Comitetul de Coordonare

First Steering Comieete meeting

Subject:  

Steering Committee of Alliance of civilization

First SC meeting of 2010

UN House, 2 February 2010, 14:00 hrs

Chairs:

1. Petru Dumitriu, General Director in the Multilateral Affairs Directorate, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2. Yesim Oruc Kaya, UNDP Resident Representative

Participants

1. Ciachir Lilian, Teaching Assistant, UNESCO Chair for Intercultural and Interreligious exchange
2. Diana Ruff, Programme Assistant UNESCO-CEPES
3. Munteanu Ionut Petre, Expert, Joint Parliamentary Commission for UNESCO
4. George Grigore, Proffessor, University of Bucharest; Romanian Ambassador to the Alliance of Civilizations
5. Victor Drujinin, President, “Parnership for Europe” Association
6. Ovidiu Ierulescu, UN Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
7. Edi Kupferberg, Rabbinical Office Coordinator, Federation of Juish Communities
8. Codruta Hedesiu, Communication Officer, UNICEF Romania
9. Cristina Balan; Officer in Charge, UN Information Center
10.  Claudia Liute, UNHCR Public Information Officer
11.  Mihai Horga, UNFPA Assistant Representative
12.  Mircea Mocanu, Head of Socio-Economic Section, UNDP
13.  Anca Stoica, Programme Assistant Democratic Governance, UNDP

Observer: Wajiha Haris, Scherazade Foundation

Agenda

1. Opening and Introduction - Mr. Petru Dumitriu, General Director of the UN and other International Organizations Department in the MFA and Ms. Yesim Oruc, UNDP Resident Representative a.i.
2. Brief presentation of the project objectives and activities – Mr. Mircea Mocanu, Head of Socio-Economic Section, UNDP
3. Status of AoC National Plan implementation – inputs from Project Steering Committee Members
4. Update of the Project Annual Work Plan to be implemented upon resource mobilization.
5. Other issues

1. Introduction and presentation of the project objectives and activities have been performed by MFA and UNDP representatives;

2. Clarifications have been provided by UNDP on the role and responsibilities of the Steering Committee (SC) members with regard to the project implementation.

3. Possibilities will be further explored for finding ways to involve the Scherazade Foundation in supporting the project fund raising activities.

4. The first priorities to be served the project, as agreed by the SC members:

a) Creation and population of an AoC dedicated website

b) Publishing of a book (documentation already translated by the University of Bucharest)

c) Involving Romanian cultural personalities, Ambassadors or high-level representatives of interested embassies (e.g. Razvan Teodorescu, Romanian Ambassador to the Alliance of Civilizations, Ambassador of Tunisia in Romania, etc.) to hold speeches to highschool and university students on inter-cultural and interreligious cooperation. The SC members will explore the possibility to raise funds from the embassies with a special interest in this topic.

5. The Steering Committee members will electronically update the logframe by filling in the AoC-related activities and initiatives which have been implemented so far by their respective organizations. This exercise will serve a three-fold purpose:

a) Baseline assessment, i.e. taking stock of what has been done so far in Romania in the field of inter-cultural and interreligious cooperation, based on which the project Annual Work plan will be revised upon resource mobilization;

b) Reporting on the activities already implemented in Romania;

c) Updating Romania’s National Action Plan on the Alliance of Civilizations (the terminology and concepts used included) – tentative deadline established: August 2010.

6. A selected group of journalists with a special interest in the area of inter-cultural and interreligious cooperation shall be identified and incorporated in the National Steering Committee on AoC

7. A press release should be sent out by each institution/organization represented at the table on the 1st Steering Committee meeting on the Alliance of Civilizations project, in view of raising awareness on this initiative.

8. Recommendations:

a) Civil society organizations should be encouraged and supported to access European funds and implement projects with activities that fall under the AoC umbrella.

b) Steering Committee remains open for inclusion of additional particpants that may at any time appear to be relevant for the project (Civil society organizations, journalists and students associations, representatives of Catholic and Orthodox Churches should be invited as members of the project Steering Committee);

c) UNDP to figure out the most appropriate use of the SC members in terms of both project management functions and substantive contribution to the project.

9. UNDP will send the following documents to all participants:

a) UNDP guidelines on the roles of SC members

b) Alliance of Civilizations project document

c) Minutes of the 1st SC meeting of the project.

10. Next SC meeting – mid March (to be determined).