Sildfinantseerimise taotlemine Šveitsi-Eesti koostööprogrammi toetusmeetmete projektidele

Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Program me

SUPPORT MEASURE AGREEMENT

between

the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

and

the State Shared Service Centre,

on

the Support Measure

Biodiversity Programme

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, acting through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (hereinafter referred to as the ‘SDC’) and

the State Shared Service Centre (hereinafter referred to as the ‘NCU9,

hereinafter collectively referred to as the ‘Parties’,

referring to the Framework Agreement, including its Annex 1 (Country-Specific Set-Up) between the Swiss Federal Council and the Government of the Republic of Estonia concluded on 21 November 2022 as well as to the Regulations on the implementation of the second Swiss Contribution to selected Member States of the European Union to reduce economic and social disparities within the European Union issued by Switzerland and setting out the general rules and procedures on the implementation of the Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Framework Agreement’ and ‘Regulations 9, and

considering the financing of the Support Measure Biodiversity Programme (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Support Measure 9 in the Republic of Estonia, have agreed as follows:

Article 1 — General provisions

The legal framework as defined in Article 2 of the Framework Agreement shall apply.

Article 2 — Objective and eligibility period

1. The Support Measure is assigned to the following thematic area: Nature conservation and biodiversity.

2. The objective of the Support Measure is Protecting the environment and the climate.

3. The Support Measure starts on 01 .05.2024 and ends on 31 .08.2028. Only expenditures incurred during this period are deemed to be eligible in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Regulations.

Article 3 — Obligations of the Parties

1. Switzerland agrees to grant a contribution of up to 6,93 million Swiss francs for the implementation of the Support Measure according to the budget (Annex B).

2. The contribution of Switzerland shall cover a maximum of 85% of the total eligible expenditures of the Support Measure as specified in Chapter 6 of the Regulations.

3. Switzerland’s contribution to the Support Measure is based on: a) the final version of the Support Measure Proposal 7F-10768.01 dated 15.04.2024 attached

to this Support Measure Agreement (Annex A); and b) the conditions put forward by Switzerland as part of the final decision to support the Support

Measure and communicated to Republic of Estonia by means of the letter 7F-1 0768.01 dated 27.03.2024 appended hereto (Annex D).

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4. In accordance with Article 7 of the Framework Agreement the responsibility of Switzerland with regard to this Support Measure is limited to providing funds in accordance with Article 3 paragraph 1 of this Support Measure Agreement.

5. The Republic of Estonia shall ensure the timely provision of the co-financing for the total eligible expenditures of the Support Measure, as described in Article 4 paragraph 5 of the Framework Agreement and in Article 3.1 paragraph 1 and Chapter 6 of the Regulations.

6. Costs for staff of the Programme Operator, Programme Component Operators and Partners who are assigned to carry out tasks for the Support Measure, comprising actual salaries plus social security charges and other statutory costs included in the remuneration, are eligible expenditure under this Support Measure, within the limits set in the budget in Annex B of this Support Measure Agreement and in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Regulations.

Article 4 — Implementation responsibility

1. The NCU and the Paying and Audit Authorities shall have the roles and responsibilities defined in the Regulations, in particular in Article 3.1 to 3.6, and further specified in the Country Specific Set-up.

2. The Programme Operator of this Support Measure is the Ministry of Climate. It is responsible for preparing and managing the Support Measure and for performing the following tasks:

a) preparing the Management and Control system of the Support Measure to ensure the effective implementation of the Support Measure;

b) concluding the Support Measure Implementation Agreement with the NCU; c) preparing the Annual Support Measure Reports, the Support Measure Completion Report,

Reimbursement Requests and submitting them to the State Shared Service Centre; d) organising meetings of the Support Measure Steering Committee and preparing minutes of

the meetings; e) planning and implementing the communication activities of the Support Measure in

cooperation with the programme component operators; f) submitting proposal to the Ministry of Finance for the modification of the Country specific set

up of the Framework Agreement and to the State Shared Service Centre for the modification of the Support Measure Agreement;

g) fulfilling other tasks of the Programme Operator arising from the Regulations.

3. The Programme Components have the following Programme Component Operators: a) Programme Component 1 “Development of innovative monitoring technologies/solutions and

improvement of Environmental databases and systems”: Programme Component Operator —

the Estonian Environment Agency. b) Programme Component 2 “Implementation of a systematic assessment of the social and

conservation outcomes of protected areas”: Programme Component Operator — the Environmental Board of Estonia.

Article 5 — Support Measure Steering Committee

1. The Programme Operator shall establish the Support Measure Steering Committee as defined in Article 4.11 of the Regulations. The Support Measure Steering Committee shall assume the following tasks:

a) as defined in Article 4.11 of the Regulations.

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2. The Support Measure Steering Committee shall be composed of the following members: a) The NCU - the State Shared Service Centre; b) The Programme Operator — the Ministry of Climate; c) The Swiss Contribution Office; d) The Programme Component Operator- the Estonian Environment Agency; e) The Programme Component Operator - the Environmental Board of Estonia;

3. By the initiative of the Support Measure Steering Committee members the Chair has the right to invite the representatives of the partners and other organisations to the Support Measure Steering Committee meetings, who will act as observers.

4. The following members shall have a voting right: a) The Programme Operator - the Ministry of Climate as Chair; b) The NCU c) The Swiss Contribution Office.

