Will it be possible to carry out an international cooperation program when, as in this age of COVID 19, everyone is locked in his/her apartment?
The PROZVET Project, co-funded by the EU and run by a Consortium of Italian and Russian partners is meant to enhance the role and contribution of the civil society and of women to the sustainable development of two quite remote regions of Russia: Trans-Baikal and Karelia
The leading partner, the Italian FELCOS Umbria – Fondo di Enti Locali per la Cooperazione Decentrata e lo Sviluppo Umano Sostenibile, together with three Russian partners (the Karelia NGO Resource Centre, the Zabaikal Union of Women, and the NGO Zvezda Nadezhdy), and the Italian partners ILS LEDA and LEF-Italia (Italian Coordination of the European Women’s Lobby), started the organisation of the Project activities a few months ago.
Due to the Covid19 - related restrictions in Italy and in Russia and the impossibility to run the kick off meetings in person, the partners elaborated an alternative action plan focused on an innovative model of interactions at distance, and started implementing on line the foreseen meetings and workshops.
Since the Project process involves many participants coming from the private and public sector very much spread in many grassroots communities, the contingency model had to take this fact into consideration in order not to depress the conceptual base of the Project participatory approach.
The model, elaborated on the base of an ILS LEDA design, foresees five basic components:
1) Partners meetings through a meeting web platform.
2) Training webinars, through the same platform, which last not more than 2,5 hours each, and not more than 15 people.
3) Training of trainers for transferring working tools, to be used at grassroots level.
4) Involvement of stakeholders and, in general, other relevant actors, through telephonic or telematics interviews and, when needed, through pre-tailored questionnaires.
5) Intense remote coaching activity on demand.
Through this model the Project seeks to achieve the expected results without delaying the schedule.
The first training activity is going to start on mid May.
