| WYG International is the leading partner in these regional development projects under Poland’s Phare 2000 programme for Economic and Social Cohesion, which seek to develop the capacity within these two Polish regions in implementation of regional policy – in particular, to increase capacity to develop formal partnerships for development at powiat level. The project was planned to support the objectives of the Phare pre-accession funds in Poland and facilitate the accession of Poland into the EU by building the capacities of local contractors within both regions to understand the operation of EU regional policy in integrated regional programmes and to prepare and implement partnership programmes with a particular emphasis on employment development, including those of the ESF.
The implementation of the projects was engaged in increasing the capabilities of 12 powiats in Podkarpackie and 21 powiats in Lubelskie to develop partnerships which encompassed an active involvement of local governments, businesses and trades unions and local NGOs in stimulating local development responses to the regional unemployment problems. This was done by a system of formal training modules and module workshops and the provision of expert advisory services, and by disseminating best-practice models and experiences from the European Union, as well as sharing Polish experiences from the regions encompassed by the Phare Social and Economic Cohesion Programme.
The beneficiaries were representatives of: local self-governments (including powiat labour offices), entrepreneurs and employers’ organisations, trade unions, as well as local authorities developing and implementing local initiatives The projects in both regions included the following regional development activities which have been undertaken by the consortium:
- Assessment of the co-operation of the various contractors: study and analysis of training and advisory needs for regional and employment development across the region, including information about partnerships and co-operation of local stakeholders and other activities undertaken by self-government and research .
- Promotion activities: Public Relations activities to ensure region-wide awareness among the target group of the training programme being offered in the course of project implementation.Development of specific selection criteria in accordance with the specification of the target group, followed by the selection of participants to secure maximum cooperation with local stakeholders.
- Training: Training programme on the local development process, partnership activities and coherence of local programmes with regional and national policy frameworks.
- Advisory services: Advisory services concerning preparation of socio-economic strategies and local development programmes were provided for each of participants from target group as well as other strategies and programmes needed to prevent and combat unemployment, to increase employability and entrepreneurship, to attract investors.
- Organisation of one conference: t o present the results of training and the good practices elaborated..
- Development of monitoring and evaluation system: setting up and testing system for monitoring and evaluation of local employment pacts and other initiatives for employment and entrepreneurship development providing feedback on the effectiveness and efficiency of the training courses and advisory services.
At the end of the project implementation, each powiat partnership group ha a comprehensive portfolio of articulated development plans ready for implementation under the pre-accession programmes or the EU Structural Funds in the integrated regional development programme.
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