On 16 February at 12.00 p.m. CET the following will talk about the not easy, but very educational experiences and proven solutions in their many years of advocacy work:
- Oana Preda expert from Resource Center for Public Participation – CeRe and TamTam – an informal coalition fighting for citizens’ right to participate in decision-making processes in Romania
- Tina Divjak from Centre for NGOs Slovenia (CNVOS) – expert on legislation for Slovenian social organisations and citizen participation in public policy-making
On 18 February at 12 p.m. CET, proven methods and latest trends in advocacy and monitoring to improve the health of the civil sector will be talked about:
- Cezara Grama – expert on the rule of law, working with the Romanian think-tank Expert Forum
- Guri Idsø Viken representing Frivillighet Norge/The Association of NGOs from Norway – policy advisor to a Norwegian organisation of other social organisations
- Olivia Vereha from Code for Romania – an expert on new technologies to make life easier for social organisations working in the service of democracy
Both meetings will be held in English, recorded and – after adding Polish subtitles – published on our website and social media. If you are interested in taking part, please fill in the registration form.
Below are biographies of all invited persons (alphabetical order by first name):
Cezara Grama is a rule of law expert working with Expert Forum, a Romanian think-tank, since 2014 on issues of justice, transparency, rule of law and active citizenship. Since joining EFOR’s team she has played an active role in monitoring elections (2014-2019). She has been involved with EFOR’s School for Democracy Program since 2015, training and supporting teachers to engage their students and communities on issues of active citizenship and democracy. In recent years, she has been focusing on how to engage teachers and particularly students on the topic of civic education and active citizenship.
Guri Idsø Viken is a senior political adviser in The Association of NGOs in Norway (Frivillighet Norge), where she, among other things, is responsible for the involvement in Active Citizens Fund Romania. She has been working on politics and communication for the last 16 years, and is also a journalist and media commentator in several Norwegian newspapers and on radio. She lives in a small island in southern Norway and volunteers for several small and large NGOs within sports and culture.
Oana Preda has been part of the Romanian nongovernmental sector since 1996. She worked with Pro-Democracy Association, where got experienced in promoting democracy and public participation. After that, Oana worked for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) in Romania supporting NGOs in their advocacy efforts. In 2006, Oana Preda took part in the establishment of the Resource Center for Public Participation – CeRe, one of the most relevant NGOs in the area of activism and citizens participation. Currently, she is the Director of CeRe.Apart her professional activity, preoccupied by social justice, Oana is a civic activist fighting for many causes relevant for the Romanian society. CeRe’s mission is to contribute to a just and equitable society, where people stand together and their voices are central to the decision-making processes. CeRe works with citizens’ groups and NGOs to help them have a stronger voice. Currently, CeRe is facilitating the TamTam – NGOs group for citizens – an informal coalition which defends the civic space for participation.
Olivia Vereha – co-founder / Chief Operations Officer @ Code for Romania
Holding a background in communications and customer and user experience design, since 2016, Olivia Vereha is dedicating her entire time to managing the delivery flow for all Code for Romania projects. She is passionate about how technology can shape and improve our day to day lives and she is always willing to help in any way she can in building great digital tools for our society. Having a strong focus on usability and learning, her work focuses on user research, analysis and functionality and how all these translate in better digital services and solutions in the public space.
Tina Divjak is a head of advocacy at CNVOS. She has been working on different issues of NGO development since 2003. She has been focusing on enabling environment for NGOs – legislation, public funding, public participation in policy-making, transparency and accountability of NGOs. She has authored or co-authored several analyses, studies and manuals in Slovenia and abroad (Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries). She has worked as an expert for Council of Europe, Regional Cooperation Council, TACSO, different ministries, etc. From 2011 – 2020 she was a president of the Government Council for the development of NGOs. In 2018, she authored the study, commissioned by EESC, “The future evolution of civil society in the European Union by 2030”.
