Black Sea Initiative

Bringing together 8 Black Sea countries for sustainable rural development,

Rural topic(s): Development of rural territories

Date of writing: November 28, 2017

Author(s) of this page: Simone Matouch

Organization(s): LRF (Latvian Rural Forum - Latvijas Lauku forum), PREPARE (Partnership for Rural Europe)

Summary:

The goal of the Black Sea initiative is to create a network of people from civil society and government in the eight Black Sea countries (Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus) around rural development topics.

Text:

Background

LRF works to bring in and to develop innovative ideas for rural development into the communities.

The main LRF activities are:

Development of a NGO cooperation network;
Explanatory and educational activities for activating local initiatives;
Strengthening LRF position in the dialog between politicians and organisations.

As a PREPARE member organisation and member of the board LRF is responsible for the Black Sea Initiative. The representative and responsible for the implementation of the initiative is Āris Ādlers.

Activities. The Black Sea Initiative.

The involved actors are: Latvian Rural forum, NECU (Ukraine), Procore (Moldova), Development principles (Armenia), Cida (Georgia), PREPARE Network.

The initiative includes such activities as:

theme-based travelling workshops and seminars,
training and capacity-building events,
the creation and activity of national civil-society networks,
cross-border cooperation and transnational cooperation etc.

The main actions during 2017: related to the creation of the Moldavian Rural forum, capacity building for Armenian partners, raising awareness for CSO in Ukraine and involving Black Sea country representatives in the process of European Rural parliaments and European Rural Youth parliament.

Outlook

Challenges: To create a network of people from civil society and government in the eight Black Sea countries, who have a similar interest in the well-being of rural communities and in the development of effective partnerships between civil society and government

Next steps. To reach a consensus within this network as to the activity which can usefully be pursued through a longer-term Initiative and to show potential funders of the long-term initiative that this network has the capacity to generate practical ideas which will truly benefit rural people in the Black Sea countries.

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Aris Adler reminds in this video the main objectives of the Black Sea Initiative and which inspiring initiatives shared during the ERSG 2017 he will bring back.

Notes:

Information gathered at: the ERSG 2017 (European Rural Sustainability Gathering), Greece, Karditsa, 17-21 May 2017

Contact:

Aris Adlers

E-mail: aris.adlers(a)gmail.com

Website: llf.partneribas.lv & laukuforums.lv

Download:

Informations:

Scale of intervention : International

Keywords: family farming, empowerment of rural communities, civil society dialogue

Places: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Armenia

Actors: civil society, network, platform, forum

Methods: training/capacity-building, international cooperation, networking, travelling workshop, cross-border cooperation