The international community has entered the 21st century with an unprecedented opportunity to approach the development process differently. Indeed, the end of the cold war, the shift in many countries towards democratic and pluralistic political systems and a market-based economic system, combined with rapid technological advances in satellite communication and the Internet, pose new opportunities to make the process of socio-economic development less government-driven and more transparent and people-focused. In the countries of Eastern and Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union these changes were particularly significant. Eleven years since the fall of the Berlin Wall we now approach economic reforms and the development process in a much more decentralized fashion, increasingly involving the participation of the individual and various social groups not only as beneficiaries of this process but also as active forces supporting development.
The above changes have also greatly impacted the policies of many bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, including those of the World Bank. At the beginning of this decade, the donor community actively searches new ways towards civic engagement and community-based development, combined with an unprecedented drive for transparency and good governance in policy making.

In view of the above, the 2nd Europe and Central Asia (ECA) NGO Assembly will take place in Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, on 14-16 June 2002. Some 200 NGOs from all countries of the ECA region (Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic States, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and Turkey) are expected to attend the Assembly, representing a broad spectrum of various types of civil society movements: advocacy groups and think-tanks, working in areas of policy dialogue, environment, governance, gender as well as organizations involved in the implementation of development initiatives in our countries such as micro-credit or community based organizations. The Assembly will be attended by a delegation of senior World Bank officials in charge of the agency's operations in the ECA region.

See attached:

Announcement 2nd ECA NGOAssembly

ECA NGO Assembly Draft Program

ECA NGO Application Form - Questionnaire