L O C A L B E A T
Now why would school kids be collecting unsuspecting toads, trying to cross the road, into buckets? To get them to the other side, unsquashed, of course.That was one activity organized by Hungarian NGO the "Toad Action Group" as part of a program to ease local opposition to the new Duna-Ipoly National Park which would postpone privatization of land in their area.
Near the other side of the country, students and teachers from the Miskolc Eco Circle were busy building their "Blue Bird" observation path through a local forest, geared to help other kids and the public understand the wide range of local tree species and forest types.
Truly typical NGO stuff, but the difference of these programs, and 27 others throughout the country, was that they were based on cooperative projects between local NGOs and local authorities.
"We believe that a wide range of issues can best be solved at the local level," said James Dzierwa, a representative with USAID which funded the 29 Hungarian projects as part of the Local Cooperation Grants Program. "In Hungary, as in many other countries including the United States, villages, cities and regions are being asked by central governments to play a more important role in decisionmaking. Local governments and NGOs will together have to find increasingly creative ways to finance and accomplish new responsibilities."
Unique for Hungary, the program was managed by REC's Hungarian Local Office, beginning at the end of last year and closing with a celebration held August 29 at which NGOs presented their results to REC and USAID representatives.
"The REC's report, the 'NGO Needs Assessment,' showed that NGOs want more contact with local authorities," said Robert Atkinson, Head of REC's Local Offices. "This was a good step in that direction."
REC Local Representative Laszlo Perneczky added that USAID and other funder organizations are about to leave Hungary and programs such as these are needed to encourage cooperation at the local level in order to ensure the financial sustainability of NGOs and the support from local governments in the future. "There is a danger, however, that without further grant programs, the cooperation process might stop and the programs may end before they reach their aims," said Perneczky. "We hope for the opposite - as the purpose was to establish strong, long-term partnerships."