We finished the series of online matchmaking cafes
The 3 online events were organized in September 2020 in order to discover thematic realities from Romania and donor states and they brought together 15 organizations from Norway and Iceland and 35 organizations from Romania. The organizations were informed and discussed on specific topics important for the Active Citizens Fund Romania program. In short, we present below some general ideas brought up from the conversations:
On September 15, 2020, the online event on “Human Rights and Social Justice” took place, where we tried to review some important aspects regarding the human rights situation in Norway, Iceland and Romania. Aspects from the conversation that deserve to be highlighted refer to: the differences in approach between the Nordic states and Romania in terms of social services - rights insurance (Iceland, Norway) versus service provision (Romania); how to involve the state (greater involvement in the Nordic states) and how to involve the beneficiaries (more emphasis is placed on the self-representation aspect in the Nordic states); the different themes and agendas between the Nordic states and Romania but also the similarities from the perspective of the under-represented groups, which are problematic both for the Nordic states and for Romania; the intersectional approach from the north, which involves not only the provision of services or activism/ representation of a certain right.
On September 22, 2020, the second event on "Youth and the inclusion of young people" took place. With a large and quite diverse group, we tried to highlight different aspects that may be similar or different between Romania and Norway. Thus, we discovered similarities such as the increased number of sports organizations that can be involved in social inclusion activities, entrepreneurial methodologies used for inclusion, poorer access to services / activities for certain categories of young vulnerable people, the same distinction between youth organizations and organizations working for youth, even if the legal age limits differ between the two states. At the level of differences we can mention the aspect of networking and representation structures for organizations in the Nordic states, which in Romania is not so present inside civil society.
On September 29, 2020, the third and last online event on "Environment and Climate Change" took place. After a short presentation of one of the largest environmental organizations in Norway, the Bellona Foundation, we had some discussions about the directions of action of the organizations present at the event, which were largely aimed at environmental protection and climate change awareness, effects of agriculture, health education / healthy eating and environmental litigations. These discussions also revealed some issues that could be taken up in future partnerships with the Nordic states such as the difficulty of involving people in major issues, the involvement or non-involvement of public authorities in various initiatives of the nongovernmental sector, the need to have an intersectional approach for the environmental issues.