5. The quorum shall be constituted by the NCU, the Swiss Contribution Office and the Programme Operator.

6. Decision-making in the Support Measure Steering Committee shall be based on consensus by the members with voting rights.

7. The Programme Operator shall act as secretary and shall assume the tasks set forth in the Article 4.11 paragraph 7 of the Regulations.

8. The Steering Committee meeting shall take place at least once a year in line with Article 4.11 paragraph 6 of the Regulations.

9. The Steering Committee may also take decisions through a written procedure at the initiative of any member with voting rights.

Article 6 — Programme Operator competences for modifications of the Support Measure

1. The Support Measure may be modified in accordance with the Article 4.12 of the Regulations.

2. In accordance with Article 4.12 paragraph 4.a of the Regulations the Programme Operator is entitled to modify Programme Components (md management expenditures of a Programme Operator), provided the following conditions are cumulatively met:

a. the modification shall not contradict with the agreed outputs and outcomes of the Support Measure;

b. the modification must not change the duration of the Support Measure; c. the financial consequences of the modification must be within the following limits:

i. for reallocations within one Programme component: funds reallocated between different budget items must be less than 20% of the initial budget of the Programme component and less than CHF 100 000 (one hundred thousand Swiss francs);

ii. modifications may not be split with the intention of circumventing this restriction.

3. Switzerland shall be informed about the modification by means of the next Reimbursement Request under Article 8.2 paragraph 3 of the Regulations and the next Annual Support Measure Report under Article 4.13 of the Regulations.

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Article 7— Advance payments

1. In accordance with Article 8.3 of the Regulations no advance payments are foreseen in this Support Measure.

Article 8— Policy dialogue

1. A policy dialogue is not foreseen for this Support Measure.

Article 9 — Procurement

1. The procurements under this Support Measure Agreement shall be made in accordance with Chapter 7 of the Regulations.

2. The initial procurement plan, including those procurements that are selected by Switzerland in accordance with Article 7.2 of the Regulations, shall be annexed to this Support Measure Agreement (Annex C).

3. This procurement plan shall be updated following the approval of further Programme Components and submitted to Switzerland for selection in accordance with Article 7.2 of the Regulations within 20 working days. The periodically updated procurement plan shall be submitted to Switzerland with the Reimbursement Request.

Article 10 — Post-completion obligations and ownership of assets

1. The post-completion obligations related to the assets (operating assets as well as equipment, installations and buildings) financed by the Swiss contribution under this Support Measure as well as their ownership are described in Article 4.15 of the Regulations.

2. For the duration of the Support Measure the assets provided with the Swiss Contribution are in the ownership of the acquirer and shall be used in accordance with Article 4.15 paragraph 6 of the Regulations.

3. The NCU or the Executing Agency shall ensure that the receiving entity agrees under contract to fulfil the obligations set out in Article 4.15 paragraph 2 of the Regulations concerning equipment, installations and buildings financed by the Contribution.

4. In accordance with Article 4.15 paragraph 7 the Parties shall agree in writing following the completion of the Support Measure on the use and ownership of the assets provided with the support of the Swiss Contribution.

5. The ownership of the proprietary rights in and to the results of the activities performed under this Support Measure, any intellectual property rights, including copyright, and the right to any revenues generated by the intellectual property rights shall be agreed in writing by the Parties on completion of the Support Measure.

Article 11 — Reimbursement procedures, reporting, audits, compliance

Reimbursement procedures, reporting, auditing and compliance rules are set out in the Framework Agreement and the Regulations.

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Article 12 - Annexes

The following Annexes are governed by this Support Measure Agreement: Annex A: Final version of the Support Measure Proposal 15.04.2024 including Logframe Annex B: Budget Annex C: Initial Procurement Plan Annex D: Decision Letter from SDC

Article 13— Amendments

The Support Measure may be modified in accordance with Article 4.12 of the Regulations. In the cases as described in Article 4.12 paragraph 8 of the Regulations, the modification of the Support Measure shall be formalised by way of an amendment to this Support Measure Agreement. This shall be done by the Parties signing the amendment.

Article 14 - Suspension and termination

The Support Measure Agreement may be suspended or terminated in accordance with Article 4.16 of the Regulations.

Article 15— Entry into force and duration

1. This Support Measure Agreement covers the duration of the Support Measure as stated in Article 2 paragraph 3.

2. This Support Measure Agreement shall enter into force on the date of the last signature of the Parties and remain in force until all obligations under it have been fulfilled.

Signed in Tallinn and Riga, in two original copies in the English language.

For the Swiss Agency for Development and For the State hared Service Centre

~p~in /

C/hj4~oph Liechti Urmo Merila Head of the-swiss Contribution Office Deputy Director General

Date Date

/fP~1. 2oz~

Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme

Annex A: Final version of the Support Measure Proposal 15.04.2024 including

Logframe

on

the Support Measure

Biodiversity Programme

Second Swiss Contribution

Estonia

Support Measure Proposal 15.04.2024

Title Bio-Diversity Programme

Executing Agency Ministry of Climate

Partner State Support Measure n/a Code (if any)

Support Measure Type Programme

Content 1. Basic information 4

2. Strategic Support Measure description 5

2.1 Lead 5 2.2 Context and relevance 5 2.3 Impact hypothesis / Objectives 10 2.4 Intervention Strategy 11 2.5 Beneficiaries 12 2.6 Programme Component Characteristics and regional focus 13 2.7 Overview Swiss Support Measure Partners 13 2.8 Sustainability 14 2.9 Overview tentative budget 14 2.10 Other strategic issues 14

