How much involvement desire exists among NGOs in Romania?

About 800%.

Within the first Round of Calls for Proposals under the NGO Fund in Romania Program, the total amount requested through the projects submitted is 8 times higher than the amount allocated.

The period for submitting project under the first Round of the NGO Fund in Romania program, ended. The grant program is part of the CEE and Norway Grants 2007 – 2013.  Within the 5 components of the program there were submitted approximately 1500 projects. For this first Round there were allocated a total of 15.93 million of euro that covers less than 12% of the requested amount.

Romania is the European country that allocates the smallest budget for social benefits, in money, goods and services, and 42% of the beneficiaries are served by NGOs with a budget of 3% of the public suppliers budget (according to the study “Social Services in Romania. The Role of Social Economy Actors”, by Social Economy Institute, within CSDF).  The great need for funding and efficiency of the NGOs private suppliers, generated 393 projects submitted within the Welfare and Basic Services Component. The requested amount through these projects is more than 53 million euros, while the available amount is 4.8 million euros.

Social Justice is another target for 330 NGOs’ projects proposals, with a total of 18 million euro requested from the NGO Fund Program. The projects aim to develop interventions in interethnic rural communities and activities meant to fight against social inequalities, poverty and exclusion. The available budget for this Component is 3,78 million euros.

The citizens’ awareness on environmental topics places Romania among the last three counties in European Union (according to EU 27, before Croatia’s accession to the European Union). 200 projects submitted within the Sustainable Development Component aim to support sustainable development and to improve the environment in Romania through the NGOs’ contribution and public participation. The total amount requested through these projects is 18 million euros, but the available budget can cover only 12% of these requests.

ENGAGE is the program’s Component that encourages active citizenship and participation in community life, ensuring compliance and enforcement of fundamental and democratic values. Within this component there were 300 projects submitted, that request over 25 million euros. Only approximately 14% of this amount will be covered by the 3,6 million euros allocated.

In recent years, the pressure of daily activities, decreased public or institutional resources available to NGOs, the need to strengthen capacity and to gather support for immediate reactions to various changes that have occurred in the political or economic life, have limited NGOs capacity to raise issues on the public policies agenda, particularly those that define an enabling environment to promote the development of civil society. NGO Development. Networks and Coalitions is the program’s Component that aims to change this state of facts. The 242 project proposals submitted within this Component request for financing over 17 million euros. That amount exceeds with 90% the available budget.

We estimate that the selected projects will start in early 2014, so the results of the selected ides will be visible starting next year.