Fond

On 16th October 2006, FOND's first General Assembly took place with the aim to establish the national development cooperation Platform. After an extensive process initiated back in 2005, 34 nongovernmental organizations from Romania (including some of the most important NGOs from all over the country), have officially established the Romanian NGDO Platform (FOND). Today, FOND has 39 member organisations. Ever since 2006, FOND has organized capacity building trainings for the members to become more active in the international development cooperation field, aiming both at informing the organizations and at training them on project writing and implementation, as well as awareness raising campaigns for the Romanian public. During 2008-2009, the first project ''Development cooperation in Romania: Building FOuNDation for Policy Work'' has been implemented by FOND, which had as main goal to create and develop the instruments through which member organizations get involved more in the development cooperation field, as well as the improvement of the collaboration with the Romanian public institutions and international organizations active in this field. Several seminars and trainings were organized, and a research paper was launched ''It's our turn to help: Romania and international development cooperation'', which has brought into discussion the actual perspective and the communist past regarding the process of aiding the poor and developing countries. A major event, which has become a tradition for FOND is the Black Sea NGO Forum, launched in 2008, as an initiative of the R. Moldova-Georgia Working Group, The Forum is an opportunity for the nongovernmental organizations within the Black Sea region, but also for the state actors to develop sustainable partnerships in this area. In 2010, FOND has organized three events, in partnership and with the financial support of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign affairs: the Romania - Republic of Moldova NGO Forum (3rd - 6th of May), the Romanian Development Camp (24th - 27th of June) and the Black Sea NGO Forum. The goal of the first one was to improve the communication and cooperation between the NGOs from Romania and those from the Republic of Moldova in order to define a common agenda and priority actions. The Romanian Development Camp has become an annual event which represents a space for debates about the challenges of the development cooperation policy and the creation of new partnerships with relevant actors. FOND has also organized a series of actions targeting citizens and especially the youth, having as main goal to bring visibility on the importance of development cooperation. Through the project ''Be a global citizen! Take attitude against extreme poverty'', FOND aimed at raising warness among the young people on how they can get involved. Development Education is an important component of the FOND strategy: organizing national seminars on global/development education and events (such as Africa Day), are just some of the actions which have taken place.