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TROYA - RCDA

Troya Environment Association
Çanakkale, Turkey
www.troyacevre.org

Names of the participants from the organisation: Oral Kaya, Melis Yılmaz
Social media accounts: TroyaCevrem
Instagram: @troyacevredernegi

Troya Environment Association was established in Çanakkale in 2009. The association, which was founded on working on climate change and its impacts in the local and national area, has focused its activities on climate and energy issues since its establishment. The association, which prioritizes independence, conducts project-based studies. Financial resources are provided by the European Union, UNDP, Green Climate Fund and Heinrich Böll Stiftung Association.

Among the social issues/problems that Troya is working on are; to support local movements against climate change, to work to develop policy relationships between climate change and agriculture, ecological protection, air pollution, waste management and local governance. Troya Association has vast experience in organizing seminars, trainings, round-table discussions and workshops on different topics related to sustainable rural development. In addition, has decade long experience in the fields of sustainable agriculture, cooperative development, social entrepreneurship, energy efficiency and renewable energy, water & sanitation, sustainable management of biomass resources and community resilience to climate change as well as its deep understanding of, and close connections with, the local communities, civil society organizations and municipalities in the region of Çanakkale.

Rural Communities Development Agency
Misaktsieli, Georgia
www.rcda.ge

Names of the participants from the organisation: Rostom Gamisonia, Daniel Guruli, Mariam Svanidze
Social media accounts: Rural Communities Development Agency – RCDA

Rural Communities Development Agency was established in 1997 by a group of small farmers, farmers’ credit unions and farmers’ co-operatives, CBOs and NGOs, which are the main stakeholders in its activities. The members of the organization are 1200 physical persons and 74 legal entities. RCDA envisions a rural community development in which organized groups of local residents, both women and men, are responsible stewards of their resources. As groups and as individuals, they possess rights of ownership and responsibilities, and utilize ecologically sound methods in producing, processing and marketing their products to maximize returns to the community.

RCDA aims to protect and promote international human rights standards and values, build and strengthen civil society groups in rural areas, and support rural poor, refugees, migrants, IDPs, youth, media, local governments, the private sector and other NGO/CBOs through advocacy, participation and educational activities.

 

The Implementation of the program has started in 2020 in partnership with TROYA association. TROYA associatin and RCDA have cooperation links since 2018. This created sound basis for successful implementation of the program. Both organizations are fully aware that exchange for dialogue, the search for new alliances requires new forms of interactions on a national and international scale for expertise and knowledge exchange.

The objective of the program was strengthening the capacity of NGOs and other target groups to serve as effective vectors of democratic and socio economic development in Turkey and Georgia and to learn from each other.

The exchange of best practices and experiences was carried  in three main phases. Opening Meetings, Partnership Works and Closing Meetings.

At the opening meetings, the participants of the program meet the project coordination team, and their own partners. The participants learn more about the process and the upcoming phases of the programme. In addition to this, they begin to work with partners on their capacity development area(s), working plan and strategy. Under supervision of TROYA association needs assessment of the target groups was surveyed in order to design an intervention strategy that would appropriately meet the needs of the program and target groups. Based on these assessment the Visit programs of Turkish partners to Georgia and the Georgian partners to Turkey were designed 

Within the frame of the program the visit of 6 representatives from Turkey was organized during the period of 23 -28 August 2021 (program attached)

During the visit the participants got acquainted with activities of target groups in Georgia,, visited number of agricultural cooperatives and social enterprise and received an information with the principles of organizational development of women cooperatives and social entreprises in the country.

 

 

Within the framework of the visit organizations will deepen their knowledge and develop skills, particularly in prioritized areas such as organizational development, volunteer work, networking, organizational capacity building methods, etc.

The visit of 5 Georgian partners to Turkey was organized during the period of 13-18 September 2021.

An extensive program of visit developed by TROYA association provided the participants with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and to gain new experience in organizing energy cooperatives, get knowledge on the sustainable use of renewable energy resources. It was also an opportunity to share the experience gained by TROYA Association as NGO on the issues of Organizational Development of CCOs, Networking, Sustainable Development of Rural areas, TROYA Renewable Energy Cooperative and working principles of energy cooperatives in Turkey,  Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation issues. During the visit TROYA association organized the seminar on “Advocacy” that provided the opportunity to develop advocacy skills and improve knowledge on the general aspects of advocacy.

The participants of Georgian group were highly impressed and learnt about organizing “Seed Bank” in Kepez Municipality and local development model that could be replicated to Georgia with the support of Turkish partners.

In addition the visit program provided the opportunity for establishing direct contacts and links with number of agricultural women cooperatives, agricultural cooperatives, NGOs that are active in Turkey

For the targets groups RCDA in close cooperation with TROYA association has organized number of seminars and trainings: “Leadership for the Civil Society Organizations”, “Organizational development of NGOs”, “Project proposal writing”, ” Funding Opportunities for CSOs”;  Monthly on-line meetings on different aspects of project implementation  were carried  out.

 

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