Sustainability encompasses three fundamental axes: environment, society and economic development. The understanding of the tight relation between the three is central in the EU2020 agenda and is essential for the long-term sustainability of both society and the environment. The EU2020 which aims at "smart, sustainable, inclusive growth" acknowledges the need for “greater coordination of national and European policy”. Regional and national policies arise from cultural and social heritage and context, where citizens are the fundamental players. Whilst only a few EU citizens engage in taking part of more political movements, many of them prefer to take civic action through non-governmental organisations and networks that together represent tens of millions of European citizens. NGOs have a considerable voice at EU level, gathering expertise that is listened to and formulating democratic positions based on their members’ concerns. Due to their independence, capacity of civic engagement and mobilization, potential for awareness raising and true impacts, and also taking into account the financial, social and humanitarian crisis Europe is facing, NGOs are needed now more than ever. A large variety of NGOs are needed to impact community sustainability. Small NGOs can foster considerable local impact and, collectively, a large variety of local NGOs can provide a more specialized service in meeting communities’ needs than large government-led organizations. The relevance of NGOs as sustainability promoters is undeniable and recognized by the European Commission and the European Council, who support and legitimate NGO action. However, leading or starting an NGO usually is a lengthy, time consuming process that arises many doubts and uncertainties, and there are no affordable specific training available to capacitate NGO leaders. NGEurope arises as an innovative model to capacitate new leaders for change engagement towards sustainability, through NGO action. This project will foster pro-environmental action and the creation of green jobs, while at the same time promoting social cohesion and inclusion, providing opportunities to citizens with fewer opportunities and empowering green and social entrepreneurs willing to create or take part of civic action. The NGEurope project gathers experts from different fields – from environmental protection to social entrepreneurship including IT technology and governance – and its action will be based on thorough desk and field research that will be developed in a wide geographical area covering southern, northern and central Europe. The project outputs include specific trainings tailored for NGO leaders and staff, motivational engagement materials, an original observatory for NGO best practice and impact potential, a step-by-step ‘survival’ guide for NGO founding and funding, a full laymen report on lessons learned, and also a policy paper that will recommend a course of action directly to decision-makers regarding the NGO sector. Direct and indirect participants will gain key competences to embrace sustainability and align their individual expectations with nature conservation, social inclusion and economic growth. As the issues the consortium is trying to address are global, the cumulative impact of NGEurope will help creating a more generalized will to shift Europe and its communities towards true sustainability, empowering citizens and local actors with the needed skills to do so.
The importance of the third sector (or social sector) not only at an economic level but also for the promotion of more resilient and sustainable communities is very much recognized worldwide and the EU, in particular, has been very supportive of this sector and made a significant effort to monitor, evaluate and quantify its impact in Europe. The level of impact of the social sector in a certain country or community is visible when we look at the levels of civic participation of that community, their well-being and empowerment. A good and functional social sector can even mean an increase of job opportunities within a certain community. This is true mainly because NGOs and other social sector’ entities, are able to respond to issues within the community (environmental, social, cultural, sportive, etc) in a an effective, fast, autonomous and personalised way. Many of these entities are local and work in close proximity with the community which allows them to deeply understand the problems and to find comprehensive solutions, which is something that public institutions and governmental agencies may struggle to do whether for bureaucratic reasons or lack of practical understanding about the community’s dynamics, problems and people. However, there is a discrepancy amongst European countries in the recognition and valorization of the third sector as an important sector both at an economic and sociological levels. There is a generalised need for more and better civic participation. NGEurope comes from the necessity of raising awareness for the importance of the work developed by NGOs and other third sector entities in Europe and from the need to act and to take responsibility for common issues, mainly at environmental and social levels. The main objective of NGEurope is to capacitate a new generation of community leaders and support NGOs that already exist by sharing success stories and role models throughout Europe as examples of good, replicable practices. Nine intellectual outputs were developed within NGEurope, all of which are accessible in the project’s online platform (www.ngeurope.net). The consortium started with an in-depth diagnostic analysis of the public perception of the third sector in the five partner countries (Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Austria and Greece) that helped shape and adapt all remaining outputs. In the online platform, there is an Observatory that showcases real, successful and replicable examples of NGOs across Europe. NGEurope also developed a training course package on social and green leadership and the courseware is all available online. One of the most successful outputs of this project was IO7 – the survival guide for funding and founding an ONG – a very helpful document for those starting in the third sector. Six multiplier events, one in each partner country and one online, were organized, and around 270 people participated and 30 NGOs presented their work to the audiences. From these events, multiple new partnerships arose and some of them even resulted in other funded projects. Five editions of the training course were organized where 95 trainees were able to learn about leadership, social and green entrepreneurship, NGO management, among other topics. NGEurope also promoted an immersion “job shadowing” program where mentees went to an NGO of their choice to learn about the day-to-day management, the invisible work NGOs do to create impact in their communities and be inspired to be more active. 83 successful programs were done. NGEurope reached an audience of more than 2,5 million people between direct and indirect dissemination actions (project-related events, presentations at conferences and seminars, interviews in the media, social media, websites, among others) and was directly responsible for some job opportunities, new civic movements creation and fruitful new partnerships.