The SOFIA+3 Project

The lessons learnt

Absence of well-organized environmental management on national and local levels in the NIS is directly related to the low level of environmental awareness of officials (national and local levels) responsible for decision making. This shows the necessity of environmental education (especially, in the field of environmental management) of officials from national and local levels.

Best practices experience exchange between Western (Central) Europe and the NIS could be very helpful in enabling effective environmental policies development and their practical implementation on national and local levels.

Practical output of criticism equals zero, if there are no certain alternatives proposed. NGOs, that only criticize, but do not present their own ways out, and do not insist on implementation of their ideas, may never be successful.

The more participation of the NIS NGOs in Ministerial Conferences there is, the more success and influence on their governments they may expect.

Establishing dialogue with intergovernmental bodies (i.e. UNDP), various programmes of external assistance (i.e. TACIS, USAID, Soros Foundation etc.) enhance greatly the impact of NGO projects on the making decision process.