Promoter: The National University of Physical Education and Sports Bucharest

Partner: Norwegian School of Sports Science (NSSS)

The value of the financing: 4,373,581 euro

Implementation period: May 2019 – May 2023

Website: www.integraresustenabilaprinsport.ro

Social media: Sustainable integration through sport (Facebook)

Early school leaving generates educational exclusion among children, which can lead in the long run to a limited professional and social horizon, characterized by material deprivation. The implementation of the project aims to increase the number of students who access from the gymnasium cycle (grades V-VIII) to upper secondary education (grades IX-XII), promoting a type of inclusive education based on sports activities.

2,600 children (of which 520 Roma and 260 with special educational needs), selected from 32 schools, distributed in 24 counties in all regions of the country, are included in the project activities. Of these, 1,200 children will benefit for 3 years from assessment, counselling and mentoring services, non-formal education for the development of integration skills will participate in inclusive activities based on sports, will have a hot meal, and will participate in sports competitions and camps.

An information caravan and 4 awareness campaigns on the importance of education and combating exclusion through sport are the tools through which parents of children and education staff working directly with them are involved in the project. 760 educational experts (teachers, school inspectors, other experts with relevant expertise in this field) will be trained in working with children at risk through inclusive teaching methods, and 800 parents will participate in counselling sessions and workshops where to they learn to support their children’s education.

A new methodology for social integration, according to which sports activities are a tool for empowering children and young people at risk, will be developed within the project. Thanks to the partnership with the Norwegian School of Sports Science (NSSS), the research will use Norwegian experiences and best practices in the field. In this regard, the Norwegian experts had a series of working meetings on school dropout with Romanian education specialists. The academic component of the project will be complemented by the organization of four International Scientific Congresses for the dissemination of the main research, conclusions, and results of the project. The newly developed methodology will be submitted to the authorities with the proposal to become public policy.

A significant communication process will complement the project activities. Three major public events (launch conference, presentation of interim and closing results), eight regional informative seminars, press releases, participation in radio-TV shows, a website dedicated to the project in Romanian and English, and information materials and will publicly promote the project and its results. The impact of the project and its activities will lead to an increase in the awareness of public authorities, decision-makers, and education professionals about the need for an inclusive national education system.

Partial results (October 2020)

– Modernization with tartan of the central multifunctional sports field inside UNEFS, a space where some of the children’s sports activities in Bucharest have already taken place as well as numerous competitions (football, volleyball, etc.)

– 1,200 students at risk of early school leaving and social exclusion, who study in 16 schools in 8 counties (Giurgiu, Vrancea, Vaslui, Mures, Bistrita Nasaud, Caras Severin, Mehedinti and Bucharest) carry out biweekly sports activities and have participated in football, volleyball and basketball sports competitions. These activities are meant to demonstrate that such interactions based on alternative activities lead to increased self-confidence and motivation of children, increased cohesion, inclusion and team spirit. These activities are part of the complex intervention that the project applies to support the continuation of education and their enrollment in a form of ISCED 3 learning (highschool education). Among them:

– 890 students out of 1,200 – receive a hot meal daily

– 143 students out of the 1,200 – attended counseling and orientation sessions whose main objective is to stimulate participation in the formal educational act and also to motivate children to continue their studies

– Development of new means of interaction with children, in the virtual environment – 4 sports challenges were launched (on the Facebook page of the project), 75 demonstration videos were designed as online working methods (on the YouTube channel of the project) and 34 motivational interviews with sports personalities were conducted and disseminated

– Organizing initial meetings attended by 1,184 educational experts (teachers, school inspectors, school principals, representatives of NGOs working directly with vulnerable children)

– Dissemination of results and promotion of the inclusive educational model within the International Scientific Congress 2020 in which the first workshop for the project was organized and where 14 scientific papers were supported and debated

– Development of the 4 methodological intervention documents for social and educational inclusion and for increasing the participation in the educational act and improving the ISCED 2-3 transfer rate, based on sports activities, documents in the testing and amendment period:

– Strategy for preventing and reducing discrimination, social exclusion and school dropout among children through sports activities

– Action plan for preventing and reducing social exclusion and early school leaving through sports activities, among children

– Methodology of sustainable social and educational integration based on sports activities for children at risk of social exclusion

– Methodology of sustainable social and educational integration based on sports activities for children with disabilities

Promoter: Association of Romanian Communes (ACoR)

Partners: Association of Local and Regional Authorities of Norway (KS); Association of Romanian Municipalities (AMR)

The value of the financing: 3,277,088 euro

Implementation period: October 2019 – May 2023

Website: https://e-tic.ro/

Social Media: E-TIC  Information Center (Facebook)

The local public administration in Romania faces problems aimed at low transparency during the decision-making process, poor management of human resources, excessive bureaucracy, and reduced capacity to provide public services. Based on these weaknesses, the project aims to strengthen the capacity of local government through training, greater decision-making transparency, and the assimilation of key information on legislation in the areas of incompatibility and conflict of interest.

