Planning the future
The third Board Meeting of Drug Policy Network South East Europe dedicated to strategic planning took place in the Scout Centre Daljan in Ohrid, FYROM from 24 to 26 of August 2016. A specific introduction to the Board meeting was the meeting of the partners of the project “Strengthening NGO capacity and promoting public health and human rights oriented drug policy in South East Europe”. The partners reported on actions in 2016 and planned future activities of the project, including actions to be taken late this year and possible actions to include in the project plan for 2017.
Discussing Network membership, the Board Meeting proposed for the membership:
· 6 organisations to become the ordinary members of DPNSEE: Aksion Plus, Albania; Cazas, Montenegro; Center for Life, Greece; Juventas, Montenegro; Proi, Bosnia and Hercegovina; and Re Generation, Serbia
· 2 organisations to become the associated members of DPNSEE: ARAS, Romania and Prometheus, Greece.
The letter of proposals will be forwarded to the General Assembly of the Network and the electronic assembly will be organised for the voting on proposed memberships. The Staff presented numerous calls for project proposals where the Network and member organisations can apply. Successful proposals would help build capacity and ensure sustainability of the Network. The Board also made an extensive list of possible source of funds to collect co-funding for the European Union project in 2016. The purpose of the strategic planning exercise was to determine the basis for the strategy of the Network, based on the Vision and Mission of the DPNSEE. It was a systematic process of envisioning a desired future, and translating this vision into defined goals or objectives and a sequence of steps to achieve them.
The strategic priorities proposed for the period 2017 – 2020 are:
1. Sustainability of the services – including but not limited to financing the programs, harm reduction, treatment, etc.
2. Policy development – including advocacy, strengthening civil society, establishing partnership and promotion dialogue, undertaking researches to ensure evidence based approach, etc.
3. Strengthening the Network – the Board, Office, Expert committee, but focusing on the Member organizations, including enlargement, capacity building, establishing a resource centre, etc.
The Action plan to implement the Strategy should be built on the needs recognised by the member organisations and situation in the drug policy field in South East Europe.
The board agreed that the 4th Board meeting and the General assembly will be held in Belgrade, Serbia from 28 to 30 November 2016.