The Swiss Intermediate Body, responsible for the management of the Thematic Fund “Reform Fund linked to Civil Society Participation” and the Thematic Fund “Partnership and Expert Fund” from the Swiss-Bulgarian Cooperation Programme has the pleasure and responsibility to organize the NETWORK AND PARTNERSHIP FORUM – the first from a series of events to establish networks for cooperation between Bulgarian and Swiss NGOs, which have received financial support from these thematic funds.

The Forum took place on the 30 and 31 of October 2014 in the Metropolitan Hotel Sofia. The event started at 12.00 on the 30 of October. The agenda of the first day included addresses from Her Excellency Mrs. Regina Escher, Ambassador of Switzerland, Mrs. Petya Evtimova, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy and from Balkan Institute for Labour and Social Policy (BILSP), which is the Bulgarian representative of the Swiss Intermediate Body for the two thematic funds. Presentations of the Thematic Funds and the financial support of the Swiss Confederation was done by Mr. Ivan Neykov, Chairman of the Steering Committee of BILSP. The Forum continued with presentation of the Thematic Funds and the financial support of the Confederation Switzerland. During the second working day was done group work of the participants in focus groups as follows:

• Panel 1: The role of the civil society, the networks and partnerships in the social services sector in Bulgaria – moderator Yordan Dimitrov (BILSP);
• Panel 2: The role of the civil society, networks and partnerships in the environmental sector in Bulgaria – moderator Maria Minkova (BILSP);
• Panel 3: The role of the bilateral international partnerships for thedevelopment of certain social and economic sectors – moderator Dimitar Matev (BILSP);
• Panel 4: Institutional building of the civil society sector in Bulgaria – moderator Yordanka Stoyanova (BILSP).

Invitations for participation in the event have been sent to representatives of the organization which have received financial support from the two Thematic Funds, official representatives from the Swiss embassy in Sofia, representatives of the National Coordination Unit from the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bugaria, representatives of other donor programmes in Bulgaria, members of the Steering Committees of both Thematic Funds and accessors of project applications. The Swiss Intermediate Body envisaged participation of at least one representative from the organizations which implement a so-called “small” project and not more than two representatives from organizations which implement a so-called “big” project.

The number of participants in the FORUM amounted to 110 people – representing 61 out of 63 financed projects. During the event representatives of the projects provided promotional materials of the organizations which they represent and the project which they implement.

Materials:
Programme
Brochure (in Bulgarian)
Presentation of the two Thematic Funds (in Bulgarian)
Presentation of the Social projects (in Bulgarian)
Presentation of the Environmental projects (in Bulgarian)
Presentation of the Partnership Fund projects (in Bulgarian)
Project “Linking Nature Protection and Sustainable Rural Development” (in Bulgarian)