On 21 June 2016, we were invited by PwC to the Closing Event for all the projects that won funding under the EEA Grants NGO Fund for Cyprus for the 2009-2014 period. At the event there was a presentation of all the projects that had won funding and two panel discussions on issues relating to managing internationally funded projects, as well as a short exhibition with all the products and deliverables from the different organisations.

The Executive Director of BirdLife Cyprus was invited to speak on a panel discussion, which dealt with issues like: how implementing an international project helps build capacity in an organisation, what are the challenges when implementing an internationally funded project, and what is the preferred type of funding (e.g. core funding or project funding) and why. The second panel tackled different communication methods for getting closer to people, drawing on the experience of different projects and discussing innovative techniques.

BirdLife Cyprus was one of only 20 organisations out of 109 applicants that received NGO funding in that round, one of only very few environmental projects. BirdLife Cyprus implemented the project ‘Development of a Network of Important Bird Area (IBA) Caretakers in Cyprus’ for short IBACareCY, as part of which the Network of IBA Caretakers was set up and started working.