EQUAL - Final report - eng - navreme

Short summary of partial outputs (basic findings):
EVALUATION OF CIP EQUAL TRANSNATIONAL CO-OPERATION PRINCIPLE
a) Preparatory stage
The preparatory stage, above all the strategy of selection of partners and preciseness of the planning
process has the biggest influence on success of the project. It is necessary to make maximum
effective use of the available information and experience for identification of suitable partners, to give
sufficient time to negotiating and to plan the course and outputs of the transnational cooperation
carefully. In this stage, MA could help with search for contacts and above all of further information on
partners, including more detailed information on the situation in the given country with regard to
content and orientation of the project. It is important for the whole preparatory period to be used
really effectively. The condition of effective utilisation of this period is, at its beginning, the availability
of all the necessary documents and functionality of organisational background of the support
structure. The recipient should enter the preparatory stage already with completely clarified content
and sense of the project, expectations, involvement of partners and the like.
b) Involvement of national partners in the transnational cooperation
Involvement of the partners and cooperation of the partners in each of the countries are essential.
The point is whether the recipient or another designated partner ensures the transnational element as
one “concrete” overlap of the project in the given country or if all partners or at least more partners
from the given country partake in the transnational cooperation. In addition to this partnership, the
project should create mechanisms for involvement of the institutions, target groups and important
players outside the formal partnership within the framework of the project. This is essential for
dissemination of the outputs, their putting into practice, influencing policies and practice and the
overall “project background”. The project implementing entities must receive fast feedbacks and react
to current situations of the “project background”, be in contact with these groups and, if possible,
involve them in these solutions already in the time of the preparation.
c) Managing authority’s role
A significant requirement to MA relates to this, namely to assist the projects in mainstreaming, thus to
find and hand over suitable contacts, to help with lobbying, to assist in dissemination of outputs,
namely both at the national and international level. MA should become a partner to projects, not only
an administrator, it should introduce the outputs of the projects to the political scene and lobby for
them. A frequent rebuke was the administrative burden; the majority of the respondents agree that at
least one or two full-time jobs are necessary to be earmarked purely for the administration. Everyone
recommends earmarking of one special person for the transnational cooperation itself. In the selfevaluating
statements on the experience in the transnational cooperation management and
implementation in the CIP EQUAL projects, the accent on the administration of the projects prevails,
the representatives of the solving entities construe their contingent failure above all as failure of the
administration. However, in the implementation and mainstreaming stage it is necessary for the
partners to be able to agree not only upon the form and practical form of the project management,
but also upon the content of the implementation of the project itself, the methods of work being used,
quality of the outputs, involvement of various groups of people and bodies, etc. On the other hand, it
is necessary to have sufficient space for the work on the project itself for it is not possible to plan
innovations in advance, practical solutions come into existence only in the course of the project. If it is
possible within the framework of the rules, MA should assist in modifications in plans and financing of
the projects at the most, it should become a support, an advisor, take away the administrative
burdens of the projects to the maximum possible extent defined by the programme rules.
Navreme Boheme, s.r.o. 43