Se e na buliu costa, buli barriga

If someone helps you, you cannot stand idly by,
You must also reciprocate

                                          Creole popular saying

In Guinea Bissau, the Support Program for Non-State Actors (EU-PAANE) “Nô Pintcha Pa Dizinvolvimentu” that was implemented over a period of 5 years by the consortium Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr and CESO, has come to an end.

Funded by the European Union, it aimed to "contribute to the consolidation of good governance in the country by strengthening the participation, coordination and commitment of Guinean civil society to the development challenges."

A publication has recently been prepared with an overview of the activities carried out and the main results achieved during this period. Special emphasis is given to the institutional support and funding activities related to initiatives developed by national civil society organizations, to the scope and geographic coverage of interventions and the thematic areas considered there.

The publication also sets out a series of reflections and conclusions on the future challenges, bringing together various testimonies of Program beneficiaries.

The project was developed around two main axes:

1) Institutional Support, which focused on:
A) The Governance and Training of Non-State Actors comprising training activities in the field of identifying, designing and implementing development initiatives and promoting dialogue and concerted development policies;
B) The development of means of communication, bearing in mind the decisive contribution of these actors as development partners in the fight against poverty and in peace consolidation.

2) Financing Non-State Actors initiatives - supporting their development, implementation and monitoring in various fields of development.

Thus, the Program focused on capacity building and on the Non-State Actors proximity; in fact, they’ve worked in diverse thematic areas, such as food security, human rights, among many others, providing a "continuous and participatory awareness of their role as promoters of the country's political, institutional and socio-economic transformation process through their effective participation in this process."

The participation and involvement of civil society, the community media and potential beneficiaries have been, from the outset, a strong commitment to this Program.

With a national scope, the intervention focused mainly on two groups of Non-State Actors:

A) Civil Society Organizations, for which training programs have been designed and funding competitions were adapted according to their different characteristics in order to promote greater participation in the program;

B) The media and community communication organizations by identifying their needs and specificities in order to strengthen the promotion of quality information, including in areas such as the electoral process and democracy.

See the publication on the PAANE results here

To know more about this project, see here

You can also consult the project website here

April 2017