PRESENTATION OF THE MED FORUM
«MEDITERRANEAN COOPERATION» PROGRAMME
1. Introduction (slide 14)
From its very creation, MED Forum committed itself to working for «sustainable development» (in keeping with our definition of this term) by acting as a meeting point for debate on environmental issues and the parallel need for the development of cultures.
There are two causes:
1. One of its axes of action is cooperation with development projects. This is expressed in its founding documents:
a) In its legal name: the complete name of the network is «MED Forum, the Mediterranean NGOs' Network for Ecology and Sustainable Development».
b) In its Founding Charter: «In a situation that arises in a deeply imbalanced and unequal context the South and East have great development problems and poverty wich also lead to unbeareable conditions for their population, the NGOs, which work toward the conservation and protection of the environment, wish to contribute to making the Mediterranean a sea of harmony and cooperation.»
c) In its Statutes: art.6 «The Network intends to fulfill the following functions: (...) Elaborating cooperation programmes for sustainable development, with emphasis on social content and environmental preservation. (...) Contributing to fight against poverty (...).»
2. The present structure of the Network (slide 16): MED Forum assembles NGOs from both Mediterranean shorelines. The majority of its members are not European. It is a genuine Mediterranean network, unlike other networks of European origin that limit themselves to establishing contact with NGOs from southern and eastern Mediterranean countries. In fact, right from its creation, MED Forum assembled NGOs from all the countries around the Mediterranean basin on an equal-status level, and it is for this reason that it is an ideal forum for the meeting of North and South. Even if it did not appear in its Statutes, and even if it were not one of its main objectives, this Network could not remain indifferent to the inequality that separates the countries from which its members proceed.
For these reasons, and apart from other fundamental objectives of the Network such as assuming the role of Mediterranean interlocutor in international bodies and meetings, MED Forum will work to make possible among the Mediterranean countries a real cooperation for sustainable development.
With this objective in mind, MED Forum has developed its «Mediterranean Cooperation» Programme. Its aim is: to promote the development and execution of projects for a sustainable development of the Mediterranean.
The programme basically consists of two services that MED Forum offers to its Network members:
1. An information service: MED Info.
Objectives:
-To provide access to existing information.
-To facilitate the exchange of information among all the NGO members.
-To develop and permanently update all useful information.
-To broadcast all incoming information within the Network.
2. An informative service on projects: the Projects Bank.
Objective:
-To provide technical and financial sustainability for the projects of NGO members
or those of the Network itself.
Information is fundamental in the constitution of a network from two points of view:
1. The exchange of information among its members.
2. The provision of a technical advice service to all members.
The modern electronic communications systems facilitate this task, but online information is still not available to the majority of the members of our Network.
Only half of the NGO members of MED Forum have e-mail, and another significant fact is that 75% of the NGO members without e-mail are from southern and eastern Mediterranean countries.
MED Info intends to fulfill three objectives (slide 18):
A. To provide access to existing information and facilitate the exchange of experiences and information among the NGO member of the Network through the use of e-mail. That implies supplying the technical means to do so and helping in the training of human resources.
B. To elaborate specialized information for the Mediterranean NGOs and to keep it continually updated by creating an information service for this task.
C. To disseminate or broadcast this information through the modern systems of electronic communication.
The tasks that have to be carried out are (slide 19):
1. To implant the use of e-mail:
- By providing material inputs.
- By training human resources.
2. To create an information service (human inputs).
3. To produce electronic publications:
- By fashioning an electronic version of the current magazine: MED Forum.
Ecology and Sustainable Development (9 issues). (slide 20).
- At present, there is already one online bulletin: MED Info Newsletter (1 issue).
- Our aim is to widen the scope of this online bulletin.
4. To develop the Web site:
- At present there is already a MED Forum home page on the web (slide 21).
- Our aim is to widen its scope through:
·an online bulletin board system.
·an online chat system.
·links with the web pages of other organizations and NGOs.
·connection with the database and the documentary archive that will be developed.
- The permanent updating of all information.
5. To set up a system of videoconferences: this would facilitate the participation and the carrying out of international meetings.
