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Day 1
On May 7th, 2022 we kick started the project management training organized within the NGOs/CSOs Skills Enhancement in the Western Balkans and Moldova’ project, generously funded by the International Visegrad Fund as partners of Strategic Analysis Slovakia. Apart from our training participants coming from all corners of BiH, we welcomed the representatives of the Visegrad Fund who have extended their welcome to the group.
The first session of the day was on the topic management and how to effectively map the needs of our communities which was facilitated online by Ivan Iliev, Strategic Analysis. The participants also had a practical exercise through which they had the opportunity to engage more and share their experiences.
The next session was on project management, or more precisely how to translate a project idea into an effective proposal, where to seek partnerships and financial support, led by Ján Cingel, Strategic Analysis SK. The participants had many questions about the components of a successful project proposal and a lot of them shared their own experiences when it comes to securing a grant, establishing a partnership and achieving project goals and objectives.
The focus of our next session was advocacy strategies, both internal and external, and communication with decision-makers. The group had an opportunity to learn many great tips on how to engage with various stakeholders in order to achieve their own goals. The training was given by Szczepan Czarnecki, Institute of Central Europe from Poland.
We wrapped up day 1 of our project management training with a workshop on the topic of people and event management. The facilitator was Bálint Caesar, AEGEE Budapest from Hungary. By combining practical exercises and theoretical knowledge, Balint demonstrated to the participants how to effectively manage a team and how to organize events that will fit their audience.
Day 2
The first topic of the second day was financial management. Alexandra Tóthová, Strategic Analysis SK, showed our participants why is Excel their best friend when it comes to managing finances for any project and gave them many useful tips on how to always be on top of their projects’ budget and financial reporting.
The final training session within our project management training was dedicated to the topic of stakeholder mapping and was facilitated by our program manager Zarja Marković. Apart from learning who are stakeholders, what roles they play, and how important they are, the participants were engaged in a practical exercise of mapping different groups of stakeholders they could identify in a process of BiH’s integration into the EU.
Conference on Future of Europe styled discussion
After the training, we reconvened for the Conference on Future of Europe styled discussion about Western Balkans, EU, and their future titled “Is Bosnia and Herzegovina heading to the EU?”, moderated by Ján Cingel, Strategic Analysis Slovakia. The discussion started after opening remarks given by the Executive Director of the International Visegrad Fund Petr Mareš. Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) styled discussion encouraged an in-depth discussion about the perceptions of cooperation of project countries with the EU. The discussion aimed to use the opportunity of the assembled CSO/NGO representatives to gather their inputs, ideas, thoughts, suggestions, and constructive criticism on the Future of Europe under the umbrella of the official platform of the European Commission, the Conference on the Future of Europe, to express the voice of the civil society community of the region.