Initiative “For Tolerant Governance"

Project contractor: ISI

Partners: "Center for Youth Activities and Initiatives", Targovishte; "Shumen Youth 2007", Shumen Razgrad Municipality; Silistra Municipality

Implementation period: February 2005 - January 2006

Source of funding - Directorate of External Relations, Directorate General of Political

Affairs, Council of Europe

Project objective: The project aims at overcoming the intolerance, based on stereotypes and prejudice, driven by ethnic, religious or political affiliation in regions with mixed population in Bulgaria. Its goal is to create and develop links between young municipality councilors of different ethnic origins - participants in the local parliaments in regions with mixed population in Bulgaria.

Activities: Working meetings, Training seminars, Workshops, Workshop for facilitators, Monitoring after each activity, Media coverage.

At the first working meeting of the team and representatives of SDS /Union of Democratic Forces/ and DPS /Movement for Rights and Freedoms/, the criteria for selecting participants were identified and adopted,  the program of training modules was refined, and the place of the first two trainings was decided. It was agreed that each party will nominate three representatives from a region.

In the period February – November, 6 training modules were held - three for Razgrad and Silistra, and three for Shumen and Targovishte.

The meetings for the civic dialogue were prepared during the last two modules of the groups. On the first day, the participants were introduced to the socio-economic characteristics of the municipalities, where the meetings for civic dialogue would take place. The participants were divided into three working groups, which, based on the presented socio-economic information, had to identify three major problems to be included in discussions at the meetings of civic dialogue.

"Meetings for civic dialogue"

The main purpose of these meetings is to bring together, for discussion, about 50 citizens and local officials to discuss a pre-selected topic. During these meetings, the participants should agree on a list of the major problems concerning this topic and their prioritization.

In the municipality of Loznitsa, Razgrad district, about 60 people joined the meeting - teachers, high school students, community center workers, local activists of the cultural life of the municipality, participating in amateur artistic groups, etc. The meeting was also attended by trainees from Razgrad and Targovishte. It was facilitated by the moderator Reneta Veneva – a social psychologist.

The participants in the meeting were allocated at separate working tables: Task Force – participants that had passed training seminars, community leaders, municipal authorities, representatives of education and the municipal council, NGOs - community center, school Board, business representatives - owners of restaurants, cafés, etc., representatives of the church.

The meeting was attended by the Mayor of Loznica. The final part of the meeting marked the start of the project initiative "For a tolerant governance". The participants were divided into four working groups to prepare micro-projects to apply for funding from the municipal budget of Loznitsa municipality. Several priorities were outlined:

-          As a first step in the realization of the initiative "For tolerant communication in resolving problems in the municipality" was chosen the involvement of young people from different ethnic groups for joint activities in their leisure time - the municipality has a special Youth Centre and Center for work with children;

-          Organizing competitions for small projects, financed by the municipality, for students in higher grades;

In the Municipality of Nikola Kozlevo - Shumen region, about 50 people joined the initiative - teachers, high school students, community center workers, local activists of the cultural life of the municipality, participating in amateur artistic groups, etc.  The meeting was also attended by trainees from Shumen and Silistra. It was facilitated by the moderator Dilyana Draganova – a social psychologist.

The participants in the meeting were allocated at separate working tables: Task Force – participants that had passed training seminars, community leaders, municipal authorities, representatives of education and the municipal council, NGOs - community center, school Board, business representatives - owners of restaurants, cafés, etc. On behalf of the local government, the meeting was attended by the Secretary of the municipality, as well as by municipality councilors from the different political parties.

Results of the meeting:

-             Written recommendations aimed at various authorities and institutions in the municipality;

-             Working groups of representatives from different social groups, on the issues, which had been raised, concerning the development of specific project proposals.

As one of the main achievements of the project, the team considers its ability to trigger the conducting of a civil dialogue during the meetings. Participants were presented a successfully working model for having discussions on issues relevant to the municipality. On the other hand, the participants included in the training modules of ISI, managed to attract other people around them to work in a team. The project’s idea - to collect information on the problems of a specific municipality and to invite young people from different political orientations and different ethnic groups in order to train them to work in teams, was realized in the final part – through the Meetings for civil dialogue. They also marked the start of the initiative “For tolerant governance".

Upon completion of the fourth training module, the participants developed a written thesis: "What did I learn at the seminars?", "Did this training change something for me?”, and “How was the training in the various modules useful to me?". These paper works were reviewed and evaluated by a working group consisting of representatives from BSP, DPS and SDS. The trainees who won the first 14 places were included in a training for facilitators.

They were trained for leading, facilitating and moderating workshops and meetings, and will continue to work on the Meetings for civil dialogue in the future. All 16 participants were actively involved in the learning process. They were highly motivated by the upcoming opportunity to participate as moderators in a panel discussion on the progress of the project’s Initiative “For tolerant governance".

After the training, the experts’ council of ISI discussed the results of the project activities at a special working meeting, and prepared a panel discussion that took place in Sofia. Invited for the discussion were also other NGOs in order to promote the experience of ISI in the launch of the Initiative "For tolerant governance".