Moreover, within the framework of Objective B, our intention is that the information service carry out two tasks of great importance:
6. The creation of a database: a directory of all the international and European Union organizations, financial institutions, international and European programmes, international agreements, NGOs, etc., that are linked with the Mediterranean area. The objective is to know who does what in the Mediterranean in matters of ecology and sustainable development so as to be able to orient oneself in this maze. The project includes the creation of 6 specific directories:
1. Organizations within the sphere of the United Nations.
2. Multilateral treaties.
3. Inter-governmental bodies and programmes.
4. Financial institutions.
5. Non-Governmental Organizations (ecology and development).
6. European Union.
7. The creation of a documentary archive with the complete texts of official documents of special bearing for the Mediterranean: treaties, legislation, meetings, etc.
Tasks 2, 3 and 4 are already walking. We are searching fonds for tasks 1, 5, 6 and 7.
This is the fundamental part of the «Mediterranean Cooperation» Programme of MED Forum, and the part that will have the most direct bearing on the carrying out of projects.
We are talking about a service for NGO members that would work on different levels (slide 22):
1. Assessment (slide 23):
-Information about possible funding sources.
-Information and contact with experts who pertain to the MED Forum network.
-Technical advice:
· Formal: adapting the projects to fulfill the formal requirements made by the different financing programmes.
· Contents: technical advice.
2. Support and follow-up monitoring (slide 24):
- By giving support to the applications for financial assistance before the donor bodies.
- By searching for members.
- By searching for financial assistance.
- By presenting applications to the financial organizations.
- By following up on the applications.
- By providing small sums for the presentation and preparation of projects.
3. Design and implementation of projects (Design and realization?) (slide 25):
- Projects proposed by the NGO members: the Projects Bank.
- Projects proposed by MED Forum: the Projects Bank will lead the project, and it counts on the collaboration of its NGO members.
These would be the three different levels of service that the projects Bank can offer to the NGO members. This means that, depending on the case, MED Forum participation will vary in the projects of its NGO members.
The different degrees of participation of MED Forum can be the following (slide 26):
0. One or several NGO members design and carry out a project without the Network’s participation.
1. MED Forum offers assessment to the projects of NGO members.
2. MED Forum supports the project of one or several NGO members (umbrella).
3. MED Forum can provide small sums to financially assist member NGOs during the preliminary stage of preparation and presentation of their projects.
4. Joint preparation and execution of a project presented by one or several NGO members; in this situation MED Forum is simply one of the members of the project.
5. On proposal by one or several NGO members, MED Forum will elaborate a project which will afterwards be carried out jointly with the other NGO members of the project.
6. MED Forum elaborates its own projects (by mandate of the Executive Committee or the General Secretariat to the Projects Bank), and seeks the collaboration of one or several network member NGOs to carry them out jointly.
In our opinion, the ideal degree of participation of the Projects Bank in the projects of the NGO members of the network is that which encompasses points 4 and 5; in other words, that NGO members propose projects that they execute and/or elaborate jointly with the Projects Bank.
Evidently, the other degrees of participation are also included among the tasks of the Projects Bank, and they are considered as either a service to their members (1, 2, and 3), or as a way for the Network to foster the joint work of NGOs from different countries (6).
The importance of information about the projects of the NGO members
The Projects Bank means to be of assistance to the MED Forum members, and for this reason, despite the fact that you may not need the help of the Projects Bank in the preparation and execution of your projects, you should be aware that MED Forum members do need your help. Even if the Network does not participate in your projects, it would be a good idea to give us information about them. It is important for the NGOs to know what other NGOs of different countries, interested in the same subjects, are doing. Their projects could serve as a model, or could suggest new ideas and approaches, and they could help to foster exchanges and even stimulate joint projects in the future. That is why the Projects Bank wishes to urge all the MED Forum NGOs to send us information on their projects, even if you do not need our assistance. This information about your experiences can help us to improve the service we offer to other Network members. Please, send us your projects and the results obtained. Through MED Info we will try to give them adequate dissemination among all the MED Forum members.