Addressing 3,300 representatives of local administrations (mayors, deputy mayors, local councilors, civil servants, and heads of departments), from 103 municipalities and 1,000 communes, the project provides information, training, and exchange services and good practices in transparent and efficient governance and public administration. Local government representatives will be trained in key areas for their work such as conflict of interest, incompatibility with function, decision-making transparency, and integrity.

An online information center open to all representatives of communes and municipalities will provide updated information on legislation in the field of conflicts of interest, integrity, decision-making transparency, and incompatibilities. The online helpdesk will have a real-time alert system, which will send updated information in the four areas of interest, regarding the legislative changes.

Through its partner, the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS), the project offers a special opportunity to strengthen bilateral relations between Romania and Norway, by developing exchanges of experience and promoting models of good practice in good governance and decision-making transparency.

Partial result (october 2020)

– 2,509 town halls of communes and municipalities (2400 communes, 109 municipalities) were informed about the project and its activities.

– 176 representatives of local and central public administration authorities from Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Norway participated, on February 19, 2020, in the Opening Conference of the project

– 731 representatives of the local public administration from communes and municipalities answered the questionnaire on the information and training needs of representatives of communes and municipalities in the fields of ethics, transparency, conflict of interest and incompatibilities (668 joint respondents, 63 municipal respondents)

– 8 training sessions took place between July and October 2020, attended by 145 representatives of Romanian communes and municipalities (local elected officials, civil servants, executive staff at the level of county branches of ACoR and AMR), as follows: 5 sessions training sessions organized by ACoR attended by 91 representatives of communes and 3 training sessions organized by AMR attended by 54 representatives of municipalities.

Promoter: General Secretariat of the Government (SGG)

Partners: Ministry of Justice (MJ), Authority for Digitization of Romania (ADR), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

Amount of financing: EUR 3,020,000 / 14,901,586 LEI

Implementation period: September 2021 – December 2023

Contact: https://sgg.gov.ro/

Responding to the need to increase the integrity and responsibility of the governing act in Romania, the project proposes an integrated strategic approach, leading to strengthening the capacity of the public sector to provide quality and transparent services to citizens and to develop public policies based on the principles of good governance, in line with the recommendations and expertise of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In order to increase the capacity of the Government Centre (defined by the administrative apparatus serving the Prime Minister and the Government) to develop and implement public policies in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) assumed by our country within the United Nations (UN), the project aims to achieve an action plan for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy of Romania 2030. The plan, a necessary step for a successful implementation of the sustainable development strategy, will be carried out following consultative meetings with institutions involved in achieving the SDGs, including civil society and business environment, and two workshops held by OECD experts.

The open government component includes measures to assess the present state and progress made by Romania in this area so far. Further, based on consultations with institutional actors at central and local level, the project aims to draw up directions that will contribute to the creation of a future open governance strategy, by developing action plans aimed at replicating and disseminating, at all levels of administration, the best practices registered so far.

The activities dedicated to digital governance will take into account the design of a guide for the elaboration and implementation of digital transformation projects in the public administration in Romania and the identification of proposals for a future framework / strategy regarding digital governance.

In terms of increasing the integrity in the public sector, the project will benefit from OECD expertise, whose report will identify the strengths of current transparency and corruption prevention reforms and will highlight areas that will further support the development of a public integrity system. This component includes activities such as institutional dialogue, consultations and workshops aimed at increasing the integrity, reducing the corruption and successfully implementing the national anti-corruption strategy.

In order to increase the quality of services provided by the public sector, the Government of Romania aims to develop the innovation capacity of this sector. In this respect, the project includes carrying out an initial assessment to identify the needs and barriers to innovation in the public sector. The collected information will be the support for the development of the public sector innovation strategy, for the development of the institutions’ capacity to cope with the changes.

In order to achieve the proposed objectives, approx. 540 public administration employees will be trained on the principles of good governance. The beneficiaries will be both representatives of the governmental apparatus (ministries, government agencies) and of the local administration (municipalities, cities), as well as of some actors relevant to the project objectives, from the business environment and from the civil society.

The integrated approach of the measures proposed by the project will considerably contribute to the achievement of one of the strategic objectives of Romania’s foreign policy, namely the accession to the OECD. On long term, the project will ensure the synergy between the policies developed at governmental level and the real needs of the population, especially those of vulnerable groups, by increasing the quality of public policies and their implementation.