Over 30 British charities operating in Romania gathered at Canary Wharf, 27 March, to discuss challenges and opportunities for the non-profit sector in Romania.

An initiative of the British Ambassador Robin Barnett, the event gathered senior NGO representatives (Children in Distress, Light into Europe) as well as longstanding friends of this field (Baroness Emma Nicholson, MEP and George Iacobescu, CEO Canary Wharf). The event had the support and endorsement of the Romanian Ambassador to the UK, Dr. Ion Jinga.

YOU TUBE: Watch a brief excerpt of George Iacobescu speaking at the event.

Funding, especially during the current financially sensitive times, partnerships, exchanges of best practices and networking were among the important topics of this seminar. At the conclusion of the event, Ambassador Barnett told the media:

‘When talking about funding, we agreed that this is not the best international context but that there are sources of funding that need to be looked at including how best charities could access relevant European funds and how we could build clearer links to understanding what funding is available from Romanian local and central government.

Some of the charities here today hadn’t met before and what I think we want to do in the future is enhance exchanges of experience, good ideas and awareness and finally we will set up a little virtual network.’

A key outcome of the meeting was the agreement to host a twin meeting in Bucharest in the next 6 months with representatives of Romanian authorities and Romanian NGOs. A second resolution referred to a better use of media and advertising to raise awareness of charitable work. This would be useful especially for fund-raising purposes, thus enabling NGOs to better finance their programme and provide staff payment in accordance to their professional expertise.

Alisdair Barron, Chief Executive of ‘Children in Distress’ NGO, speaks about challenges for British charities that operate in Romania:

‘To obtain funds is, of course, the most serious problem, compounded by the inevitable bureaucracy and certain local authorities who make our lives even harder. However, the good news is that the situation has improved over the years and this is continuing, albeit slowly at times. I am pleased to say that in the past 5 years Romania has been contributing more and more, especially in Arges County. But the biggest part of our budget still comes from the UK. Another important aspect is the 2% of the income tax, a vital percentage for any small organisation.’