International projects
Agora Central Europe (Agora CE) was established in 1998 by two renowned Dutch organizations – The Institute for the Public and Politics and Stichting Agora Europa, - its sister organization. Agora CE has an extensive experience with cooperation with all stakeholders - private sector subjects, government institutions and NGO sector: VNG International, an Association of Netherlands Municipalities, co-operated with AGORA CE on five participatory projects conducted in the Czech Republic while two other joint international projects were carried out in Lithuania and Latvia. Agora Central Europe has working relationships with Habitat platform, Dutch housing and development organization (private organizations), the Open Society Fund Prague, CEE Trust and several other international organizations. It is a member of the CEE Network, an international network of NGOs aimed at citizens’ participation. AGORA CE also cooperates with international university chains (e.g. CINEFOGO, SPERA, Science&Décision Université Pierre et Marie Curie etc.). Agora CE cooperates with Ministry of Regional Development (seminars, conferences, expertise, consultations), Ministry of Labour and Social Works (dtto), Ministry of Interior (Methodology and Manual for involvement of citizens), City of Prague (Methodology of involvement of citizens into preparation of Master plan, Cultural Policy preparation). Agora CE closely cooperates with the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, mainly with the Parliamentary Institute, which serves as a research department of the Czech Parliament.With support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Agora Central Europe completed several projects on citizens’ participation in Serbia (2006, 2007-8) and Bosnia Herzegovina (2007-8). Since 2008, AGORA CE is also implementing citizen participation projects in Moldova and Georgia. The projects in Georgia were implemented in cooperation with several Czech partner organizations (People in Need, Association for International Affairs, TransitionOnline, FALA) with the financial support of the MFA CR and the National Endowment for Democracy. Agora’s local partner organization, Civitas Georgica is located in Tbilisi, with co-workers across Georgia. During the course of the project, AGORA CE gained thorough knowledge of the situation on local and regional levels. In 2010, Agora started a new project in the Kvermo Kartli and Guria regions aimed at capacity building of new local representatives by presenting seminars and training (supported by MFA CR and NED).
Over the past 4 years, AGORA CE organized several study tours for delegations from different transitional countries. Starting in 2005 with a study tour of Albanian mayors and civil servants at the request of the Open Society Fund Prague; followed a study tour for a delegation of Serbian mayors and representatives of NGOs in 2006 (again supported by OSF Prague) and a study visit of representatives from Albania (council members from the city of Elbasan, fully paid by the city). In 2007 a study tour for a delegation from Bosnia and Hercegovina (supported by OSF Prague) was successfully organized. Agora CE organized study visit of Georgian politicians to the Czech Republic in 2010. The study was organized as a part of implementation of UNDP Project Knowledge Transfer of Czech Experience: Raising Awareness of Georgian Politicians and Medium Level Decision-makers on Decentralization. The visit was prepared in co-operation with Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, mainly with the Parliamentary Institute.
Study tours usually started with a lecture about the Czech political system and were followed by lectures about participatory methods and techniques used in the Czech Republic. In the following days the participants visited several Czech cities where they were presented with interesting issues, projects and examples. The cities were selected according to the specific requirements of issues proposed by counterparts in each country. Finally, in 2008 Agora started to organize study tours dealing with issues other than citizen participation and the public administration system in the Czech Republic. The total of 5 study tours was carried out in 2008, of which 2 were for the UNDP - Study tour of Ukrainian policy makers on Economic Transformation to the Czech Republic (April 2008); and, Study tour of Armenian experts of Vocational Education best practice and active labor market policy in the Czech Republic (October 2008).
The study tour for Ukrainian top officials aimed to familiarize them with the experience of economic transformation and policy-making process in the Czech Republic. All lecturers were top specialists in their given subject (Charles University of Prague, Institute of Economic Studies, Ministry of Finance) augmented by successful business representatives (Škoda-Auto Mladá Boleslav).
The study tour for Armenian experts on vocational education was aimed at providing examples of best practices in cooperation of vocational schools with the labor market. This was arranged in co-operation with experts from the National Institute of Technical and Vocational Education (NUOV), other relevant ministries (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs), with meetings/visits and discussions with experienced personnel from specific vocational neighbourhood/successful VET institutions which implement Active Labor Market policy projects.
The remaining 3 study tours in 2008 were organized for representatives of municipalities and regions from Albania (public finances, budgeting, collection of local taxes, system of taxes in the Czech Republic etc. – September 2008), for groups of representatives from various levels of public administration in Armenia (anti-corruption policies of CR, capacity building of public institutions in Armenia – November 2008) and representatives of local governments in Ukraine (Lugansk region – citizens participation, communication with citizens, information centers for citizens).
In 2009 Agora organized 3 study tours, 2 of them again for UNDP - Study tour on “Enhancing institutional capacities in policy-making processes in Ukraine (at national and local levels)” and “Capacity Building of State Institutions to effectively develop and implement public policy in Uzbekistan”. The third study tour in 2009 was prepared for Association of Young Lawyers of Armenia on "Integration of European Values of the Anti-Corruption Sphere for Armenia: Practice of Visegrad Group Countries".
Apart from that Agora CE also manages its own foreign projects. In the year 2007 Agora CE statrted to conduct first large project - Building partnerships on the local level - in Serbia and also Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since then Agora conducts at least three international projects per year. Main donors are Ministry of Forreign Affair, CR, department of Transition, National Endowment for Democracy, UNDP and lately also Czech Development Agency.