but also in the great flexibility or adaptability in the implementation of projects in the field,” said Juraj Jando, Ambrela’s expert in the field of policy-making, after the meeting with the Norwegian delegation in Bratislava.
At the same time, Mr Jando also recalled how his Norwegian colleagues stressed that “the role of civil society should not only be to implement projects, but also to ‘watch-dog’ state policies and development programmes, for example in relation to fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” which is something that the Ambrela platform team has been working to do for a long time as part of its advocacy work.
Written by: Ambrela, Photos: Ambrela and ADF Archive
Note: The coverage of the Norwegian-Slovak bilateral meetings at ADF 2024 was carried out as one of the activities of the ongoing project ‘Unlocking Potential: Discovering collaboration opportunities for Slovak and Norwegian Development Organizations‘ supported by an EEA and Norway Grants.
„Together for a green, competitive and inclusive Europe“. The initiative is funded by the Fund for Bilateral Relations at National Level financed by the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021. For more information, please visit: www.eeagrants.sk.
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