3. Support Measure readiness 15

3.1 Context 15 3.2 Preparation process and documents 15 3.3 Application for funds from Support Measure Preparation Fund 16

4. Operational Support Measure description 16

4.1 Applying organisation (Executing Agency) 16 4.1.1 Financial and personnel information (only to be completed for non-state

institutions) 16 4.1.2 Organisation structures of Executing Agency and Support Measure 16 4.1.3 Support Measure management team 18 4.1.4 Programme and project management experience 19 4.2 Detailed intervention strategy and activities 20 4.2.1 Detailed description of activities and intervention strategy 20 4.2.2 Detailed description of selection process for Programme Components 22 4.2.3 Communication activities 22 4.2.4 Detailed implementation schedule 23 4.3 Logframe 25 4.4 Swiss Support Measure Partner(s) 28 4.5 Stakeholder consultations 28 4.6 Tentative Budget 29 4.6.1 Detailed tentative budget 29 4.6.2 Tentative Disbursement Plan 30 4.7 Risk Analysis and Risk Management 31 4.8 Monitoring and Steering 32 4.9 Other operational issues 32

5. Annexes 32

Annex 2: Overview of Implementation locations 34

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Basic Programme Component Information 34

6. Programme Component Operator 35

6.1 Basic Information 35 6.2 Programme Component Operator Management 35 6.3 Programme Component Management 36 6.4 Programme and Project Management Experience 37

7. Programme Component Description 38

7.1 Short Summary 38 7.2 Activities and Expected Results 38 7.3 Beneficiaries 40 7.4 Sustainability 40 7.5 Budget 40 7.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management 40

8. Annexes 41

Basic Programme Component Information 41

9. Programme Component Operator 41

9.1 Basic Information 41 9.2 Programme Component Operator Management 42 9.3 Programme Component Management 43 9.4 Programme and Project Management Experience 45

10. Programme Component Description 46

10.1 Short Summary 46 10.2 Activities and Expected Results 46 10.3 Beneficiaries 48 10.4 Sustainability 49 10.5 Budget 49 10.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management 50

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1. Basic information

Title Bio-Diversity Programme

Support Measure Type Programme

Objective Protecting the environment and the climate

Thematic Area Nature conservation and biodiversity

Planned Duration [months] 52

Requested Swiss contribu- 6 930 000 tion (CHF)

Requested co-financing 85% rate of Switzerland [%]

Name of the Executing Ministry of Climate Agency

Type of entity National administration

If type of entity is “other”, -

describe the type briefly

Name of contact person Kairi Toiger

Position Senior Officer, Financial Department, Ministry of Climate

Correspondence address Suur-Ameerika 1, 10122 Tallinn, Eesti

E-Mail Kairi.Toiger@ kliimaministeerium.ee

Webpage and social media https://kliimaministeerium .ee/ (if any)

https:I/www.facebook.com/kliimaministeerium

https:f/twitter.com/MOEestonia

https://www.youtube .com/channel/UCfeXqaJwOLCpLx7- Xl 69F6w

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfeXgaJwOLCpLx7- Xl 69F6w

Phone +372 6262 931 Mobile

Has the Executing Agency previously received funding from the Yes~ NoD Swiss Contribution?

Abbreviations:

EELIS — Estonian Nature Information System

KAUR — Estonian Environment Agency

KeA — Environmental Board of Estonia

KeMIT — Information Technology Centre of the Ministry of the Envi ronment

KESE — Environmental Monitoring Information System

MoC — Ministry of Climate

NCU — National Coordination Unit

2. Strategic Support Measure description

2.1 Lead

The goal of the Programme is the creation of preconditions for the improvement of conserva tion status of threatened habitats and species through decision making that relies on high- quality data, e. g.:

• Implementation of innovative monitoring solutions. • Ensuring operative data transition between different databases. • Making environmental data more accessible for public. • Setting up and validating digital toolset for the governance. • Evaluation of management effectiveness planning of protected areas, revision of site-

based conservation objectives and measures for protected species and habitats and additional compilation of site-based management plans.

• The evaluation and additional compilation of national action plans for species and hab itats and the revision of protected categories of species (category I, category II and category Ill).

The intervention will build on the results of various past and ongoing initiatives, like applied research projects on nature conservation in relation to climate change and on existing state monitoring and planning systems for protected areas.

2.2 Context and relevance

Current Situation

Estonia’s land area is 45,339 km2, which is slightly larger than Switzerland and the sea area is 36,622 km2. 60% of Estonia is covered with forest and mires and 20.5% of the land is under nature protection. Also, 18.7% of the sea is protected. With a unique location, Estonian nature is very diverse, and it is especially important for migratory birds, who stay here to rest and nest.

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During the migration period, millions of birds pass through Estonia, and it is the bottleneck for most of the Artic waterbirds.

Although in a significant share of Estonia nature values are protected, the status of biodiversity in Estonia is far from being without concern. Of the 15,000 species assessed during 2017- 2021 for the update of the Red List in Estonia, only half are in status “Least Concern”, which means that the other half of the species are ,,Near Threatened”, ,,Vulnerable”, ,,Endangered”, Critically Endangered” or ,,Extinct in the Region”. Unfortunately, the population sizes of mam mals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles have seen an alarming average drop of 68% since 1970 in the whole world. According to the EU Habitats Directive reporting (2019) 57% of the habitats and 56% of the species in Estonia are in favourable status, which is better than in most of the EU member states (in EU, only 14.7% of the habitats and 27.5% of the species are in favourable status). But 44% of the species and 43% of the habitats are in unfavourable (inadequate or bad) conservation status in Estonia.

