COUNTRY: Germany/France
CLIENT: Franco-German Youth Office
PROJECT DURATION: 01.01.2007– 31.12.2015
OVERALL PROJECT VALUE: 1,040,414.36 €   

Background

The Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) is an autonomous international organization - founded and financed by the French and German Government and led by a board consisting of the French Minister of Sports, Youth, Further Education and Active Solidarity and the German Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth - supporting the Franco-German Cooperation whose mission is to foster relationships between young people from both countries, to strengthen their understanding and to develop representations of the neighbouring country. Since 1963, the FGYO has enabled more than 8 million young people from France and Germany to take part in 300.000 exchange programmes.

Objective

The objective of this intervention is to provide technical assistance to the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) with the implementation and development of French-German exchange programmes (in the form of a grant scheme), targeting the following goals:

• to strengthen links between children, young people and youth leaders in both countries;
• to promote cultural development to encourage intercultural and language learning;
• to promote measures leading to vocational qualifications;
• to develop joint projects promoting active citizenship;
• to encourage an awareness of the special role of France and Germany in Europe

In the frame of this project, IB provides technical assistance services for the financial and operational management of the grant provided by the FGYO (made up of contributions from the French and German governments).

IB advises the clients in close consultation and cooperation with the responsible local authorities. IB strives to design new project methodologies and feeds good practice experiences back to private and public partners where possible. Quality assurance and quality control systems for this measure fulfil EFQM standards.

IB is a member of the Youth and European Social Work (YES) Forum. More than 28 member organizations from 15 European countries support actively to encourage professional networking and exchange of good practice amongst youth workers, social workers and other professionals, to support peer-to-peer contact and greater mobility between young people from different European countries, to develop and promote new ways of thinking in youth social work and to transfer experience and knowledge from the practical field to actively influence European youth and social policy.

Type of Services Provided

• Grant management, including supervision, definition of criteria to receive funds, financial administration, quality control, monitoring and evaluation and reporting to client;
• organisation of workshops and seminars;
• capacity development;
• technical assistance FGYO on planning and management of the programme (financial planning, quality assurance and quality control);
• financial and administrative controlling of funds;
• technical and financial reporting;
• consultancy services for IB centres including the following tasks:
  - monitoring of FGYO quality standards;
  - capacity development of IB staff introducing intercultural learning aspects in IB youth related    programmes;
  - overall programme coordination;
  - management of funds;
• development of programme methodologies & identification of best practices;
• evaluation and analysis of the programme impact;
• seminars and networking with relevant stakeholders;
• preparation of training materials;
• quality management according EFQM standards