Centre for Monitoring (CeMI) within the project “Strengthening capacities in advocacy and preparation of policies of the Coalition of NGOs in the fight against poverty and social exclusion” implemented a series of training sessions that aim to contribute to the strengthening of advocacy and oversight functions of the civil society in Montenegro . The project is funded by the European Union in Montenegro, while the project partners Youth Cultural Center Juventas, Association for the Fight against AIDS Montenegro-Cazas, International Aid Network – IAN (Serbia), as well as the Association for Sexual and Reproductive Health XY ( Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The specific objective of this project is the development of capacities for public policy of the Coalition for Social Change and its members for evidence based advocacy within the Strategy for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion in Montenegro (SSSS, 2007).

The first training was held on the theme “Writing EU projects”, and was held in PR Center in Podgorica, 26-28. January 2010. In addition to the Monitoring Center as the organizers, the training was attended by 9 non-governmental organizations dealing with the fields that make up a strategy for combating poverty and social exclusion (health, education, labor market, social and child protection), including the Center for Civic Education (CCE) Pedagogical center of Montenegro, Roma Scholarship Foundation and social inclusion, the Montenegrin Association for fight against cancer Association of Youth with disabilities of Montenegro, the Association of parents of children with special needs “Sun ray”, the Association for the fight against AIDS Montenegro Cazas and OKC Juventas . Lecturers of the three-day training sessions were Biljana Zekovic and Zlatko Vujovic, who through lectures and exercises enable participants to learn the project cycle of writing EU projects. Also, participants had the opportunity to prepare for writing a policy study which will cover the issues of all four areas of the Strategy for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.