We must continue to preserve and improve the status of the species and habitats. To do so, we have created a network of protected areas and system to assess the status of the species and habitats. However, it is not enough and Estonia must contribute to global target to protect at least 30% of land and sea area. At the moment, there are six national parks, 234 nature conservation areas, 148 landscape conservation areas, 312 limited-conservation areas and 1,847 species’ protection sites in Estonia (November 2022) (Looduskaitse statistika I Keskkon naportaal). Approximately 70% of the protected area in Estonia is managed according to man agement plans. However, all protected areas still do not have an appropriate management plan or existing management plans are based on out-of-date data. Only 52% category I (i.e. rare and at risk of disappearence) species, 12% of category II species (i.e. species in danger of disappearance if the existing factors continue operating) and 2% of category Ill species (i.e. species whose population is endangered by the deterioration or damaging of habitats and has been reduced to a point where they are believed to move into the endangered category if the causal factors continue operating) have a national action plan. Relevant and updated site- based management plans and national action plans with specific targets are necessary to as sess the efficiency of the implemented measures. A systematic understanding is needed to understand which of the applied conservation measures are fit for purpose and what needs to be changed. Most management plans lack the level of detail.

The compilation of management plans has been a time-consuming process and needs to be revised. To achieve and maintain the good status of protected areas in Estonia, it is crucial to continue the successful interventions and replicate them in areas where the status of habitats and the functioning of ecosystems is still not good. To do so, an appropriate framework in Estonia, including a methodology and an action plan for its implementation, for the assessment of effectiveness of biodiversity conservation measures needs to be established. An effective framework will allow Estonia to understand the main factors hindering the protection of biodi versity and design better targeted conservation and restoration measures. Also, surveys, in ventories and monitoring must be carried out to observe how the conditions change over time. There are more than 50 different types of biodiversity monitoring schemes implemented every year and mostly it is carried out by humans. Also, the status and abundance of game species, including large carnivores is monitored. The volume of the monitoring depends on the available budget and also on the available specialists and developed methodologies. Often, monitoring can be carried out in a specific period (e.g spring, summer, vegetation period, nesting period, etc.) and limited number of specialists are not capable to cover the necessary area in one year. For decades, same methodologies have been used in monitoring, but technology is evolving at a tremendous rate and sometimes more specific data is needed (e.g. DNA data to assess whether the population is strong and genetically diverse and how it changes over time).

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New solutions and technology should be used more in biodiversity monitoring as this can be helpful in the absence of specialists and with the help of technology larger areas could be covered during the short suitable period for monitoring. Also, thanks to the new technology additional valuable information can be collected, which is necessary in decision making (e.g. the size of a specific species’ habitat etc). There are already 3D bird radars, bird sound recog nition applications, artificial intelligence (Al), affordable cameras, remote monitoring solutions, etc., which could be adjusted and tested in the biodiversity monitoring. We have already tested some solutions on a smaller scale like Al in the monitoring of the game species, drones, sen sors, acoustic and telemetry transmitters. Potential of the technology is not sufficiently recog nized and as new methods are costly to test on a large scale and long time period, good solu tions are often discarded (e.g eDNA). It is necessary to implement old and new methods at the same time in a short period in order to allow smooth transition and providing enough time for the new solution to justify itself. Also, one reason for using the same methodologies for dec ades, is the reason of uninterrupted data series that new methodologies could affect. Imple menting old and new at the same time is necessary to understand whether and how much the results differ and this gives the opportunity to continue uninterrupted data series.

Nature related data is inserted and processed mainly in two systems in Estonia: Estonian Na ture Information System (EELIS) and Environmental Monitoring Information System (KESE). Both systems need to be improved to make them more user-friendly and easier to use, both for public servants and ordinary citizens. Those systems are not prepared for today’s and fu ture needs. The current system does not provide sufficient information to assess whether the conservation actions are adequate to sustain resilient ecosystems and halt biodiversity loss. The present system does not take into account socio-economic impacts. Also, some of the important data is maintained in third-party systems (e.g PlutoF Biodiversity Platform) and ig noring this data in decision making would be a mistake. It is necessary to create connections which would enable data transfer between systems. Authorities lack the tools and sufficient competences to analyse the effectiveness of conservation measures and conduct a multi-pur pose interpretation of large datasets in an interdisciplinary manner. Decisions made using the monitoring results depend on the volume and quality of the data. Among other things, it is necessary to speed up the data flow. For example, information of the protected species must be transformed from one system into another manually (from KESE to EELIS), which is time- consuming and there is always a risk that important data is not taken into account in the plan ning process or while issuing permits. Also, the analytical capacity should be improved, which can be done by improving information systems and creating automatic solutions that can quickly analyse great amount of data in a few moves. This will ensure the quality, transparency and reliability of the data.