The importance of MED Forum’s international acknowledgement
Most of us work on projects for the sustainable development of the Mediterranean. Each one of our organizations dedicates an important part of its human, material and financial inputs into the execution of these projects. However, we have not been able to explain to the public at large, and especially to possible donors, that our projects, limited in time and space, have a common objective that is much more encompassing: the Mediterranean. Evidently, it is very important that all the world know that the projects in which MED Forum participates are all projects that have the Mediterranean as their objective. This will become apparent by the display of the Network’s logo on all publications. With this we will achieve two objectives:
1. The strengthening of MED Forum. The greater the number of projects, activities, meetings, publications, etc., that MED Forum participates in within the Mediterranean area, and the better they are, the more force and credibility our Network will have as the spokesperson of our NGOs, and the easier it will be for it to get funding for our projects.
2. The acknowledgement of the activities carried out by our member NGOs. The projects of the member NGOs will enjoy the prestige of developing their work under the label of an international NGO network with 77 members from 24 different countries. This will ensure their credibility and give Mediterranean scope to their projects.
That is why it would be convenient that, even in those projects in which the Projects Bank of MED Forum has not participated directly, the NGOs involved made known the fact that they pertain to the MED Forum Network.
B. How are projects developed?
The most frequently used tool in project management for planning, carrying out and assessing projects is the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) (see the last section dedicated to bibliography at the end).
By following this model, we have come up with what will be standard proceeding in the design of projects of the MED Forum Projects Bank (slide 27).
The proposal of a project can come from a member NGO or from the Projects Bank itself. In both cases we have established 5 stages in the process of project design.
1. Identification. The first stage is the identification of the project, which consists in formulating the initial proposal of the project:
- the justification of the project: the problem that it means to solve (context), and the results it expects to achieve through the project.
- the description of the potential target groups.
- a list of all the assumptions: the necessary conditions for the project to succeed, but that are external factors which it cannot control.
- the verification that the project coincides with the government policies in its area of action.
2. Appraisal. This is the first evaluation of the project:
- evaluation of its feasibility.
- evaluation of its relevance or usefulness.
- evaluation of our management capacity to carry it out.
- evaluation of possible donors for the project.
- In most cases, we will ask the NGO that has proposed the project to forward this information; this is the most frequent proceeding.
However, at other times:
-a visit in situ will be made to the project area.
-external technical advice/assessment will be sought.
3. Project design (slide 28). Once we have gathered all the necessary information, we can start to work on the most difficult task - the project design itself. According to the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) method, projects design is carried out in 7 stages grouped into 2 different phases:
- The first of «situation analysis»:
1. Participation analysis.
2. Problem analysis.
3. Objectives analysis.
4. Strategy analysis.
- The second of «project design», strictly speaking:
5. Identification of the project elements.
6. Identification of the assumptions.
7. Choosing of monitoring indicators and of their means of verification.
1. It is extremely important to carry out a participation analysis within the first phase of the «situation analysis»; in other words, it is fundamental to obtain a global image of the individuals, groups, entities and institutions that are involved either positively or negatively, or directly or indirectly, with the project, and to know what their expectations are. The most important aim of this phase is to know the opinion of all the agents involved, to find out which groups can be of support or become an obstacle, and to guarantee the participation of the beneficiaries of the project.
2. The second stage is the problem analysis, which deals with identifying the main problems present in the situation in which the project means to intervene, and to establish causal relations among them. This is usually done by drawing a «problem tree», where the problems of the lower part are the cause of the problems placed in the higher part. The problem tree should be as complete and as detailed as possible. In the end we decide what the central problem is.
3. In the third stage, the «objectives analysis», the point is to transform the «problem tree» into an «objective tree»; that is to say, to formulate a solution for each one of the problems set forth, and to substitute the cause-effect relation among them (A is the cause of B) by a means to an end relation (A is the means to get to end B).
4. Once we have drawn these two trees about the situation which we are facing, we have to choose a concrete aspect which our project will intervene on or work on. It is not likely that all the objectives we would like to achieve are within our reach. We have to do a strategy analysis to consider all the different alternatives of action and establish the strategy of our project.
