The project is aiming at capacity building to strengthen the role of Belarusian and Northwest Russian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in policy development and public awareness raising in the field of water management and promoting the dialogue between authorities and NGOs on public and NGOs role in water policies development and implementation in the North – Eastern side of the Baltic Sea.

Project activities

• To increase knowledge of Russian and Belarusian NGOs on public participation in water management and information on Water Framework Directive and relevant experience from Nordic countries in the field;
• To research on Belarusian, Russian and EU legal frameworks and water policy implementation and highlight the differences between national and international/EU legal frameworks in the understanding to give the target NGOs arguments for lobbying of policy changes;
• To transfer knowledge and experiences from Finnish and Baltic NGOs to Belarusian and Russian NGOs on policy lobbying and dialogue methods targeted at the issues around public participation and water;
• To establish a group of NGOs experts in Russia and Belarus on public participation in water management issues with the further goal to develop more projects on public information campaigns and participation in water policy development;
• To carry out national meetings aimed at a dialogue among authorities and NGOs in water sector;
• To develop a guidebook on water policy implementation and practices aimed at participatory water management and widely discuss it with other stakeholders;
• To develop proposals for future NGOs actions;
• To disseminate project materials and other relevant information via web-sites;
• To establish a network of NGOs and other organisations in the region working on participatory approaches towards water management in order to support information exchange and cooperation in the region.

Contacts

Juste Kukucione
Environmental expert
Tel. +370 5 215 9287
E-mail: juste.kukucione@bef.lt

Duration

2008-2009