Nature information must be public, easy to understand and attractive. According to the survey carried out in Estonia in 2020, 21% of Estonians think that environmental data is not accessible and according to the survey carried out in 2022, interest in the environmental issues has de creased compared to 2020. Information systems as important resources were rarely men tioned. It is also necessary to promote citizen science. Citizen science can be defined as the non-professional involvement of volunteers in the scientific process, commonly in data collec tion, but also in other phases such as quality assurance, data analysis and interpretation, prob lem definition and the dissemination of results. Citizen science can play an important role by filling data gaps where conventional data sources may not be sufficient, providing complemen tary temporal and spatial data that supports official monitoring systems. However, and despite its value and potential, it is still underused. Besides collecting additional data, promoting citizen science gives the opportunity to raise environmental awareness, which is one of the keys in the implementation of the Green Deal and moving towards a sustainable economy. We have already developed the Nature Observation application, but at the moment it is not possible to

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submit observations via the website. Also, where possible, the volunteers should be integrated into the monitoring schemes.

Strategies

The Support Measure contributes directly to the implementation of the Estonian Environmental Development Plan until 2030 (draft)

According to the draft plan the goal of nature conservation is that the status of native species, ecosystems and landscapes has improved - Estonia is nature positive.

The targets to achieve the goal are:

1. We preserve and improve native species and habitats and biodiversity rich key landscape features such as small water bodies and other wetlands, coastal and the condition of coastal areas, semi-natural grasslands and primary and old- growth forests, including forest key habitats.

2. We ensure a timely and relevant overview of the status of wildlife for decision making in the field of nature conservation, among other things, we use innova tive monitoring and inventory solutions and applied research more than before and update and supplement databases and web applications.

3. We will improve the system for evaluating the effectiveness of protection measures to ensure the operational renewal and improvement of current measures.

The proposed Support Measure contributes directly to the targets 2 and 3, which are also the basis for achieving the first target.

The Support Measure has a clear connection with Estonian Environmental Strategy for 2030 and with requirements and obligations stated in EU directives, regulation and strategies and international conventions:

• EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030; • EU Nature Restoration Regulation (draft); • Sustainable Development Goals and Development Plan. Especially to following goals:

1. 3. Good Health and Well-being; 2. 6. Clean Water and Sanitation; 3. 7. Affordable and Clean Energy; 4. 12. Responsible Consumption and Production; 5. 13. Climate Action; 6. 14. Life Below Water; 7. 15.Lifeon Land.

• Convention on Biological Diversity and its Global Biodiversity Framework; • CITES convention; • Ramsar convention; • Bern Convention; • Bonn convention, including AEWA and Eurobats agreements; • HELCOM; • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris agreement.

Complementarity/synergies with funding programmes of other donors

• Technical Support Instrument financed by the European Commission. An ongoing pro ject with the objective to develop the relevant assessment methodology for Estonia. This methodology will be implemented under the Swiss Contribution.

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• European Structural Funds 2014-2020. The methodology of the National Assessment and Mapping of Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services was developed. We will continue to improve it and it will be taken into account in the planning and assessment process. Also, development of the Estonian Nature Information System was partly financed from Structural Funds.

• European Structural Funds 2021-2027. Development of the Artificial Intelligence for the monitoring of games species is financed under this programme. It is an ongoing project.

• State budget. National monitoring is financed from the state budget. Swiss Contribution does not replace it but enhances and helps to further develop existing methodologies and solutions. Also, it helps to speed up and expand the development of IT systems, which are being developed at the moment.

• Environmental Investment Fund. Some of the assessments of the protected areas and monitoring of the species are financed from the national fund. Also, the Nature Obser vation Application was financed from the Fund, which is used to involve volunteers in the biodiversity monitoring.

• Cohesion Fund 2021 — 2027. Restoration of habitats to increase preparedness for ad aptation to climate change. Species and habitats action plans and protected areas management plans prepared by Swiss contribution will be used to select the restoration sites at the end of this financial period and in the following period.

First Swiss Contribution

With the help of First Swiss Contribution, the capability of environmental (water, air and radia tion) monitoring was increased, but specifically monitoring and protection of the biodiversity was not supported.

Social Inclusion and Climate change mitigation and adaptation

Structure of the management plans will be improved, and new topics will be covered. Topics that have not been covered or have been covered insufficiently in existing management plans are how to mitigate the impact of climate change on species and habitats, what the social impacts of protected areas are, how protected areas are integrated in the overall green infra structure, how to manage forest habitats in buffer zones, how cumulative impacts on habitats and species need to be analysed.

Also, Citizen Science will be improved and volunteers will be involved in the biodiversity mon itoring. Where possible, this will be integrated into the monitoring schemes and necessary solutions will be developed. Developed systems will be helpful in preparation and implemen tation of different nature observation campaigns that would increase citizen awareness about species and nature conservation issues. With that, we will create better conditions for social inclusion and initiatives.

New technical solutions will help to speed up the transition towards green energy and climate neutrality. Nature conservation restrictions and the lack of knowledge about species and hab itats are often the reasons behind the pace of developments.

Developed IT systems and solutions help to make environmental data easier to access, use and understand for the citizen. It is necessary to make data more visible and attractive, which helps to increase interest in data and environmental awareness and improve behaviour and decision making of the public.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders of the measure are basically all citizens, who will benefit from the preservation and improvement of the status of species and habitats. Ecosystems provide different services

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from clean air to meditation opportunities. Quality and condition of ecosystems affect the qual ity of people. Also, developed systems and solutions will bring nature conservation and citizens closer together. Citizens will be involved in nature observation campaigns and wildlife moni toring. Developed systems will be used in order to make participation easier and more con venient, which hopefully will increase the number of volunteers.

