The SOFIA+3 Project

Project implementation

At the very beginning of the Project it was presented to wide range of NGOs, governmental and intergovernmental organizations by e-mail, on the First International Conference "UKRAINE-HABITAT-II: Best Practices" (4-8 October 1997, Kyiv, Ukraine), the NGO Strategy Meeting (8-11 November 1997, Ljubljana /lake Bled/, Slovenia), a number of Meetings with representatives of Governments of Ukraine, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Belarus and Tajikistan.

To enable wide public access to the information related to the Sofia+3 Project and to another OGI's activity there had been the Internet web-page http://www.ogii.org established and the bulletin OGI Update in Ukrainian, English (opt) and Russian (opt) found. Since October 1997 No. 1-5 of the bulletin had been published.

Questionnaires for NGOs in Russian and Ukrainian languages had been prepared. The information about the SOFIA+3 Project and Questionnaires were disseminated among more than 200 NGOs to enable them to make their inputs to the SOFIA+3 Meeting (held on May 29 - June 1, 1998) and to the Sofia+3 Report, which was published and presented to participants of the 4th Environment Ministers Conference in Aarhus.

Main documents and information related to NEAP process in Belarus, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Ukraine had been collected and disseminated among NGOs by the Sofia+3 National (in-country) Consultants.

During the Project implementation process a number of short-term meetings with representatives from different organizations such as the UN Office in Ukraine, EAP Task Force (OECD), UN Economic Commission for Europe, US Agency for International Development (Kyiv), ISAR, International Renaissance (Soros) Foundation, REC (Szentendre, Hungary), ICLEI, the TACIS Environment Policies Project, the TACIS awareness raising Program etc. took place to identify possible ways of joining efforts to enable West-East, East-East experience exchange in environmental policy making and the Major Groups involvement into development and implementation of NEAPs/LEAPs.

On 27- 29 December 1997 the SOFIA+3 NGO Strategy Meeting had been held to discuss

preliminary NGO evaluations of NEAPs process in Belarus, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Ukraine
obstacles and solutions related to NEAPs development and implementation in the NIS
Guidelines of the NGO Common Agenda for the Future to enable Major Groups participation within NEAPs development and implementation in the NIS.

Thanks to additional support from ISAR-West NIS within framework of the SOFIA+3 Project two National workshops were prepared and conducted for Belarus (April 2, 1998) and Ukraine (April 25-26, 1998). Due to national events it became possible to collect much more inputs from in-country Major Groups and

to make more comprehensive independent evaluation of NEAP process in the countries
to identify interested NGOs and,
to identify new ways and opportunities (applicable for other countries) for partnership between NGOs, Local Governments and Governments within NEAPs/LEAPs development and implementation in Belarus and Ukraine
to develop and adopt NGO propositions related to NEAPs/LEAPs to Governments of Belarus and Ukraine .

On May 29 – June 1, 1998 the OGI jointly with the UN office in Ukraine organized the SOFIA+3 Meeting to review NEAPs progress in the NIS and to develop possible ways and discover new opportunities for Major Groups participation in further NEAPs development and implementation process in the NIS. During the Meeting there was made averaged evaluation of success of the NEAP key elements implementation in the NIS (see Figure below). To enable this evaluation there was a questionnaire worked out, which included the items mentioned below the Figure. The evaluation includes opinions of representatives from NGOs, Governments, Local Authorities and Scientific Community. The Meeting was another step towards building partnership and establishing constructive dialogue between NGOs, Local Self-Governments and Governments within NEAPs development and implementation.

Originally, the SOFIA+3 Project foresaw only NGO participation in this Meeting. Recognizing importance of partnership between Major Groups within further NEAPs/LEAPs development and implementation the OGI invited to participate in the SOFIA+3 Meeting representatives of both NGOs and Governments, Local Self-Governments and Scientific Community from the NIS. Additional expenses for the Meeting had been covered by the International Renaissance (Soros) Foundation - East East Program.

On the SOFIA+3 Meeting there was a Declaration adopted, which included recommendations to participants of the 4^th Environment Ministers Conference (23-25 June 1998, Aarhus, Denmark) and consisted of the following chapters:

Environment for Europe Process: its success and perspectives in the NIS;
National Environmental Action Plans: evaluation and recommendations for the future;
Environmental financing in the NIS and effectiveness of external assistance;
Public participation in making decision process

Thanks to additional support from ISAR and International Renaissance (Soros) Foundation the NGO evaluation of NEAP process and producing the Project Report became only one of goals of the SOFIA+3 Project.

Additionally to national seminars in Belarus and Ukraine, within framework of the SOFIA+3 Project:

The development of intensive training course "Environmental Management in Local Self-Governance" had been started. The course was aimed at providing assistance to Local Governments in development and implementation of Local Environmental (and Health) Action Plans with participation of experts from Major Groups, national Governments and international organizations. It is expected that the training course will integrate different methodologies, which showed good results in the NIS.
Together with other interested NGOs the OGI started to work out the mechanism for establishing partnership between NGOs and Governments, Local Self-Governments and Business and Industry Group to promote successful elaboration and implementation of Local Environmental (Health) Action Plans and local environmental investments programs.

The following countries are involved in the SOFIA+3 Project: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Ukraine.

The NGO evaluation of the NEAP process in Belarus, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Ukraine had been made (see Report on results of the SOFIA+3 Project to the 4^th Environment Ministers Conference). The evaluation had been done according to criteria developed within framework of the EAP Task Force (OECD) activity.

NGO inputs and ideas related to NEAP development and implementation process had been collected. Within SOFIA+3 Project Ukrainian NGOs proposed NEAP structure and requirements to the NEAP, some elements of which might be applicable to other NIS countries as well.

The NIS NGO Common Agenda for the Future had been drafted and discussed on the NIS NGO workshop on the 4^th Environment Ministers Conference. As a result of the workshop the Main Directions of the NIS NGO NEAP Activity for the Future had been approved.

Special attention within national workshops for Belarus and Ukraine and the SOFIA+3 Meetings was paid to establishing direct dialogue between representatives from NGOs, correspondent governmental institutions, local authorities on current NEAP achievements and problems, on how to improve the NEAP elaboration and implementation process. As a result, in-country Governments and local authorities recognized that NGOs are able to monitor and contribute to NEAP/LEAP process.

As a result of the SOFIA+3 Project more than 200 NGOs from the NIS were informed about the Project and were invited to contribute to the NGO NEAP evaluation process. 87 NGOs responded. Taking into account questionnaires filled and the responses given there was a number of NGOs selected from Belarus, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Ukraine, which had serious intention to work within NEAP/LEAP process in their countries. The core of the NIS NGO NEAP network was established.

Many efforts within the SOFIA+3 Project had been undertaken towards business community involvement into NEAP/LEAP elaboration and implementation process. As a result, one of four Ukrainian private consulting companies started to integrate environmental components into business plans of newly created small businesses. It is expected that up to March 1999 there will be 5 business plans elaborated with integrated environmental components.

Within the SOFIA+3 Project the OGI started to elaborate strategy of involving additional resources to enlarge the further NGO influence on making decision process in field of environmental policy on national levels and to enable the further NIS NGO NEAP network activity. The trial phase of the implementation process mechanism was successful enough, thanks to the additional support from ISAR and the International Renaissance Foundation, and due to the interest to the SOFIA+3 Project expressed by UNDP and two TACIS programs in Ukraine.

Attachment	Size
Декларация Региональной Конференции "СОФИЯ+3"	239.79 KB
Report to the 4th Environment Ministers Conference	159.15 KB
The structural scheme of the NEAP	39.48 KB