The TACSO Regional office in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) organized the Conference "Regional Civil Society Organizations' Networks in the IPA Countries" in Sarajevo on 12 - 14 December 2011. The SEE Heritage Network Secretary and participant from the Network member Mozaik (Bosnia and Herzegovina) took part in the Conference.

The conference was organized within the framework of the EU funded project "Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organizations" (TACSO) in cooperation with the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC). The overall objective of the conference was to contribute to capacity building of the regional CSO networks and their participation in the accession process of the Western Balkans countries and Turkey to the European Union. The working sessions of the conference were focused on exchanging perspectives and identifying needs for capacity development of the regional CSO networks. The participants learned about best practices and the European Commission programs supporting the networks and their collaboration.

The Association for Development of Cultural Tourism (ADCT, www.adct.al), civil society organization from Tirana, Albania, became a new member of the SEE Heritage Network, upon a positive decision of the Network Management Board on its application.

ADCT was established in 2009, with a mission to provide great possibilities for the promotion of the Albanian cultural and touristic potentials by establishing an attractive image and a strong identity of Albania. The organization aims to enhance the social sensitivity towards the heritage values through the education, intercultural communication and to build a good cooperation between all tourism and cultural heritage stakeholders.

The SEE Heritage Network warmly welcomes the ADCT as its new "family member".

The SEE Heritage Network member - Expeditio (Kotor, Montenegro) participated the Conference "Facing the Past - Creating the Future" in Sarajevo, on September 30 - October 01, 2011, organized by the Open Society Fund from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aims of the conference were multilateral: to indirectly evaluate and celebrate the 20 years of Soros foundation presence in the region (especially in the domain of arts and culture), to outline and focus on existence of an independent, active scene that marked the war and the transition period; but also to create conditions for confronting the past through the debate, and to give encouragement for recognizing and supporting the new energy in the cultural dynamics of the region (covering the art creation, production, collaboration and exchange practices).

Different statements and approaches, shared among the civil society organizations and national governments' representatives from the region, were transferred into conclusions. The entire document with conclusions can be downloaded here:

http://www.soros.org.ba/images/stories/ProgDocs/EE/FtP-CtF/Txt/Conclusions.pdf

 

Aiming to get a picture about capacities of CSOs that are members of SEE Heritage Network, in order to realize where are the individual members' weak points and what is needed to improve their work and to realize their, as well as Network's mission, the Network Secretariat performed a Questionnaire on the Network capacity building. The member organizations were asked to answer the following questions: "What kind of capacity building trainings have your CSO received in the past?" and "What skills/ knowledge you think that your CSO is missing and which topics do you think would be most useful for your CSO?"

The following table summarizes the research preliminary results:

The SEE Heritage Network took part in the Research performed by the TACSO (Technical Assistance for CSOs - an EU funded project) Regional Office in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. The SEE Heritage Network Secretariat was approached by TACSO representative who explained that that the aim of the research is to identify regional network and to analyze their operational environment. The Report on the CSO Networks in the IPA Countries deriving from the research is envisaged as an exercise to gain an overview of the existing networks and collaboration methods, drawing conclusions on their influences and impact on the CSO development and sustainability.

Based on the findings, the Report may serve as a future key reference to the European Union for decision making on disbursement of core funding among regional networks, or some of them may be seen as a potential successors of TACSO activities.

In addition to the PR materials aiming to promote the SEE Heritage Network, the Secretariat has created new, extra circulation of the leaflet, brochure and bookmarks, financially supported by the Headley Trust (UK) and CHwB through SIDA (Sweden). The materials, promoting the SEE Heritage Network and its members' activities, were distributed by mail and on various events. The publications were designed by Tatjana Rajic from Expeditio.