It is necessary to collaborate with environmental experts and scientists. Support Measure will increase the knowledge about the biodiversity and support science and innovation. Also, it gives the opportunity for the scientists to test and implement new methods and ideas in wildlife monitoring. Some of the ideas (e.g. eDNA) have been proposed by the scientists. Their role is also to validate and evaluate the suitability of the new solutions. It is also necessary to create collaboration between scientists of the natural sciences and IT experts, who must find solutions how to use new technologies for biodiversity monitoring.

As it is necessary to speed up the transition towards green energy and climate neutrality, wind- farm developers are the important stakeholders. Nature conservation restrictions and the lack of knowledge about species and habitats are often the reasons behind the pace of develop ments. In the design of the wind farms, it is often mandatory to carry out time consuming sur veys and the number of specialists is also limited, which affects the development. Thanks to support measure, necessary studies could be carried out over a shorter period.

New tools and solutions are necessary for the public authorities, who are responsible for the biodiversity protection, monitoring and decision making. Better knowledge is needed to make science-based decisions to prevent damage to biodiversity and at the same time contribute to economic activity, including the development of clean energy.

The information acquired from the project will help local municipalities in their general planning process. The decisions made in spatial planning will take more nature protection needs into account. The developers and business organisations can refer to the data and when assessing the effect of their activities on habitats and species.

The stakeholder consultations was carried out on 5thi of June 2023 to elaborate the support measure proposal for the second loop.

2.3 Impact hypothesis I Objectives The goal of the Programme is to create the precondition for the improvement of conservation status of threatened habitats and species through decision making that relies on high-quality data.

Being part of Europe, our environmental decisions and developments affect the ecosystems and species populations more widely. Preserving and improving the quality of the ecosystem services helps to strengthen the socio-economic situation in different fields providing income and jobs, but also decreasing the negative impact of human activity and climate change. As Estonia is small and the planned actions of this intervention cover the whole country, it will affect more or less all people.

Better technological tools and hence the overviews of protected sites make understanding the need for habitat and species protection more understandable for the public and accurately described protection measures give the possibility for other institutions to take the initiative and participate in protection activities.

High-quality data helps to increase the developments, including the developments of wind farms, which will ensure the necessary energy and security for citizens. Also, developments of

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wind farms would decrease the pressure for forest cutting and wood burning. This has positive effect on habitats and green network. Taking into account that most of the car industries are planning to stop the production of cars with an internal combustion engine by 2030, the need for electricity will increase significantly in the next decades. This is one example of the potential positive impact of the measure, but the main objective is to preserve and restore the natural values through decisions based on high-quality data.

If the protection measures are planned using up-to-date data and a reliable assessment pro cedure is carried out, it is easier to explain the need of the measures to the government, min istries and other policy makers, also developers and local people. For example, in Estonia there is some political resistance to restoring river habitats and people do not understand the necessity of restoring peatlands.

To achieve the goal of the Programme the existing planning and assessment methodologies and information systems should be improved. It is important to improve the connection of plan ning and assessment with the national monitoring schemes and information systems. With the help of Swiss support, the existing systems and solutions will be taken to the next level.

Planned intervention logic is presented in Annex 1 and in log-frame (4.3).

In summary, if comprehensive and high-quality information, including in sufficient volume is available, then preconditions for improvement of the conservation status of species and habi tats are created, because planning and decision making is more justified, relevant information is taken into account and assessing the effectiveness of the actions is based on more reliable, qualitative and accurate information.

2.4 Intervention Strategy

The Programme Operator is the Ministry of Climate (MoC). The task of the Ministry of Climate is to create conditions that guarantee a species-rich natural environment and a clean-living environment for the people of Estonia today and for future generations and that ensures the sustainable use of natural resources. MoC coordinates the Support Measure Programme prep aration and implementation and is responsible for Programme design and monitoring, also for communication activities at the programme level.

The Programme goal will be achieved by implementing two Programme components that are linked by a common theme - biodiversity. Programme Components will be implemented by state authorities under the jurisdiction of the MoC (Administrative area I Ministry of Climate (kliimaministeerium.ee’~).

Programme Component 1 “Development of innovative monitoring technologies/solu tions and improvement of Environmental databases and systems”

For Programme Component 1 the Programme Component Operator- is Estonian Environ ment Agency (Keskkonnaagentuur or abbreviated KAUR). KAUR is a state authority admin istered by the Ministry of Climate. KAUR is responsible for the fulfilment of the national envi ronmental monitoring programme, the preparation of national and international reports in the field of environment, evaluating environmental status, ensuring vital services, including weather forecasts, and the maintenance and renewal of monitoring stations and equipment. The tasks of the KAUR in the field of biodiversity are to collect, process and publish information about nature and nature protection in Estonia, fulfil the national and international reporting obligations and maintain nature protection databases. The information on nature and nature protection collected in databases are the foundation of the preservation of objects under pro tection, species and their habitats.

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The KAUR will be responsible for delivering outputs connected to development of new tech nologies and innovative monitoring solutions and improvement of databases and systems.

As a partner organisation the Information Technology Centre of the Ministry of the Envi ronment (KeMIT) will be involved, since KEMIT is responsible for IT tools and services for the employees in the administrative area of the Ministry of Climate and environmental e-services for the public.

