Special Allocations
NGO Block Grant

The civil society of Romania in general, the NGOs and the vulnerable population in particular.

The NGOs represent 49% of the accredited suppliers of social services (e.g. home care) in Romania. Despite these figures the civil sector continues to be weak, having still limited advocacy capacity. After Romania joined the EU, the traditional international donors as USAID, DFID, SIDA and SDC phased out their support. The recent economic crisis worsened the financial basis of the nongovernmental sector. The access to the structural instruments is still very difficult for them. The EEA (European Economic Area) Financial Mechanism funded an NGO Fund that came at the right moment and had a good impact on the sector but could respond to a limited part of the NGOs sector needs only.

The objective of the Thematic Fund „Civil Society Participation“ is the promotion of the contribution of civil society organizations as important actors in development and participation.
Capacity building in project planning, monitoring and implementation is an objective of its own so that: i) the Swiss supported projects shall be implemented in timely manner and with high qualitative standards; and ii) capacities built with Swiss support may be used to implement projects financed through other financial sources.

(i): A portfolio of pre-defined projects in the field of environment already retained in the Framework Agreement; (ii): A financial provision which allows to flexibly finance additional projects that will be presented during the implementation of the Thematic Fund “Civil Society”; (iii): A Block Grant for the financing of small activities of the civil society/NGOs. (iv): A managing and capacity building body (Swiss Intermediate Body) which guarantees the good use of funds, the link to Swiss partners and the sustainability of the Swiss support activities.

The expected results are:

• up to 10 projects in the field of environment implemented as cooperation between Swiss and Romanian partners;
• around 50 projects of Romanian NGOs implemented in the fields of environment and social services;