ABOUT US

The USAID/ORT Montenegro Advocacy Program (MAP) is a four-year USAID-funded program aimed at strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations in Montenegro to conduct effective public policy advocacy initiatives. In the first three years of the program, ORT developed and delivered customized support packages, consisting of tailored training, technical assistance and financial assistance, to an initial group of 19 core partner NGOs. Aimed at strengthening NGO operations and institutional capacity, adopting international governance standards, and building the capacity to advocate successfully for legal change, these customized support packages played a key role in creating a critical mass of NGOs that are now welcomed as true partners at the public policy table in Montenegro. Building on this success, ORT expanded the program to target a further 17 NGOs, therefore assisting a total of 36 NGOs to attain the skills required to serve as effective partners in the public policy process. A total of 69 grants totaling over $1.2 million have been made to some 36 Montenegrin NGOs while a far larger number of NGOs – 189 NGOs to date - have benefited from the wide range technical assistance and training opportunities made available through the MAP.

By the third year of the MAP, ORT had graduated the majority of active Montenegrin civil society organizations from short-term activism to high-powered, long-term advocacy, and assisted NGO partners to draft, amend or lobby for 25 pieces of key reform legislation in a variety of fields, such as economic development, political reform and minority rights. Furthermore, ORT’s core partner NGOs met all the benchmarks of the MAP, including the establishment of financial management systems, independent boards of directors, diversification of funding sources, the building of constituencies and cross-sectoral networks, and changes to legislation through sustained advocacy efforts.

Training and technical assistance offered to NGOs through the MAP, such as institutional development, advocacy skills, leadership and management, gender sensitization, board of directors development, financial management, and watchdog skills, have enabled Montenegrin civil society organizations to strengthen operations according to international standards of transparency and accountability, and to develop the skills, expertise, and credibility required to advance public policy dialogue.

In April 2004, ORT assisted its MAP training staff to establish a local training foundation, FONDAS – Foundation for Democratic Alternatives in Society. To date, the ORT MAP has enabled FONDAS trainers to deliver 148 days of specialized training to 189 NGOs, international organizations, refugees and IDPs, as well as government and private businesses, testifying to ORT’s continued commitment to the establishment and mentoring of self-sustainable, locally based training capacity.

In the third year of the program, ORT restructured the focus of the MAP in order to respond to the opportunities for civil society to play a more active role in strengthening the rule of law in Montenegro. ORT’s Watchdog Program – unique to this region - recognized the need of NGOs to monitor and watchdog, on behalf of citizens, the enforcement of legal acts that they themselves had advocated for or amended. The MAP has assisted nine NGO coalitions to graduate from advocacy to watchdog work in a one-year period.

In response to the geographical and historic lack of NGO support and networking services available to civil society organizations in regions outside the capital city, ORT established three Regional Advocacy Centers in three distinct geo-political regions of Montenegro, namely Northern Montenegro, the Boka Bay region, and the South-East. The Regional Advocacy Centers act as resource centers for NGOs in outlying regions, as well as focal coordination points between the NGOs, the business sector, and local governments in those areas.

A small grants scheme, the Civic Action Micro Grants (CAMG) program supported 27 community-based organizations to conduct small policy initiatives and to take the first steps towards graduating from community-based to advocacy. ORT MAP Partnership Initiative Grants (PG) supports NGOs to form inter- or intra-sectoral networks, partnerships, or coalitions around common policy issues, and to collaborate with political decision-makers and government ministries at the local and/or Republic level.

In Year IV of the MAP, ORT designed and launched an NGO Legislative Reform Program to address growing concerns within the civil society community that the lack of detailed guidelines in certain laws relating to NGO operations was resulting in misguided oversight of their application by government authorities, and often cases of deliberate abuse of unclear language in the laws. This program involves changes to the NGO Law, accounting rules and regulations, training for justice officials and financial inspection police, and guidebooks for NGOs.


American ORT implements both the multi-year Montenegro Advocacy Program and the Akcija “Reforms for a Healthy Society” Program in Montenegro. Both programs are funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

ORT is a 125-year old international development organization with extensive global experience designing and administering NGO and other democratic development initiatives. ORT's approach focuses on strengthening both organizational and human resource capacity to serve as effective facilitators for democratic change.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was created in 1961. USAID is an independent agency of the U.S. government that provides economic, development, and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of U.S. foreign policy goals. The U.S. government has been working in Serbia & Montenegro since re-establishing diplomatic relations with the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1997.