SENSE AND SENSIBILITY: Serbian study tour participants assemble in front of Brno's Ecological Institute Veronica.
A study tour to the Czech Republic for representatives of Serbian civil society organisations currently implementing grant projects awarded through the Supporting Environmental Civil Society in Serbia (SENSE) project took place on March 23-27, 2015. The visit was organised by the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
The study tour enabled CSOs from Serbia to exchange experiences with EU organisations and learn about their impact on decision making, how to establish dialogue with government bodies, and about various organisational functions (e.g. financing, human resource management, organisational structure, leadership, membership issues, engagement of volunteers, concrete actions and campaigns, and overcoming obstacles). The event also provided an excellent opportunity for both Serbian and Czech environmental organisations to establish personal connections with each other that could lead to fruitful cooperation and joint initiatives in future.
During the first day of the study tour, Serbian CSOs visited the Czech Ministry of Environment and talked with officials in charge of various sectors, such as finance, international projects and cooperation, nature protection and cooperation with civil society.
Serbian CSOs also met and connected with international environmental organisations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the National Network of Healthy Cities, and People in Need, as well as with the most important national civil society organisations such as Green Circle (an association of 28 environmental NGOs), local partner organisations of the National Association of Nature Protectors, Frank Bold, and Ecological Institute Veronica.
Participants then visited the VIA Foundation and the Partnership Foundation, two groups that support the work of NGOs.
Two excursions to protected areas (Cesky kras and hady) were organised in order to demonstrate how Czech NGOs support management of natural protected areas.
The SENSE project started in December 2012 and will run through Ocotber 2015.
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