REPER21

REPER21 (the European Network for the Promotion of a Responsible Economy - 21th century) is a Romanian NGO with an extensive experience in promoting and operationalizing social responsibility and sustainable development, which also represent its mission and its field of activity. Since its foundation, in 2006, REPER21 has carried out numerous projects regarding: - The principles of sustainable development (economic efficiency, social equity and environmental balance) and social responsibility (ethical behavior, transparency, involvement of stakeholders); - The main references of the two concepts: the EU policies in the social and environmental fields, the conventions of the International Labor Organization, standards such as ISO 26000, Global Reporting Initiative , the Global Compact, the guidelines of OECD; - The implementation tools: codes of conduct, methods of responsible management, certification, labels, indicators, collection of best practices, models of social innovation, guides for responsible partnerships etc. - Education and training on topics such as sustainable development and societal responsibility for teachers, NGO representatives, companies, trade unions, public authorities and other stakeholders. So far, the main target audiences of our projects were: NGOs and educational institutions, but we also included in our activities other stakeholders such as public institutions, companies, unions, employers’ associations. At the beginning of its activity (2006 - 2010), REPER21 has implemented many educational and training projects funded by EU programs managed by the Romanian National Agency (ANPCDEFP ) - also responsible for the management of the current Erasmus + program. The educational projects we carried out tackled several topics in the area of sustainable development and social responsibility: sustainable production and consumption, environmental education, climate change, environmental justice, social inclusion, responsible tourism, sustainable agriculture based on communities etc. Between 2010 - 2013, Reper21 implemented as the applicant a structural project, funded by the Human Resources Development of the ESF program called "Skills and tools for social and environmental responsibility in civil society" (in short " Societal "). This project has enabled REPER21 to develop, systematize and disseminate widely a management method for Societal Responsibility, based on the main international standards (ISO 26000, Global Reporting Initiative), but simplified and adapted to the needs and structure of not-for-profit projects. The project involved more than 500 NGOs from Romania who took part at more than 20 focus groups, thematic workshops and training programmes organized at national level, needed to develop the toolkit in a participative manner. The NGOs are currently working within an informal network, called Societal, whose main communication platform is the website www.societal.ro. For its activities during the programming period 2007 - 2013, REPER21 received in March 2014 from the Romanian National Agency an Award of Excellence in the category Pioneers of Social Responsibility in European projects. During the implementation of Societal, in 2012, we created a label and a smaller specific network called "Responsible Event", which we offer to event organizers who successfully integrate in the management of their events (planning, implementation, evaluation, reporting) a grid of indicators of social responsibility (organized into four areas: environmental, social, economic, good governance). Until now, the brand "Responsible Event" was awarded to important events organized by Romanian NGOs such as "Street Delivery" in Bucharest or the National Theatre Festival for young people " Ideo Ideis" in Alexandria. 2014 - 2015 In 2014 we started a project called PROF21 (“Development of life skills for the young people in the context of sustainable development” in partnership with a Romanian public educational institution (CJRAE Bihor) and the Foundation for the Development of the Civil Society. In the period November 2014-August 2015 we trained 1.060 Romanian teachers so that they can introduce life skills and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the classes they teach. In September – November 2015, 200 graduators participated at various workshops in order to create a Community of Practice (CoP) for ESD and deploy a set of joint initiatives with this theme. In fact, the construction of the CoP represented one main objective of Prof21 and in this sense an online CoP has been developed in order to support the field activities of the network. The project also aims to introduce in the national curriculum an accredited curriculum called ‘’Competences for sustainable development’’, based on the expertise of REPER21. The financing of the project ended in November 2015, but our team continues to animate the community. Our goal for 2016 is to attract new members and organize the 2nd edition of the Prof21 month (a month dedicated to projects on education for sustainabledevelopment). 2016 We are currently involved as partners in 2 projects: MASKAR - focused on community development and intercultural dialogue between Roma people and Romanians using social theatre. This is a local project funded by the Romanian Ministry of Culture and implemented in partnership with Asociatia T.E.T.Alexandria - coordinator, ADO, Urbanium. "Pratiques innovantes et responsables dans le management des organismes à vocation sociale" focused on how to change for the better the management of such institutions to include the principles of societal responsibility and sustainable development. This is an Erasmus+ project carried out in partnership with IRTESSS Bourgogne - coordinator, IRTS Franche Comte (from France), APEMH and Tricentenaire (from Luxembourg).