What have you done for your family today ?

  The problems of romanian family (sexual abuses, violence, traditional stereotypes, the status of child within the family etc) are key subjects for the civil society. There are many NGOs developing programs regarding family and related issues. Unfortunately, there were no high profile campaigns designed to present to public what are the critical issues regarding family relations, whay can be done, which are the organizations and institutions that may provide help on this matter. There were no major public education campaigns focused on family issues, so the expertise gathered by NGOs sector in the last 11 years could not be used at his best. Our project sought to provide a different approach, highlighting success stories of local NGOs and communicating to a broader audience the issues related to family relations. By the end of the year 2003, the project would have reached an audience of over 150,000 people, through a combination of television, radio spots, prints, outdoor campaigns and street events. The project is financed by the Phare program and implemented in partnership with the Propaganda group and the faculty of social sciences - sociology.

Education, development and raising human capital
- Romanian Case

  This is an on going project. The aim of this project is to develop a large research from a comparative perspective, at European level, in order to measure the increase of human capital value through education, action witch can lead to an improved performance for the international market.
  The project is developped in both Bucharest and Cluj, coordonated by Mircea Maniu and Ella Kalli.
  The project provides authorities, non-governmental sector and academic environment an acurate analisys of the existent data, showing the way in witch the developing can be induced by education, starting from the manner in witch it affects the fluctuation of human capital.

European Opportunities

 The project aims at a better knowledge of the European agenda amongst institutional actors who have different backgrounds, but are involved one way or another in the integration process. Increasing the quality and flow ability of communication between these actors ("stakeholders") will lead to a better assumption of the objectives, processes and information relevant for the integration process in the local communities.
  The main objective assumed by this project is to increase the knowledge of the economic and institutional actors, of the media and the public at large regarding the current agenda of the EU, thus widening the level of awareness concerning the opportunities brought up by the European enlargement. This objective will be attained through the distribution of the weekly "Oportunitati Europene" to a wider public.
  Other related objectives: Establish a communicational network of Romanian journalists specialized in integration related issues, which will facilitate the flow of information about the EU in Romanian media, and elaborate a presentation guide of these media people. This network will be able to process the information in real time (sources, impact, credibility, checking, etc.), acting as an interface-filter between the EU, regional centers, local communities and possible local partners for the integration programs.
Read on-line

Role models for the new generation

 Pursuing our constant goal of observing emerging trends influencing the values and attitudes of youth we have developed an innovative approach with the student magazine Campus as a media partner and the Center for media and communication studies of the faculty of sociology - University of Bucharest.
  The Campus magazine reaches an audience of 60,000 + students and high school pupils and it is distributed on a free basis. The main activities of the Center are: to organize special lectures and seminars for the Master's and doctorate students, to develop certain team research projects, to organize international seminars, to publish various materials.
  Our Leader project sought to provide a framework of analysis of the values of Romanian teenagers (from the perspective of values, opinions, attitudes towards groups of friends, music, clothing (fashion), family, sexual relations, etc.) and catching the relations between the youth and the media, as well as the influence exerted by these in the teenagers' socialization and the transmission of some cultural models. The role of mass media and the 'star system' attraction in forming an identity and shaping the teenager's life-styles, as well as of the gender roles.
Surprisingly for those accusing them of social blindness the young generation has now its own perception on professional and lifestyle patterns of success.
  We think that the power of example is strong enough in order to animate even youth affected by apathy. The implementing of the idea "If they could do it, I can do it!" is one of the main campaign goals.
  Another result of the studies is the identification of some successful attributes of the models: material welfare, social recognition, international opened possibilities, education and culture, spiritual equilibrium. What is more, the same series of sociological studies revealed seven types of leaders: managerial, media, cultural, politic, popular, rebel and sportive. These are the models in which the majority of the new generation finds common points.
  Somewhere between the civic activism as it is understood today in Romania and the will of influencing the others without creating an insurmontable gap in terms of attitudes appears to be the right aspirational model of those wanting to be leaders. A simple question rises: what kind of collective effort are the young students interested in? There is a strong corelation between the committment in a precise direction and the disponibility towards collective effort.

APPO - Advocating Public Policies Options

The purpose of this scope of work is to procure and provide assistance to strengthen local administrations, civic institutions, business organisations and processes of decision makers. We seek to fuel the public debate on policies options through a bold advocacy campaign attaining an extended number of stake holders. The goals of the program include:
  Developing a body of knowledge that is essential to effective program implementation, in collaboration with significant private and public actors. This includes but is not limited to important local traditions in decision making processes potential 'fault lines' for corruption and/or conflict; local institutional governance (number of employees, strategic planning capacities, deliverables, accountability, transparency)
  Assessing and prioritizing the needs of sub-national governments, institutions, and civil society organizations across the geographical area of responsibility, even as execution of the higher priority needs are addressed via direct engagement, use of community-based implementation units
  A 'collecting' perspective definying the state's strength as the capability of government to implement a policy vision and enforce regulations We take into account on one hand at the aggregated public satisfaction with the outcome of public policies at sectorial levels, and on the other at the set of unwritten rules and practices of citizens in their dealings with the administration, in other words, at the institutional social capital.

Canadian Business Association - Business Breakfasts

    European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) presents its Romanian projects - IDEE Business seminar
  On 17th of April, 2003 IDEE organized a business event at the Sofitel Hotel. The main speaker was Mrs. Hildegard Gacek, representing EBRD in Romania. The business meeting was honored by the presence of His Excellency the Canadian Ambassador in Romania Raphael Girard and the CBA president John Saroudis.
  Hildegard Gacek presented as EBRD successes in Romania companies like Connex, Mirobank, Arctic. In 2003 EBRD has 85 projects on going in Romania witch represents approximately 2,23 billion euro. Generally, the investments are long terms loans and finances for privatization process, financial support for SMEs and also assistance programs for foreign trade.
  EBRD is a financial institution owned by 60 countries and 2 intergovernmental institutions witch promotes in developing market economies from Europe and Central Asia. EBRD has its own capital evaluated at 20 billions euro and additional foreign investments have gathered another 47 billion euro. IDEE team was the event management team for this successful event.
 Click here to download the PowerPoint presentation

    Romanian growth policies compared to the other central European countries - CBA seminar
  The aim of the project was to realize a large scale research witch will enable us to make a country report on the evolution of the Romanian economy related with the history of the post-communist era, form a comparative perspective with other Eastern and Central countries. The project took place in Bucharest and Cluj, having also work meetings in Czech Republic, Lithuania and Brasil. It was coordonated by Mircea Maniu, Dana Popa and Ella Kallai.
  The project has objectively analized the evolution of the Romanian economy in a historic and European context in order to elaborate a country report witch was presented to the Annual Meeting of the World Bank and will be published at the Oxford University Press. The feed-back and the echos had shown the special quality of the report.
  The result of the country report was presented inside the business community by IDEE economist Mircea Maniu and debated together with important economists:Varujan Vosganian, Ionel Danca, Dan Suciu.
 read more>>>