In the framework of the International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance of the Republic of Slovenia a four day intensive training titled Strengthening the Capacity of Albanian Representatives on Local Level IPA Funds Management (Module No. 2) organized by the Centre for European Perspective (CEP) finished on 11 October in Koraca, Albania.

While the first training module was focused more on general principles of EU programming, EU funding and EU Cohesion Policy, with an overall presentation of Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), the second module was more practically oriented in successful project preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Representatives of four Albanian municipalities: Korca, Elbasa, Fier and Lushnja participated in the second module.

The second module was conducted by Ms Slavka Zupan and Mr Gorazd Jenko, practitioners with more than 20 years of concrete work experience at local, regional and national /policy level. They explained and presented the classical Project Cycle Management (PCM) approach through the concrete examples and active involvement of participants.

The participants learnt the phases of project cycle management with special attention to project idea identification, its elaboration and appropriate formulation of concrete projects together with financial estimations. Participants worked in teams and elaborated their own concrete project ideas. Special focus was given to raise out-of the box thinking and awareness of a long term sustainability of projects. In addition, lessons learned from Slovenian municipalities, regions and national level were presented to trainees, providing them also with a list of tips how to write a winning proposal. In this way, the participants acquired necessary skills for designing and writing successful project proposals of their own.

 The training in Korca was organized in cooperation with the Albanian National Municipalities Association, USAID and Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Tirana. The project is part of the CEP programme activities funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia International Development Cooperation.