Friends of Link Diversity

At the initiative of the Council of Europe and the Stability Pact a meeting of friends of the "Link Diversity" initiative was held in Brussels on 20 March 2002 in the premises of the Stability Pact. The meeting brought together representatives of donor countries and institutions and of National Organising Committees implementing "Link Diversity" in the region (see appended list of participants). The aim of the meeting was to raise political and financial support for the "Link Diversity" initiative, conceived by the civil societies in the countries of the region with the aim of creating civil links and promoting inter-ethnic relations as well as democratic citizenship. All participants had a chance to explain their positions and the representatives from the region could give their views and expectations as regards funding needs. The exchange proved useful and constructive, leading to the following main conclusions (the part in italics indicate follow-up action required).

• Whilst most donors were in principle very supportive of the philosophy and aims of "Link Diversity" and were encouraged by the tremendous work accomplished by the National Organising Committees, some of them re-iterated their call for a clearer short-term, medium and long-term strategy to guide project implementation so that more realistic benchmarks could be set. It was agreed that project proposals to be submitted to donors should better indicate timelines, benchmarks and expected results even within a one year timeframe. Furthermore, a clear indication of the main issue/problem addressed by the project should be given. These indications should ultimately also serve to prioritise projects for each NOC.
  
• The Council of Europe and the Stability Pact will continue to assist in fund-raising efforts for "Link Diversity" and pursue bilateral contacts with those donors who expressed a clear interest for financing projects (UK, Germany for 2002). The CoE and the Stability Pact will ensure circulation of information on project funding with interested donors and liase with the National organising Committees and the Sarajevo co-ordination office in order to have full transparency of information on all sides. De-briefing with all the NOCs as well as with donors not present at the meeting will be ensured very rapidly. All
  donors were invited to clarify/specify to the extent possible the criteria that project proposals would have to meet to be successful.
  
• Many donors have decentralised funding possibilities either through their embassies or through co-operation agencies/institutions. Whilst the amounts available are limited, a number of project proposals could effectively be presented to these decentralised structures by the NOCs themselves. The Council of Europe and the Stability Pact will prepare, as appropriate, recommendation/accompanying letters to increase the chances of funds being released. A list of addresses for each donor will be circulated shortly.
  
• The European Organising Committee should be convened as soon as clearer indications from the main donors solicited will be confirmed. Note was taken of the proposal of having such a meeting in Timisoara at a date to be fixed.
  
• A special effort will be made to ensure the participation of Kosovo in "Link Diversity". Council of Europe and Stability Pact will look into renewed possibilities of establishing an organising committee there.