Western Balkans Environment Programe

Communications and Advocacy Workshop was held on 14th and 15th February 2008, in Kolasin, Montenegro. Participants at the workshop were communication officers from each of the participating countries/territories, together with National Project Coordinators/Assistants.  The expert input at the workshop was provided by the Communications Associate from UNDP Montenegro, and the Regional Communications Specialist from UNDP Regional Office in Bratislava. 

The purpose of the workshop was to discuss about the ways of communicating the main programme/projects messages to different stakeholder groups, as well as to define the main communications/advocacy actions for 2008, for each of the countries/territories, and for the regional component.

A regional Kick-off Workshop was organized by the Programme Management Unit in Podgorica, on 6-7 December 2007.  The workshop is organized for UNDP offices participating in the programme.  Purpose of the meeting was to discuss about the programme implementation framework.  Moreover,, the reporting structure and roles and responsibilities, in terms of updating information in the financial and management system ATLAS, were clarified and agreed. Based on that agreement, the system was populated with information and data and the first Report collated.

Participants found the workshop very qualitative (the highest mark in the evaluation sheet), especially in the sense of clarifying different issues related to the regional programme/project management, result-oriented approach, procurement procedures, financial management, ATLAS, communication strategy etc. For the next meeting participants suggested creating a network of knowledge among the Project Management Units in the region in order to know more about project implementation in other countries and to learn from each other’s experiences. It was also suggested and in the follow up communication agreed that a regional workshop will be organized by the Programme Management Unit in mid February.