Held the Kick-off conference of the Second Contribution within the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Programme

Second Swiss Contribution of the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Programme for the “Civil society” programme was officially presented in the City of Karlovac.

The named Programme was officially presented on 14 January 2025 in the Assembly Hall of the public institution Aquatka - Freshwater Aquarium in the City of Karlovac. The event was organised by the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs (GOfNGOs).

The conference was held in hybrid format including broadcasting via ZOOM and the GOfNGOs Youtube channel. The event was followed online by 80 applied participants while 60 participants attended in the hall. The greatest interest (130) from the total number of participants, as expected, was from the CSOs, followed by local and regional self-government and public institutions.

Helena Beus, authorised to perform the duties of the Head of the GOfNGOs, in her welcoming speech on behalf of the GOfNGOs as the Manager of the before mentioned Programme announced the launch of four Public Calls for proposals, which will be financed by this Programme to support associations work. She emphasized that the approved projects will be financed by the total amount of 7,62 million of CHF, the contribution from the Swiss Confederation, including 10% co-financing from the Croatian Budget.
The gathered representatives of the associations, public institutions, state bodies, local and regional self-government units and the media at the conference were greeted by the Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation, His Excellency Urs Hammer, who expressed his satisfaction with the continuation of the cooperation programme aimed at the development of civil society in the Republic of Croatia (RoC). The hosts were also welcomed by the president of the Croatian Government, Andrej Plenković and the minister of the Regional Development and EU funds Šime Erlić delegate Iva Novak, the Head of the Directorate of Strategic Planning and Coordination of EU funds. That Ministry has the role of National Coordination Unit of the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Programme. The Karlovac County prefect Martina Furdek-Hajdin and the Mayor of the City of Karlovac Damir Mandić also greeted the assembly of the Conference.
 
The four Calls for proposals in the areas of education for sustainable development, volunteering, service learning and micro-projects were presented more in details by Jelena Princivali, the GOfNGOs Head of the Department for Strategic Planning, Programming and Informing.

The good practice examples of the Swiss Confederation, with 100.000 CSOs and 1,8 million volunteer from the total 8 million of inhabitants, were presented alive and online by: Nina Gutweniger, general director of Benevol speaking of volunteering as the way of life in Switzerland, Martina Ziegerer, executive director of Zewo Foundation telling about the creation of the own quality label. In addition, Tamara Suter, co-head of the educative and scientific work in the Burgdorf Castle Museum talked about the community joint work on the revitalisation of the castle and remodelling into the touristic attraction.
During the conference the City of Karlovac Mayor Damir Mandić was signed the Declaration on cooperation of the cities and CSOs in the RoC.
 
In parallel with the official part of the conference, the representatives of the Carpe Diem Association held a workshop thematically directed at sustainable development for 20 Karlovac primary school pupils, in the premises of the Green Library, which work as a separate department of the Ivan Goran Kovačić City Library, Karlovac, with books on the topic of natural sciences and ecology, as part of the a.m. Aquatika. The workshop was organised as the announcement of the four planned presented Calls for proposals within the Civil Society Programme with the focus on the education for sustainable development.
 
In addition, the GOfNGOs in cooperation with the Public Institution Aquatika organised tour of the Aquarium for all the conference participants and children with the expert guidance in Croatian and English.
 
The Conference recording is available on the GOfNGOs YouTube channel. During first 24 hours from the broadcasting of the event over 280 examinations have been recorded.
 
We hope that this Conference has motivated many potential applicants to apply for the Civil Society Programme within the Second Contribution of the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Programme.
 
 

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