Programme Component 2 “Implementation of a systematic assessment of the social and conservation outcomes of protected areas”

For Programme Component 2 the Programme Component Operator is Environmental Board of Estonia (Keskkonnaamet or abbreviated KeA). KeA is a government agency which oper ates within the area of the Ministry of Climate. The main task of KeA is to implement state policies on environmental use, nature conservation and radiation safety and to monitor the fulfilment of the laws and norms established for the protection of the natural environment. KeA provides services related to nature conservation, for example: planning of activities related to the organisation of nature conservation, management of permits for activities related to nature conservation restrictions, organisation of nature conservation work, organising surveys of bio diversity values and assessing the effectiveness of nature conservation.

The KeA will be responsible for delivering outputs connected to the enhancing the process of the effective conservation management planning. As the conservation objectives and measures are revised and they are more specific and goal-oriented, it is easier to plan conser vation activities. The support measure helps to set site-specific, clear, precise and quantifiable conservation objectives, underpinned by scientifically reliable favourable reference values.

To fulfil their main .tasks KeA uses the data provided by the KAUR. Also KAUR receives the input into KAUR databases from KeA. Thus, two Programme Components are closely re lated to each other.

For example, the use of the output of Programme Component 1 that is up-to-date data and new technological tools that help carrying out assessments of conservation effectiveness and conservation measures~ make conservation management planning in Estonia more effective and less time-consuming and can be used by KeA to update conservation management plans of protected areas and action plans for species and habitats.

2.5 Beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries of the Support Measure are KAUR and KeA who are responsible for the implementation of the monitoring schemes, organization of the protection of protected areas and assessment of the efficiency of protection measures. Also KEMIT as responsible for IT tools and services and development of the databases and systems.

Indirect beneficiaries

Indirect beneficiaries are the State Forest Management Centre who carry out protection ac tivities on state land according to conservation management plans and also local municipal ities who use the data of habitats and species and also the information provided by conserva tion management plans in their overall planning of green infrastructure.

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As the beneficiaries are public authorities, they work for the public. Decisions and develop ments affect the whole population. it also has a cross-border effect as Estonian protected ar eas are part of the EU Natura 2000 network and only a few species live only in Estonia. So, measures implemented in Estonia affect the populations which are part of much wider popu lations. Most Estonians (1.3 M people) benefit more or less directly from this Measure and more or less indirectly the whole Europe benefits from it.

2.6 Programme Component Characteristics and regional focus

Is the benefit of the Project national or regional? NationaliXi Regional D

if regional, indicate the benefiting NUTS-2 region(s):

2.7 Overview Swiss Support Measure Partners

Is/are a/several Swiss Support Measure Partner(s) foreseen to be YesLi No~ involved in and contributing to the implementation of the Support Measure?

Institutional partnership is not planned, however, the Environmental Board will organise two study trips to Switzerland (they have contacted the Swiss National Park): five days for six spe cialists each, the emphasis of one or the study trips is habitat protection and the emphasis of the other study trip is species protection. The aim of the trips is to learn about conservation management planning/strategies, habitat and species data collection, using GIS). Also Envi ronment Agency will have one study trip to Switzerland in late stage of the programme to share the experiences and present the results. Some of the planned public procurements exceed international threshold and Swiss organizations can participate in the process and make their offer.

Name of the partner organisation

If collaboration foreseen in Pro gramme Component, indicate name of Component

Partnership status Choose an &ement,

Type of organisation Choose an eiement.

Type of support or partnership Choose an e’ement.

Name of contact person

Position

Correspondence address

Webpage and social media (if any)

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E-Mail

Phone Mobile

Has the partner organisation been previously involved in the Swiss Yes LI NoD Contribution

2.8 Sustainability

Sustainability in terms of financial viability:

National budget is reserved for implementing routine monitoring schemes and maintaining the information systems. Developed methods should be cost-efficient and development of IT sys tems should decrease the human workload. Improvement of the decision making will have a positive effect as well as the decisions will be more science-based and take into account pos sible negative consequences to the ecosystems. Preserving the condition is cheaper than re storing them. After the project, thanks to the monitoring programme, we are able to maintain and further develop the methods and systems.

The main result for the KeA is that the protection effectiveness of protected areas will be as sessed and the process of preparing conservation management plans and national action plans for species and habitats is more effective. KeA will be able to carry on conservation management planning using the national budget. The Support Measure will help the KeA to review its current conservation management planning practices in order to match them with contemporary needs.

Sustainability in terms of capacity building:

One of the challenges for the KeA is the lack of experts in Estonia who can carry out inventories and gather the data of habitats and species. In order to carry out inventories of habitats and species it is necessary to raise the level of expertise among conservation management plan ning and conservation management specialists in the KeA. The competence of the specialists can be improved by organising seminars and study trips in the frames of Programme. It is also possible to use foreign experts (e.g. Swiss experts).

Another challenge is the opposition to conservation measures and activities among the repre sentatives of local people and developers. So, it is necessary to involve stakeholders in the conservation planning process and find the solutions that are acceptable to the people living in or near the site. Involving stakeholders to conservation management planning can be time- consuming, so it is necessary to analyse how it should be carried out effectively and plan it regarding the specifics of the area.

2.9 Overview tentative budget

Please see 4.6.

2.10 Other strategic issues

N/A

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3. Support Measure readiness

3.1 Context

Is the Support Measure proposal a continuation of a Project or Pro- YesEl Not~ gramme supported under the Swiss Contribution (I)?

Was the Support Measure proposal declined during a funding-application YesEl Not~ process by other donors (e.g. EU, Norway/EEA)?

If it was declined, explain why.