5. Once we have taken all these steps, we come to the second phase of what is strictly speaking the «project design». The first task is to identify the elements of the project:
- the overall objective: the long-term objective to which the project means to
contribute.
- the immediate objective: the project purpose which describes the expected results for
the direct beneficiaries, and the situation that is expected to continue as a
consequence of the project.
- the expected results: the aforementioned objectives are out of the direct control of the
project. However, the results are the direct consequence of the project, which it can
guarantee once it has carried out its activities.
- the activities: all the foreseen actions that are to be carried out and that will transform
the available inputs into planned results.
- the resources or inputs: the financial, material and human means necessary for
carrying out the activities.
These elements constitute the base or framework of the project, but it is necessary to complete the project matrix with two more elements.
6. Identification of the assumptions: to analyse and foresee the necessary conditions for the project’s success, even though they are not under the direct control of the project management.
7. Choosing of the monitoring indicators and their means of verification: The indicators help us to measure the degree of achievement obtained in getting results and accomplishing the overall and immediate objectives. In this step it will also be necessary to specify the means of verification of these indicators (slide 29).
4. Detailed planning. Once the project design is finished and its internal logic has
been verified, we can design an execution plan.
- Detailed plan of execution: shows the necessary inputs, the activities to be carried out, and the expected results.
- Timetable for carrying out the plan.
- Detailed budget.
- Establishment of a monitoring system.
-The most important condition is that it have the support of local, and in most cases, national authorities of the place where the project will be developed. This is normally proven by a letter of support to the project from these authorities.
-The other most frequent condition is that there exist a contract among the different members (governmental and non-governmental) who will participate in the project before applying for financial assistance.
5. The project. Now we have a completed project, and all we have to do is verify that the final form that we give it fulfills all the formal conditions imposed by the different donors to whom we mean to apply for funding.
We propose a verification list of the basic elements that the project should contain:
- Title.
- Brief description: a 5-line synopsis: title, beneficiaries, objectives, results, and setting.
- Context:
The precise location.
The existing situation or the context or problem that the projects means to resolve.
The project history (promoter, previous studies) and its justification.
Description of the beneficiaries.
- The promoter’s personal details.
- The personal details of other members or their local counterpart.
- The logical framework:
Overall objective
Immediate objective (or project purpose)
Activities to be carried out
Economic, material and human inputs
Monitoring indicators and means of verification
External factors (assumptions and risks)
Beneficiary groups
Posterior sustainability of the project: taking into account the owners, the person in charge, and the economic, technical, socio-cultural, financial and political sustainability.
Potential reproduction.
- A detailed technical description and a timetable for the project (chronogram).
- A 1-page summary: Existing situation, objectives to be achieved, projected activities, economic, material and human inputs (local and foreign staff, salary, labor agreement, and tasks).
-Budget provision: in one single currency by foreseen funding sources (guarantees and public or private status) and in overall financial allotments for all the project (the complete annual breakdown of costs will be handed in separately).
Direct costs:
- Conception: phase of identification, preparation and elaboration (explanatory list).
- Personnel (staff): local and foreign
- Salaries: number, professional category, number of days and amount of salary per day (including social security taxes, and other), labor agreement, and tasks. (General staff expenses are excluded: management, offices, secretariat or similar).
- Possible valorisation of staff expenses.
- External assistance: consultancy services, suppliers, and others.
- Durable materials:
- Purchase: lands, construction expenses (budget or evaluation of expenses and sketch or blueprint), equipment, material, supply and its transportation. (Always subjected to amortization if the construction has a duration time longer than that of the project, and taking into account its utilisation rate for project purposes.
- Information and a justified valuation of existing goods and estate (lands, equipment, materials) if they form part of the project.
-Consumable materials.
-Inflation and unforeseen factors.
Indirect expenses:
- Dissemination and consciousness-raising.
- Evaluation.
- General expenses, administrative and other.
- Expenses in different phases.
- Foreseen method for the final evaluation.
