Workshop presentation 25th September, 2013

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

2009: The Success and Failures of the Pre-accession Policy in the Balkans: Support to Civil Society policy paper with critical overview of the IPA Civil Society Facility (CSF) design

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

Then, the EC failed: to properly consult and reflect on the lessonslearned on supporting the role of civil society in the EU accession process; to develop an approach complementary to the needs of indigenous local CSOs

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

2012:
BCSDN comprehensive overview of the IPA CSF grant support Multi-beneficiary & country grants (WB-Cro, Turkey) Period: 2007-2011 Implemented by Dec 2012

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

The 2% Commitment: drop from 2,2% (2007) to 1,2% (2011) of funds being allocated to IPA CSF

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

IPA vs. IPA CSF 2007-2011 allocations per countries: Albania: 1.2% or 4.8 mil EUR Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2.8% or 12.5 mil EUR Kosovo: 0.8% or 3.9 mil EUR Macedonia: 0.9 % or 3.7 mil EUR Montenegro: 3% or 5 mil EUR Serbia: 1.1 % or 10.5 mil EUR

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

TA vs. grants:
55% (23 mil EUR) worth of TA In BiH (60%) and Macedonia (67%), TA dominates the IPA CSF support so far Used for capacity-building of CSOs (TACSO) , capacity development of Governments or grant management

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution CSOs capacity to absorb is much greater to absorption of IPA Component I (TAIB) by Government High absorption capacity by CSOs leaves space for further funds to be made available through grant schemes

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution EC and EUD are able to handle grant mechanisms in short periods of time (with some exceptions) Room for increase of their absorption capacity and consequently contribute to the realization of a 2% IPA CSF contribution

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

On average, the decision making time for grants by the EC and EUDs are 5.13 months.
Shortest: 3.25 month (Serbia) Longest: 9.5 month (BiH) EC: 5.83 month

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

On regional level, 34 out of 68 i.e. 50% of projects had a CSO from a IPA beneficiary country as the leader organization which serves as further evidence of the absorption capacity of local CSOs.

IPA CSF MB project partnership map 19

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

Lessons-learned (TA)
TA to build capacity of the Government to cooperate with civil society and implement its vision of the development of the sector is preconditioned by political will TA can be useful as an extended arm of the contracting authority to manage grants effectively, timely and in a transparent manner

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution Lessons-learned (grants) Covering different sectors of Acquis, sometimes overlapping and support on tackling advocacy on enabling environment for CSDev only in few cases (e.g. Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo) 1st pilot in re-granting via CSOs showing that subgranting is possible despite rigid EU granting rules and local CSO poses capacity to administer sub-grants No case of support to (informal) citizens initiatives FPA: New approach to supporting networks, but tied to activity-oriented grants

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

Overall, the EC approach and support had clearly evolved, but not yet revolutionized in the way needed for the transformative power and democratization role of civil society to be one of the key actors in determining the EU accession process. Considering the results of the research, it is clear that the EC has the capacity to live up to and even surpass the 2% commitment it made to civil society in 2007.

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

QUALITY VS. QUANTITY: THE DATA ISSUE? EC signatory of International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) since 2008, but DG ENLARG implementing to the standard as of September 2013 Once the award notice for grants, TA is published, data on the project implementation are rarely available (unofficial websites, factsheets).

IPA CSF 2007-2011: Evolution not Revolution

Thank you ! www.balkancsd.net