PASC (Programme d’Appui à la Société Civile) is one of the most ambitious initiatives for democracy support that the European Union has launched in its Neighbourhood. In the wake of the Jasmine Revolution and for the first time in the history of European cooperation, the interim Tunisian government decided to reallocate a substantial envelope of bilateral funds (7M€) – originally foreseen for technical assistance and institutional building – to reinforce the capacities of Tunisian CSOs so that they could be capable of playing a substantial role in the transition to democracy.
The structural foundations of PASC are implemented by EPD (3.4M€) and represent the most innovative part of the programme aiming to strengthen the ability of Tunisian CSOs to engage in dialogue with national and local authorities. We do this through a mixed CSOs-national institutions management model that is coupled with a geographically dispersed field structure.
The hybrid State-CSO steering and management model illustrated above creates a shared sense of ownership among different stakeholders where CSOs and public authorities are involved in management and implementation.
The steering committee, that makes strategic decisions, is headed by the EU delegation and the Tunisian Ministry of Development and International Cooperation, it has an equal representation of government officials and CSO executives.
Operations are coordinated through a project management unit in the capital, which is overseen by an Executive Secretariat that has an equal representation of CSOs and state institutions and is led by EPD.
The PASC field offices, comprised of six regional offices and a head office, works on the day-to-day management of activities throughout the country. The regional offices operate as ‘help-desks’ for CSOs to identify key issues of concern and facilitate locally driven dialogue processes with regional authorities. Furthermore, the field offices provide training sessions for CSOs aimed to raise their overall profile through improving organisational capacities in dialogue-participation, conflict prevention and mediation, report-writing and communication skills, public finance management, fundraising, EU institutional and development structures as well as strategic planning.
To get an idea of the programme, you can check out the video below:
The Arab version is available here:
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