• Are women in mining areas involved in community development projects? – Case Study

Elaborated: December 2005

Available: in Romanian

Author: Cosmin Câmpean

Content: The aim of the study was to find out what lies behind the dry figures on the lack of involvement of women from mining communities in individual or community development projects. The efforts to assess the impact of the restructuring of the mining sector, respectively of the development programs addressed to the communities affected by the reform highlighted the fact that, although women have suffered more from the restructuring, they have benefited to a lesser extent of compensatory measures addressed to those affected by the reform. Statistics on women’s involvement were a wake-up call for funders to support mining communities, who have seriously raised the issue of rethinking the parameters of their intervention so that women’s priority needs are better targeted. In the context in which RSDF is still in a “pilot” phase of implementing the Social Development Scheme of Mining Communities, the present study aimed to assess women’s participation in the Fund’s projects, to identify possible causes of their non-involvement, but and possible solutions to increase women’s participation in the lives of their communities.

• Functions, adjustments, and effects of the initial facilitation process in the context of FRDS programs – impact assessment

Elaborated: September 2005

Available: in Romanian

Author: Vasile Soflau

Content: Within the RSDF strategy to reduce community poverty, the facilitation of training has the role of fulfilling two major functions: increasing the accessibility of poor communities to RSDF projects and increasing the social capital at the level of facilitated communities. The present analysis is an assessment of the extent to which these objectives have been achieved over time and in the programs implemented by RSDF to date. The results obtained, not surprisingly, shed more light on the components and the process of facilitating the preparation, but also on the possible effects and risks that may occur during the projects, and therefore can be useful to both management and other departments within the Fund.

• Guidelines, approaches and strategies in community development – guide

Elaborated: September 2005

Available: in Romanian

Author: Vasile Soflau

Content: The guide addresses the issue of community development as a specific approach to poverty reduction. The material presents some essential operational concepts and definitions in the field while reviewing the main approaches used over time in various development programs, with emphasis on those implemented with the support of the World Bank. The guide also analyzes the “history” of community development initiatives initiated in Romania, highlighting, in this context, the specifics of the RSDF approach.

• Perspectives on improving the organizational strategy of the FRDS-policy paper

Elaborated: September 2005

Available: in Romanian

Author: Lucian Marina

Content: To ensure the sustainability of the organization after 2006, the year of closing the second phase of the project that defined the current organizational structure of the Fund, RSDF must analyze and decide how the current implementation arrangements and organizational structure should be redefined as a result of lessons learned and that a requirement of the organization’s involvement in the implementation of future programs. In this context, the present material aims to analyze the correspondence between the portfolio of projects developed by RSDF and its organizational structure, to identify the necessary changes in the organizational structure of the Fund to ensure efficient implementation of future programs, to analyze the necessary organizational measures to support the decentralization process started by RSDF, respectively to identify the concrete measures through which the Fund will be “certified” as a Center of Excellence in financing community development projects.

• Challenges of continuing the decentralization process – process evaluation

Elaborated: August 2005

Available: in Romanian

Author: Lucian Marina

Content: The study presents the activities carried out by the second branch of the Fund (operating in Alba Iulia) in the first year of activity, highlights how the lessons from the operation of the first branch were used, in terms of organization/operation and the responsibilities assigned to the staff, respectively provide some recommendations regarding the models of further evolution of the decentralization process useful in the management activity of RSDF.

• Rural entrepreneurship in conditions of poverty – case study

Elaborated: July 2005

Available: in Romanian

Author: Lucian Marina

Content: The case studies carried out on income-generating activity projects in Alba and Neamţ counties show that in the rural entrepreneurship stimulated by RSDF, the post-implementation economic evolution of the enterprise created by the grant has a significant influence on the social capital in the whole community. The economic resistance of the created enterprises (as is the case of the studied projects from Neamţ and Alba) forms networks of trust that, supported by RSDF, can bring significant benefits, of various types, to the poor communities. It is thus recommended that the technical and economic side of the Fund’s actions be closely intertwined with that of community development, for effective enhancement of the development of poor areas in any region of Romania.

• in construction –