- A letter from local and national authorities indicating their interest in and support to the project.
- Contracts established among the members who participate in the project.
- Other administrative documentation required by the possible donors.
- Information on the NGOs or other members involved: their identity, statutes, activities and financial reports, organization chart, previous experiences, contracting links among the members, relation with the beneficiaries, etc.
- CV (curriculum vitae) of the experts involved.
D. Examples in action
Although MED Forum was constituted only three years ago and today is its official presentation of the Projects Bank, we have already carried out some projects.
1.The Mediterranean: towards sustainable development (slide 30). This project is about a citizen consciousness-raising campaign which was carried out between 1996 and 1997 in 7 Tunisian cities (Sousse, Hammamet, Tabarka, Zarzis, etc.) by the NGO EcoMediterrània (Spain) and the Association Tunissienne pour la Protection de la Nature et de l’Environment (Tunisia). A travelling exhibition (slide 31) visited each one of these cities, and this served as the excuse for the local NGO which was our counterpart to organize debates among the population. This is an example of the mutual reinforcement of local NGOs and civil society. Those debates helped the citizens to perceive the environmental quality of their cities with a critical eye, and to present projects for its improvement (slide 32). As a result of this activity, the MED Forum Projects Bank now has several proposals for projects in Tunisia which are currently being studied.
2. MED Project «Ulixes 21». For sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean (slide 33). This is a project that was carried out by four NGOs from France, Spain, and Morocco that form part of our network: EcoMediterrània (Spain), CLAPE-LR (France), Association pour la Protection de l’Environment de la Wilaya de Tétouan (Morocco), and ASMAPE (Morocco). It is a typical example of the type of projects which can be covered by MED Forum. The fact that all the NGOs were members of our Network facilitated the task of carrying out this project of regional (Mediterranean) scope. The project consisted of several lines of activity (slide 34):
- Travelling exhibition in various cities of France, Spain and Morocco (slide 35) focused on the need to promote sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean.
- A campaign to raise the awareness of tourists in the most visited areas: a congenial questionnaire «Wanted: the tourist of the future» (slide 36).
- A guide book for tour operators elaborated by specialists (slide 37).
- A pilot experiment of awareness-raising of tourists in their countries of origin (France, Germany and the United Kingdom) by means of brochures and a home page on the web.
- The International Congress for Sustainable Tourism in the Mediterranean. It took place in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, October 22.24, 1998) and it achieved the active participation of civil society. It also relied on the participation of experts for the theoretical elaboration of strategies and held workshops for the Mediterranean NGOs to stimulate the exchange of experiences and good practices (slides 38 and 39).
3. The creation of an Integrated Agricultural Cooperative in Algeria (slide 40). This project is still in its initial phase but it could be a good example of the merging of environmental and development issues. The project deals with the creation of an agricultural cooperative in which unemployed youths could work. Algeria, a country that had traditionally been an exporter of agricultural products, nowadays depends on 80% of its imports to meets its nutritional needs. Many agricultural plots of land have been abandoned, and the unemployment rate, especially of young men and women, is increasing (slide 41). Our cooperative intends to renew the use of these lands by creating an ecological farm to fight against unemployment. The project is being carried out by EcoMediterrània (Spain) and the Mouvement Ecologique Algérien (MEA).
4. The Mediterranean Green Traffic Light (slide 42). This is a campaign to raise citizen awareness and obtain the participation of civil society in the protection of coastal zones. By means of a game and a questionnaire designed by MED Forum, a group of people (students, civil associations, etc.) draw a map of how they perceive the state of conservation and environmental quality of the Mediterranean coastal zone where they live. At the end of the activity, the participants evaluate their area through a color code, using red, yellow or green (green if it is in good condition, yellow if it is so-so, and red if it is bad). In this way, we can obtain information about the social perception that exists about the condition of the zone, and at the same time we contribute to raising the awareness of the population, getting them involved in environmental conservation (slide 43). This project can serve as a typical example of the projects that MED Forum can design: projects that are proposed and designed by the Network itself whose aim is that they have an impact on the whole region.
