Aristotle is credited with remarking that "if you want to know how a shoe fits, ask the man who wears it, not the man who made it." In most democratic systems the "public" typically relies on its elected officials and representatives to develop policies and make decision almost unilaterally on its behalf. However, often times the most well-informed are those who live daily with problems, policies and programs, rather than those in capital offices.
The REC has as a central part of its mission the principle, that "the public" must be involved in developing the policies and approaches to solve the myriad of environmental problems facing their communities across the CEE region. But this is much easier said than done. Participation is in a way like spinach: In theory, no one questions that it is good for you - participation is, after all, the keystone to and a precondition for an effective, dynamic democratic system. In practice, though, participation is sometimes hard to swallow and even more difficult to digest. In addition to legal and constitutional provisions for rights for participation, true participation requires an informed, active public with knowledge of their rights and the motivation to exercise them.
The Public Participation Program has been one coordinated attempt by the REC to stimulate public involvement in environmental decisionmaking. Following the publication of the Manual on Public Participation in Environmental Decisionmaking: Current Practice and Future Possibilities in Central and Eastern Europe in 1994, and the Status of Public Participation Practices in Environmental Decisionmaking in Central and Eastern Europe in 1995, the REC has added a new dimension to it's programming with a special initiative to redress the lack of attention to and experience in public participation practices in the region.
The Public Participation Training Project, a new effort of the REC Initiatives Team started this year in Bulgaria and Romania, is an initiative to help build the skills and capacity for public participation in the region. The REC has been working with teams of environmental law, training, and technical specialists in both countries to create a country-specific public participation training module for citizens, NGOs, governmental and business leaders. The modules are written primarily by the local expert teams, with REC taking responsibility for developing the training format and curriculum. The modules are designed to stress the importance of multi-sectoral cooperation between public, private and NGO sectors, and to assist participants to develop a public participation strategy for their own particular case or problem. Participants examine public participation from a variety of perspectives, learning the possibilities for participation at the national and municipal governmental levels, in business decisionmaking, in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, in international financing institutions like the World Bank and EBRD, as well as methods for challenging and appealing decisions through the judicial system.
An initial pilot training workshop was held in Velingrad, Bulgaria in May to test a draft of the Bulgarian training materials and to evaluate what changes and modifications should be made before final publication. The REC teamed up with the Union of Bulgarian Foundations and Associations (UBFA), an NGO membership organization in Sofia to organize the workshop. In the coming months, REC will cooperate with the Environmental Management Training Center (EMTC) in Sofia to finalize, translate and publish the module by early fall of this year. A joint training-of-trainers (ToT) workshop is planned between REC and EMTC to prepare a group of local trainers and facilitators to offer the training in Bulgaria on an on-going basis.
A similar process is now underway in Romania, where the REC is currently working with Milieukontakt Oost-Europa and the Training, Information and Mediation Center for Eco-Development in Ploiesti to organize an initial planning meeting in June with NGO, local and national governmental and business representatives to determine the contents and issues to be addressed in the Romanian training module. A ToT for Romanian trainers and facilitators will be offered in early fall, and the final Romanian training module will be published by the end of the year. The REC hopes to identify additional resources to develop similar materials in other countries in the region.