The project's main objective was the enhancement of the region’s capacity to plan the development of the Region and, in relation to the implementation of these plans, to enhance the Region’s absorption capacity for available EU structural funds. Central to both the enhancement of the regional planning process and the formulation of projects, have been the development of practical partnership-building between the various stakeholders in the Region.
The project included four components:
1. Strengthening the Planning and Programming Capacity of Municipal Administration and Socio-economic Partners;
2. Strengthening Co-operation between Municipalities and Socio-economic Partners;
3. Development of Project Preparation Activities and Capacity;
4. Organisation of Workshops and Seminars on Project Cycle Management (PCM).
The following activities were carried out:
• Establishment of a fully operational Partnership and Planning Group (PPG) acting as a key actor for planning and project preparation through different teams;
• Development of Partnership programme, strategic planning and programming system with detailed Partnership Model and related Partnership Action Plan;
• Production of detailed Action Plan for the entire region including specific projects produced by sectoral project teams;
• Training programme, including 10 Workshops in PCM at regional level, and 6 Large Workshop and Seminars integrated by more than 30 project related workshops, PPG working meetings, project clinics;
• Continuous day-to-day interaction and skills transfer activities with the beneficiary.