EUR 116,480.34 (from ISF-Borders and Visa)
The Action “Fostering capacities and cooperation on IBM among EaP training institutions”, led by ICMPD, gathered together four EU Member States (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) and four Mobility Partnership (MP) countries (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova) with the aim of fostering the role of training institutions in the formulation, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of Integrated Border Management (IBM) strategies and action plans. Each activity was an opportunity to exchange good practices among partners as well as to discuss harmonised approaches for future cooperation. Inspired by the achievements of the EaP-SIPPAP Project, and capitalising on its Memorandum of Understanding signed by ten training institutions from EaP and EU countries, the partner institutions involved in the Action pointed out the need to reinforce coordination mechanisms among peer institutions.
Through a workshop organised in Sofia, Bulgaria, participants discussed the core elements of strategic management and learned about the key stages in the elaboration of an IBM strategy. The workshop also focused on analysis, planning and risk estimation.
Participants gathered in Minsk, Belarus to look into topics such as: distance learning in IBM training, challenges in the utilisation of IT tools to exchange information as well as the concept of SMART borders.
This event (Chisinau, Moldova) fostered knowledge on the main elements of Project Cycle Management and, in particular, on the concepts of monitoring and evaluation, whose application to IBM-related topics remains to date underdeveloped.
Throughout the Action, partner institutions developed a list of concrete priorities including the setting up of an operational network of training institutions that would strengthen and ensure continuation of regional cooperation by adapting IBM concepts to each country’s specificities and needs.