The Directorate for EU Affairs is inviting civil society organizations to take part in IPA III programming through contributing to this consultation. This action is a part of Directorate for EU Affairs’ efforts to enhance the participatory programming of EU funding towards civil society development in Turkey in scope of the upcoming IPA III period.

By participating in the online information meeting to be organized by Directorate for EU Affairs on July 2, 2020, at 15.00, you can get information about initial actions planned for the first phase of the IPA III period and send us your questions. For more information please click here.

CIVIL SOCIETY SECTOR AND THE CONSULTATION PROCESS

During the consultation process, exchange of ideas, opinions and recommendations for the programming of the existing funds to be used for projects in the civil society sector is ensured between CSO’s, public institutions, universities, private sector actors as well as foreign and international donor organisations. Efforts continue for the establishment of a communication network comprising all actors in the civil society sector. Thereby, it is aimed to ensure a more efficient and sound flow of information on the support mechanisms for CSO’s. Within this year, it is planned to establish a structure that ensures opinion exchange between relevant actors. Preparatory to this, the “Technical Assistance for Support to the Preparation and Implementation of the Turkey Civil Society Sub-Sector Programming 2016-2017 Project” has been implemented by the Ministry for EU Affairs between the dates of 26 July 2016 -15 January 2018. In the context of this project a series of workshops have been organised. For civil society organisations, workshops were organised on 15 February 2017 in Ankara, 30 March 2017 in Istanbul, 24 October 2017 in Gaziantep, 31 October in Trabzon, 16 November in  Ankara and finally on 9 January 2018 in Konya. On 7 June 2017, a workshop was organised with the participation of university representatives working in the field of civil society. Besides workshops, the “Training on Strengthening the Cooperation with Public ınstitutions in the Civil Society Sector” has been implemented on 19-21 December 2016.

Furthermore, in order to receive the comments of relevant stakeholders on the Civil Society Sector Planning Document, meetings were held with public institutions on 15 January 2017, with the IPA II Technical Assistance Project Team on 20 September 2017 and 30 November 2017 and with the representatives of the EU Delegation on 28 September 2017.

Apart from the project activities mentioned above, a series of working meetings has been organised by the Ministry for EU Affairs: 17 March 2016 with public institutions; 24 May 2016 with private sector organisations, 15 April 2015, 25 May 2016 and 23 June 2016 with CSO and umbrella organisations.

Following questions were discussed:

• What are the needs and priorities of the CSOs at national, international and local levels?
• How should the needs and priorities of CSOs at national, international and local levels be fulfilled/supported with the funds available in the Civil Society Sector?
• Which needs and priorities of civil society organisations should be covered by EU financial assistance? Taking into account the four priority areas in the Civil Society Sector (1-Increasing Capacity of Civil Society, 2- Enhancing Public-CSO Cooperation, 3- Civil Society Dialogue, 4- Improving the Legislative Environment) which issue is prioritized by CSO’s?
• How do the CSOs provide support to the civil society sector programming process? Which method/tools do CSOs propose to give their feedbacks on programming process?
• What would be the project proposals of the programming process of civil society sector in the next phase (2014-2020)?
• Taking into account the four priority areas in the Civil Society Sector (1-Increasing Capacity of Civil Society, 2- Enhancing Public-CSO Cooperation, 3- Civil Society Dialogue, 4- Improving the Legislative Environment) how can universities contribute to the civil society sector? What are the tools, opportunities and resources of the universities?
• What are the restrictions (financial, technical, personnel, etc.) of universities in providing support to civil society?
• What are the suggestions on a university and public- CSO cooperation model contributing to the strengthening of civil society? Can such a model be designed as a project? How should the Civil Society Sector support universities (for example: information sharing, grant, technical assistance, study visit, etc.) How can civil society contribute to universities?

Presentations of workshops and trainings as well as the workshop reports of the “Technical Assistance for Support to the Preparatıon and Implementatıon of the Turkey Civil Society Sub-Sector Programming 2016-2017 Project” can be found below: