European Union "We speak the same language"

Project : GREAT 19 Nov 2010 |

November 17, 2010, Budapest, Hungary: The partners of the GREAT project met in Budapest for two days to do a participatory evaluation of the project, although activities are still ongoing until the end of the year. The contracted external evaluators helped the group conceptualize the impact, count the different output indicators and to discuss the problems and challenges encountered.

The intensive two-day discussions also helped the evaluators to get a better sense of the spirit and philosophy of the project and they also gathered crucial evidence of different successes. One of them is clearly Kopin from Malta, that despite being an associate partner was able to develop its organisation and build its strategy. As William Grech from Kopin pointed out “we managed to build contacts with partners that will continue even after the end of the project”. Targeted interventions like the work placements really helped Kopin to develop its strategy and move forward with a clear vision and tasks.

Partners were very open and honest about the problems they have gone through. Glopolis had to cope with an increased workload after taking on some important but extra activities, and of course its pre-election work had to be rescheduled due to the early elections in the Czech Republic. PHA and FED were struggling with managing 18 different local partners, keeping up communication with them amidst staff changing, and assuring them that the campaigns can be done as planned and on time.

Tips and ideas were also shared for better monitoring tools for future projects while partners also gathered ideas on how the ecological footprint of such a project can be potentially reduced, while not losing the valuable experience of meeting face to face or seeing projects in the field. This element was of utmost importance since it helped partners to build trust and common understanding of the human rights based principles, resulting in more joint work in the future. The ideas gathered will surely be built into future proposals of partners. [JA]