Apart from these projects which have been carried out or are currently being developed, we have elaborated other projects whose funding has still not been confirmed.
5. Water for peace (slide 44). It is a campaign for training and awareness-raising among the Palestinian population of the Jordan Valley and the south of the West Bank to improve the quality and quantity of their hydrological resources, and to prevent their degradation. It is a project of the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG) from Palestine with the collaboration of EcoMediterrània (Spain) (slide 45) and with the support of MED Forum. In a zone as conflict-ridden as the Middle East, where water has already become a strategic factor, this is our way as a civil society of contributing to peace. The PHG has already carried out a similar campaign in the north of the West Bank, where it was very successful (slide 46). The Palestinian population has very scarce water resources, and it has already begun to use the technique of collecting water in reservoir tanks (water tanks), but it does not know how to apply the necessary techniques to maintain its quality nor other techniques for reusing sewage for irrigation. The project intends to train women (since they are a majority of the workforce in agricultural tasks), farmers and young students so that they know how these techniques work.
6. Participatory management and rehabilitation of the ecosystems of the oasis (slide 47). It is a project of the Association Nationale de Volontariat Touiza of Algeria that encompasses 5 oases in the region of Touat (Adrar). MED Forum is currently seeking funding for this project. It basically has to do with recovering the traditional participatory management of the natural resources. The traditional system for obtaining water in the oases based on the foggaras (slide 48) has been abandoned, even though it is much more respectful with the environment than the new systems of intensive productivity are. The project intends to reinforce the status of local NGOs and farming groups so that they can recover the traditional collective management of water resources.
These are some of the examples of the tasks that the MED Forum Projects Bank has been carrying out. Now it is up to you, NGOs, to send us your proposals so that «Mediterranean Cooperation» becomes a working reality.
Apart from the two services that we have already explained (the information service MED Info, and the Projects Bank), the «Mediterranean Cooperation» Programme has a third objective. We are talking about a less tangible and more theoretical objective, but one that is nevertheless important: the construction of the «Mediterranean Cooperation» concept (slide 49).
All potential funding donors for these cooperation activities in the Mediterranean should be aware of this difference.
North and South, East and West all have their meeting point in our Mediterranean. If we are successful in our work, we will be able to achieve that the Mediterranean be an example of how to face the challenge of human development in our planet while making possible the peaceful coexistence among different peoples and cultures. Our message to you, the civil society representatives from all four shorelines of our sea, is that to collaborate with us is to join a project that truly believes that things can change.
That is why I wish to end this speech by quoting my favorite slogan. This sentence is almost becoming a joke among the people who know me, because I always end all my interventions with it. But it is not at all a joke, but rather one of my most fervent beliefs (slide 50): «The Mediterranean is not a border; it is a bridge.» Thank you very much.
Javier Cisneros
Cooperation Projects Coordinator
MED Forum
Bibliography
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Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) (1986) Basic Course on the Formulation and Appraisal of Technical Cooperation Projects, FAO, Rome.
Norwergian Development Agency (NORAD) (1993) The Logical Framework Approach (LFA): Handbook for Objectives-Oriented Planning, Oslo.
Norwergian Development Agency (NORAD) (1997) El Enfoque del Marco Lógico (EML): Manual para la planificación de proyectos orientada mediante objetivos, Instituto Universitario de Desarrollo y Cooperación (IUDC) and Fundación Centro Español de Estudios de América Latina (CEDEAL), Madrid.
Norwergian Development Agency (NORAD) (1997) Evaluación de proyectos de ayuda al desarrollo. Manual para evaluadores y gestores, Instituto Universitario de Desarrollo y Cooperación (IUDC) y Fundación Centro Español de Estudios de América Latina (CEDEAL), Madrid. (Norwergian original and english version too).
Organización de Cooperación y Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE) (1995) Manual de la Ayuda al Desarrollo: Principios del CAD para una ayuda eficaz, OCDE and Mundi-Prensa, Madrid.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (1989) Guidelines for Project Formulation and the Project Document Format, UNDP, New York.