Organization will dispense grants in countries surrounding Black Sea
GMF and its partners launched the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation (BST) on October 23 in Bucharest, Romania.
During a day-long event, policymakers, academics, civil society representatives, and members of the media debated the most pressing issues facing the region, including regional human security, energy, the environment, and good governance.
Romanian President Traian Băsescu welcomed participants to the conference and reiterated Romania’s interest in the region. He also emphasized the importance of involving all countries in the region to talk about common issues.
BST, which is based in Bucharest, provides grants to local and national NGOs in the Wider Black Sea Region, to governmental entities, commmunity groups, policy institutes, and other associations to implement projects in three programmatic areas: civic participation, cross-border initiatives, and East-East cooperation. Grants (application procedures here) are awarded in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia (the oblasts of Krasnodar and Rostov).
„A strong civil society is the key to strong sustainable institutions and our hope is that the Black Sea Trust will promote this in the region,” said Craig Kennedy, GMF president.
The Black Sea Trust is a project of the German Marshall Fund with partners United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Romanian government, and Ministry of Defence, Government of Latvia. BST is based on the successful, Belgrade-based Balkan Trust for Democracy, a public-private partnership dispensing grants throughout the Balkans.
„The U.S. government has found these types of partnerships enhance the sustainability of our democracy reforms effort,” said Thomas Mefford, deputy assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia at USAID.