3.2 Preparation process and documents

Feasibility study None necessary I Not applicable

Baseline study, assessment or analysis None necessary I Not applicable

Neither a feasibility study nor a baseline study is necessary.

Estimated number of tender dossiers to # of dossier not yet prepared 4 be prepared

# of dossier provisionally pre- 0 pared

# of dossier completely pre- 0 pared

Permit(s)/Authorisations required and YesEl N0IXI pending?

If permit(s)/authorisation(s) required, specify (e.g. building, environmental, pur chase of land etc.) and note when the cor responding permit(s)/authorisation(s) are expected.

Are legislative changes necessary to im- Yes El No~ plement the Support Measure?

If legislative changes are necessary, ex plain and note when the corresponding change is expected to have been made.

Are other (political) decisions necessary YesEl N0IXI to implement the Support Measure?

If other (political) decisions are necessary, explain and note when the corresponding decisions are expected to have been taken.

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Implementation of the Programme can start immediately after the signing of the Support Measure Agreement.

3.3 Application for funds from Support Measure Preparation Fund

Is support from the Support Measure Preparation Fund requested? Yesl~ NoLJ

Support Measure Preparation Fund was requested by the MoC to cover Programme Opera tor’s costs connected to the preparation of the second-stage Support Measure Proposal. The Preparation Fund was used for Programme Operator’s staff costs assigned to preparation of the second-stage Support Measure Proposal. Also, for stakeholders consultation, signing cer emony and study trip to Switzerland.

4. Operational Support Measure description

4.1 Applying organisation (Executing Agency)

4.1.1 Financial and personnel information (only to be completed for non-state institutions)

Date of establishment N/A Tax number (if applicable) N/A

Number of employees N/A

Financial Turnover for each of the 3 previous years [in Choose.] N/A

Ministry of Climate is a governmental authority which performs the functions provided by law and the functions assigned by the Government of the Republic pursuant to law.

4.1.2 Organisation structures of Executing Agency and Support Measure

The Programme Operator is the Ministry of Climate (MoC), that was formed on the basis of the Ministry of the Environment on 01.07.2023. By this reorganisation the area of responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment was significantly extended: transport, energy, housing and construction, maritime economy were transferred from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications to the formed Ministry of Climate. The main aim of this reorganisation is to implement the green reform more effectively. The structure and responsibilities of the MoC are assigned by the statute of the ministry (htt s://www.rii iteata~a.ee/aktJ108O72023OO5

The management structure of the MoC is presented on the scheme bellow (scheme 1). Min istry is directed by the Minister. The Secretary General of a ministry directs the work of the structural units of the ministry, co-ordinates the activities of state authorities within the area of government of the ministry and manages the operations of the ministry. There are seven Dep uty Secretary Generals and 24 departments in the MoC. The main departments that are directly involved into implementation of the Support Measure are Financial Department and Biodiver sity Protection Department (they are marked with coloured rings on the scheme). The main tasks of the Financial Department are to coordinate and organise the budgeting and financial management of the ministry and the area of government, including monitoring and analysing budget implementation, organising financial reporting, organising the development and use of support programmes and measures financed by external funds and monitoring their use. The

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main tasks of the Biodiversity Protection Department are to design and organise the imple mentation of nature protection policy, including soil protection policy.

Other departments (for example Public Relations Department, Legal Department etc) of the MoC will be involved upon need based on the procedures of the MoC. The tasks of the depart ments are fixed internally in the statutes of the departments.

Scheme 1: mana ement structure of the MoC

Minister EreaitteeAaalstmtt andInternal Audit Adnaees to the Umister

Secretary General

Human Resources Dept

Deputy Deputy Deputy Secretary General OePi.ott’ Secretary General Secretary General Deputy Deputy Deputy on Environmental Secretary General cii Energy and on Living Secretary General Secretary General Secretary Generalon Maritime Affairs on Strategy andProtection and on Green Transition Maneral Resources Envitonment and on Mobility ~ Water Resources Innovation BioLogical Diversity Circular Economy

Biodinersuty Protection Green TraoaOon Dept. GreW Dept Circular Economy Dept Mainlty Devdopmeot Manse Environment Criti, Management cod Dept aeudhtveattnentsllept Dept tTSecumty Dept

SEnsate Dept. Mineral Re000tceo Dept Building and Uting Envitomsental Environment Dept. Road and Railways Dept Mactime Dept Financial Dept Manegement cml latematiroral Attain Ambient ilti Dept Radiation Dept Dept. AviaSan Dept Wasne Dept. Strategy, ktalysis and

Digital Ounces Dept Forest Dept

Public Relatlono Dept

Legal Dept. 7 Deputy SecretatyGenetals

24 depanmenia ( tiative Dept Adnrmiottittve Dept.

The jurisdictional structure of the MoC is presented on the scheme 2. Both Programme Component Operators are within the area of government of the ministry and financed from state budget. Estonian Environmental Aciency is the state authority and Environmental Board is governmental authority (they are marked with coloured rings on the scheme). The manage ment structure of Programme Component Operators is presented in 6.2 and 9.2.

Scheme 2: jurisdictional structure of the MoC

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Ministry of Climate

State Owned Public Limited Companies and Foundations

State Authorities Governmental Authorities

• State Forest Management Center • Estonian Environmental Research Center • AS~kosil • SA Keskkonnainvesteeringute Keskus • AS &LA.R.A. • Elering AS • