:: Donors Community - Concept paper

Justification
Since '89 until today, within the context of Romania's joining the Euro-Atlantic structures and her transition to a democratic society and a free market driven economy, all major international donors had programs in Romania. With respect to funds and number of projects developed in Romania, the most active donors are the European Union (through the Phare program, the recent ISPA program, and the community programs to which Romania is allowed to participate), the World Bank, UNDP, and USAID.

Private donors also play a very important role (e.g. the SOROS Foundation - currently the Open Society Foundation - the Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation, etc). Unfortunately, donors have different project evaluation procedures, different funding strategies, and the communication among them is quite poor. Although some information should be public, sometimes it is very hard to get, for instance, the final report of a EU funded project or to check a single location in order to see which were the child protection programs developed in Romania.

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The Project

"Development of the Donors Community" aimes at creating a common platform for donors, where anyone interested will be able to find synthesized and structured information. Thus, a donor wishing to get involved in a specific activity field will be able to first assess the major projects developed in that field and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of those projects. Besides being a Knowledge Center for the programs and projects developed in Romania, another reason to create this system is that it will highly increase the communication opportunities among donors and their target groups. Moreover, such a database would represent a valuable resource for a value-added service that eRomania Gateway Association might offer in the future. The project is addressed to the donors that are active in Romania.

In terms of information, this community will be developed starting from the current AIDA database on the Global Gateway.

The Project will focus on the following specific issues:

1. Defining the database structure
Following the preliminary discussions and as agreed with the donors, the structure of the database will be define, its main fields being:

• Initial Project Description - what is the project goal at abstract level and what the project aims to accomplish.
• Current Funding Situation - what funds have already been pledged and what is the unpledged amount; useful information if unexpected project development requires additional funding.
• Expected Impact - what is the expected outcome of the project (useful for projects that seek funding).
• Project Description - for finalized projects (at practical level, what really happened?).
• Project Outcome - the detailed description of project's impact and accomplishments (for finalized projects).
• Project Analyses - the analyses of project's outcome and practical use of funds realized by specialized researchers.

2. Developing a pilot community
On local level, the donors involved in developing a pilot community will be the World Bank, UNDP and the Donors Forum.

3. Advertise the community and the database
After the setting up of the pilot community and database and the solving of possible technical problems, other major donors will be invited to join the community (the European Union, USAID, etc). The Internet address of the community as well as its aims and services will be publicized throughout the donor's community.
Certain by its effect on increasing the impact of their projects, all donors mentioned have already agreed on working to build this common platform.

4. Working groups
In order to better responding to the donors needs, a series of workshops will be held. During the first phase of the project, a workshop will be organized, aiming at setting up the working group that will define the ground rules and the activity plan.

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Project results

- Transparency and Accountability
The project will increase the transparency and accountability for the donor's active in Romania.

- Better communication and access to information
The activities carried out within this project will enhance the exchange of information thus contributing to a better cooperation.

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Partners

The Open Society Foundation Romania is a non-governmental, non-profit and apolitical organization promoting the value of an open society in Romania. The Foundation was established in 1990 by philanthropist George Soros, as a response to the necessities born out of the transition process towards a democratic system.

Through its programs, the Foundation supports the development of democratic institutions, respect for human and minority rights, and pluralism within the political public space. The Foundation's policy is to support the reform of public policies in all essential areas and to actively contribute to the integration into the European structures.

The World Bank's Office in Romania lending program aims to help Romania address its challenges by: strengthening the social safety net; increasing investments in health, education, and rural development; strengthening the business environment; supporting structural reforms in the financial, utilities, and enterprise sectors; enhancing effectiveness of public administration and the justice system; and building capacity for environmental protection. Priority will be given to advice and financing for EU accession-related programs.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Romania is dedicated to helping Romania become a developed country, by providing high quality advisory services to the Government and capacity building projects. In this sense and working in strong partnerships with civil society, private sector and development partners, UNDP is committed to facilitating the country's transition to a well governed, democratic society, with a competitive market economy and a clean environment, thus contributing to improving the life of the Romanian people.

eRomania Gateway
eRomania Gateway (eRG) is a not-for-profit organization, its mission being to promote and support the e-development in Romania. Established in November 2001, the Association is an open partnership between the public sector (represented by the Romanian Government as a founding member and under the umbrella of the Romanian Presidency), the business community and civil society organizations.

Specific objectives include:

• to develop and manage a leading portal on Romania, "Romania Development Gateway" (RDG), within the context of World Bank's "Development Gateways" (DG) initiative, which aims to assist countries in establishing a presence on the Internet through Country Gateway portals;
• to assist the Romanian Government and Romania in general in drawing-up and implementing various initiatives part of the national information strategy, presenting them with clear guidelines guarantees so that they will be successfully implemented in a medium and long- term perspective;
• to conduct public awareness campaigns on IC&Ts impact on economy, education, and society as a whole.
  

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