CIRa’s Executive Director, Zoran Stojkovski, has participated in the 16th annual Grantmakers East Forum GEF 2011: Learn. Reflect. Connect from 4-6 October in Riga, Latvia.

There were more than 100 participants from local and international donor and civil society support organizations from South-Eastern, Central and Eastern Europe at GEF 2011. In the three days, 12 different sessions were held on the topics of interest of local Grantmakers, like: “Including social media in your grantmaking toolbox”, “Looking in the mirror – Institutional development for NGOs”, “GEF in 10 years: The changing role of grantmakers in social innovation”, “Grantmaking-Time to break from tradition?” etc.

One of the most interesting sessions for participants from the Balkan countries was “Concluding the integration process – Will the Balkans make it?” in which it was stated that “the issue of EU integration doesn't seem to be about democracy but rather about the promise of a better life for citizens and, perhaps more importantly, it is being used as a marketing tool for the political elite”. It was emphasized that the role of the civil society needs to address those things that really matter to citizens, it needs to “get back into the fight”, and it needs to develop a constituency. Donors, for their part, need to give CSOs space instead of prescribing missions for them.

More about GEF 2011 in Riga, Latvia can be found on following link: www.gef.efc.be