Capacity Building of Civil Society

Publication date: Thursday 23 March 2006

This training tool was developed as part of the EU-funded project ?Capacity Building of Civil Society dealing with Anti-Discrimination? with the aim to provide training on European and national anti-discrimination law and policy to non-governmental organizations in the 10 Member States which joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 as well as in Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.

NGOs have a vital role to play in making anti-discrimination legislation understood and enforced on the ground. They are essential in speaking on behalf of and defending those they represent as well as raising awareness, of both victims and potential victims of discrimination, who are all too often unaware of their rights, and also of the general public.

The manual was used by national trainers conducting national training seminars in each involved country. Participants came from a wide variety of non-governmental organizations and associations covering all grounds of discrimination - racial and ethnic origin (including Roma), religion or belief, age, disability and sexual orientation.

The main purpose of this project (November 2004-October 2005) was to build up the capacity of civil society by improving NGOs' knowledge on the two EU anti-discrimination directives (2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC) and relevant national legislation and policies in this area. NGOs were trained to become a key interlocutor of the authorities and to assist the victims of discrimination.
 
The project focused on three activities:

? Needs analysis
A stakeholder/needs analysis was carried out in each of the 13 countries to assess the capacity and extent of organizations representing civil society. This analysis gave input to the training specifications and helped to identify the target groups for participation in the national seminars and their needs. This information was based on the answers provided by the NGOs involved.

? Training the Trainers
In each of the 13 countries, six local trainers were selected, some coming themselves from minority groups (for list see www.europa.eu.int/comm/antidiscrimination ). Four Train the Trainers seminars targeting the national trainers took place in March 2005.

? National seminars
National seminars took place mainly in June 2005, with about 50 participants per country where the trainers were able to use their skills and knowledge. The material for the national seminars consisted of the training modules which can be found in this manual translated into national languages, and into some minority languages. The material in this manual was designed for the recipients of the training. A separate guide for the trainers, which explains the methodology used is available in English at the abovementioned European Commission's website.

We hope the material in this manual will be useful for individuals and organizations active in the fight against discrimination wherever they may be in the European Union. Following the success of the training seminars in the new members States and Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey the European Commission has decided to to fund a follow-up of this training exercise in all 25 Member States and in Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey in 2006 as well as to include also social partner organizations in these countries among the participants. The project is a European Commission initiative funded by the Action Programme to Combat Discrimination (2001-2006). It was carried out by human european consultancy ( www.humanconsultancy.com) in partnership with the Migration Policy Group ( www.migpolgroup.com ) and local partners in each of the 13 countries.