Our fellows of the Master PMC – Project Management for International Cooperation were in Brussels for a workshop about EUROPROJECT MANAGEMENT STANDARDS, PROGRAMMES, STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES. The workshop took place from the 10th to the 13th of April and was led by Bruno Mola, Consultant and trainer in Development Policies, Project Design and Management, Monitoring & Evaluation.
The cycle of workshop started off with a focus on EUROPROJECT MANAGEMENT, with the lecturer talking about “Strategy 2010 and main European Programmes 2014-2020”, to get fellows to know more about European programmes, EuropeAid and the different kinds of fund and about the priorities and target of Strategy “Europe 2020”.
Subsequently, Bruno Mola focused on “Finding the proper call for proposal for your project, writing a winning proposal” and helped students understand where to find and how to select the proper European Programme by defining topics, context, sectors, beneficiaries to start the research of the call for proposal and therefore how to write a winning Project Proposal with the help of the Logical Framework.
The third workshop was about “Partnership Management: how to build a winning strategy”, where fellows had the opportunity to learn how to build and manage an international partnership and create and manage networks – from stakeholder analysis to national and international partnership.
The following two days, the focus moved to THE BUDGET OF AN EUROPEAN PROJECT, with a first workshop on “The concepts. From the Logical Framework to the budget”. In this workshop fellows analysed the activities and actions of the Logical Framework, how these need to be included in the budget and in general how to manage, formulate and design a budget – taking as examples some best practices of different organizations. Lastly and with the aim of deepening the students’ knowledge on how to create a budget for an European project, Bruno Mola proposed the LAB: HOW TO WRITE THE BUDGET, that helped fellows decisively master the process.
Students really appreciated the approach and concreteness of the lecturer, “finally leaving behind the fear of the budget”.
The last day in Brussels was spent visiting the European Commission, were fellows participated first to a meeting about EU DEVELOPMENT POLICY: the EU striving to be the biggest and most effective donor with Jose Angel Becerra Marta, Member of the Unit “Regional Sector PolicyvAnalysis” at the Directorate-General “International Cooperation and Development”, then to the meeting INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT: About Funding and Procedures Meeting with Nicolas Provencal, Member of the Unit “Legal Affairs” at the Directorate General “International Cooperation and Development”, and finally to SOCIAL INNOVATION POLICIES AND PROGRAMME, a meeting with Isabella Pirolo, Member of the Unit “Innovation Policy and Investment for Growth” at the Directorate-General “Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs”.
