SUMMARY OF ANNUAL REPORT 2002 |
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The Next Page Foundation undertakes three major types of
activities:
Since the beginning of 2002 the network Translation Project and East
Translates East Project are developed under the auspices of Next Page
Foundation. |
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TRANSLATION PROJECT |
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| Translation project is a major program of the Soros Foundations
Network, coordinated locally by each of the Soros Foundations in 22
countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union (
http://www.osi.hu/cpd/translationproject.html). Since 2002 Next Page
Foundation is providing assistance in local translations’ support and is
consulting OSI-Budapest on the overall project development. |
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project developments in 2002 |
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| The Translation Project has become one of the Publishing Center’s most
effective programs. There is evidence to suggest that in those countries
where the Project is most advanced, the books published under its auspices
have become a cornerstone of higher education and have had a tangible
impact on public deliberation. At the same time, unit grant levels have
been aggressively reduced over the past two years.
Until now the Project has operated as a general “great books” translation project; for 2000, it is being redesigned to give it greater strategic focus at a lower funding level. The general list of recommended titles will be divided into issue modules, and foundations will be asked to select a limited number of modules which correspond to local strategic priorities. As a direct consequence of the new Information Program strategy of 2001, the beginning of 2002 marks a watershed in the history of the project which has been redesigned to answer two major requirements: the decrease of funding and the need for the project to be reshaped from a “best books” program to one focusing on topics of contemporary importance for the open society. An up-dated network strategy for Translation Project has been presented to OSI in April 2002. The strategy emphasized that - despite the increasing globalization of knowledge - certain issues can be introduced into the local “idiom” only in translation. Thus, the strategy in countries with longer tradition in publishing and translations was devised so that it focuses more strongly on the project’s capacity to be a catalyst and to promote sensitive topics of “political” nature as they are reflected into emerging fields of social sciences and humanities. Further, detailed country strategies for 2002 have been elaborated by 22 National Foundations with the assistance of Next Page, revised by the OSI Information Sub-board and redesigned following its recommendations. The Foundation also actively assisted the national publishing staff and boards in 11 foundations in preparing their 2003 strategies according to a preliminary tailored model, prepared by Next Page and in conjunction with the aim to encourage long-term planning and overcoming some foundations’ self-sufficiency complex. A regional coordinators’ meeting was organized by Next Page in Tbilisi on 24-26 July. Publishing and TP coordinators from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as board members were present. The meeting examined the current developments of the project in the 3 countries, worked out possible approaches to it in the local contexts and was combined with a training session in strategic thinking and fund-raising. As a direct result of the meeting two detailed publishing strategies (Azerbaijan and Georgia) as well as two regional projects addressing infrastructural problems were developed. A new network strategy for translations in Central Asia, up-dated in April 2002 has been designed and is in a process of dicussion with National Soros Foundations in Kazahstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. A regional coordinators meeting for Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania was
held in Skopje in February 2003 to draft ideas for a cross-border
co-operational project for Albanian-language books & publishing. The
project starts with assessment studies in the three countries and will
seek links with the OSI Infobus projects. |
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titles and thematic division |
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| In 2002 55 titles in 16 countries received grants by Translation
Project.
The division by issues of titles supported is the following:
In 2002, majority of translations supported (84%) are of books originally published after 1980.
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funding and grant levels |
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As can be seen from the table below, while the total Soros funding for
translations has decreased by 24 %, there is no change in the number of
titles supported during the year.
Thus, the overall budget of the project in 2002 was formed in the following way:
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Translation Project impact studies |
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| In the period July 2002-March 2003 three large impact studies of TP were conducted – in Ukraine, Lithuania and Bulgaria. The Next Page Foundation designed the initial plan of the study in the 3 countries and carried it out in Bulgaria. The results from the three studies will be included in a larger publishing-support policy paper to be presented by Next Page at a donors’ meeting at the end of 2003. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ROMANI PUBLICATION PROJECT |
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| As a relatively new field for both former OSI publishing programs and Next Page, the Romani Publications Project was an important pillar in the Foundation’s activities in 2002 and required more investment in terms of staff-time and consultations than its other grant-giving projects. In 2002 an international advisory board comprising prominent Roma scholars, researchers and activists, was formed. At its first meeting, the board discussed the needs in the field, analized the place of the project in the context of other organizations’ activities and set up major priorities. It also agreed upon common criteria for projects’ evaluation and set up a network of independent advisors for additional consultations in the areas of their expertise. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| An open call for proposals (in Romani and English) was announced to Roma NGOs, newspapers, web-sites, mailing lists and publishers. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| While in the first 6 months following the call of proposals there were relatively few applications, towards the end of 2002 the project started gaining popularity, not only in Eastern Europe. In fact, grant-giving forms just a small proportion of the work on the project – most of it is related to bridging Roma organizations and initiatives to ensure wider dissemination of results, providing assistance and consultations both in the phase of projects’ preparation and in their realization. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Board is highly selective and out of 38 applications, so far the
following 5 received funding:
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| As a partner organization, together with a network of collaborators
from Austria, UK, Sweden, Poland and Hungary, Next Page took part in the
preparation of a 3-years project for international Romani publishing
series which applied at the EU Culture 2000 program. The project was best
marked by the program’s evaluation committee. However, it did not receive
funding due to the fact that the final products were planned to be on sale
in Austria and UK which – after the project had passed all the levels of
evaluation – was declared to be in violation with the EU requirements. A
modified version of the project is being prepared for the next call for
proposals in October 2003. |
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BOOKS ACROSS BORDERS |
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| Books across Borders is a common platform for a large international
initiative committed to strengthening local publishing infrastructures in
Croatia and in Serbia and Montenegro as well as to foster cross-border
exchange of information, book-trade and other joint activities which
explore the potential of a common book market based on the mutual
comprehensiveness of the languages in the region. It is based on
grass-root initiatives by publishers, distributors and professional
associations and implemented by a cluster of organizations such as the
Fund for Central and East European Book Projects (CEEBP) – Amsterdam, Next
Page Foundation, OSI – Croatia, the National Library of Serbia and OSI –
Serbia.
Within the Books across Borders platform, two long-term local projects started to be implemented in 2002:
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OTHER PUBLISHING GRANTS |
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| “OSI stream” of critical issue areas such as policy analysis, criminal
justice, corruption control, human rights, women’s issues, media policy,
etc. These modules are tailored to provide synergy with other OSI
programming.
Books on Islam and Politics –
/view a list of grants/ This project, initiated by OSI and supported by the American Embassy in Budapest, has two components:
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Other projects supported |
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Next Page “Open Fund for New Initiatives” provides an opportunity for
small projects of special importance which do not fall within the scope of
the program lines, to be supported and/or initiated. Thus, in 2002 funding
was provided for:
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OTHER ACTIVITIES |
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