The Estonian Civil Society Foundation supported the participation of 8 international experts (from the USA, Tunisia, Moldova, the Netherlands, Spain and Greece) in international conferences and side events.
Thanks to the ECSF support, the experts were able to share their opinions, experiences and knowledge with the conference participants and to hold joint cooperation meetings, which led to the preparation of two development cooperation project proposals to be submitted under the EU support programmes 2022 – 2023.
Sillamäe Society For Child Welfare together with other members of Green Habito network and partners organised an international conference, which took place 1-4.05.2022 in Narva and Narva-Jõessu, Estonia as a symbolic place that united the Green Habito network in this difficult time to support the Ukrainian community and to develop a joint appeal of the network to Russian civil society to contribute to ending the Russian-Ukrainian war.
“The Green Habito Network’s annual conference “Civil Society Ideas for a Sustainable and Secure Future for Europe” was a 3-day conference and annual meeting that brought together a unique network of European civil society organisations. The conference discussed the role of civil society in achieving global sustainability, in addition to how civil society can promote development goals at the local level and raise awareness among participants on 4 key issues: peace promotion and good practices, innovative methods and existing solutions, solidarity with European civil society and democracy.
The conference included an intensive programme of keynote speeches, debates and workshops (where all stakeholders discussed the main issues and prepared their proposals to decision-makers and the funds) and discussions.
The conference underlined the important role of civil society in achieving the UN’s development goals at the local level, and the need for civil society representatives to work together to achieve a green, socially sustainable and secure world. As a result of the conference, a joint appeal to European and Russian civil society to end the Russia-Ukraine war and to negotiate was prepared. Foreign experts have been familiarised with the work of Estonian civil society NGOs (from the Ida-Viru County region) and through discussion and debate shared their experience and vision on how to better stand up for their interests.
Each of the foreign experts actively participated in the programme and contributed to the conferences by speaking, leading the working group and facilitating or moderating workshops. The following experts actively contributed to the conferences and side events. Amb.Atallah (Tunisia), Michalis Kavuklis (Greece),StefanosVallianatos (Greece), Eleftheria Flaktaki(Greece), Mohamed Adel AlkadarAlbaghdadi (Netherlands), Mette Brogden (USA), Nikolai Tsvjatkov (Moldova), MercedesValladares (Spain). The participation of international experts in the annual conference and side-meeting in Estonia was supported by the Civil Society Foundation through a competition for the international dissemination of Estonian civil society experience and capacity building for international advocacy.
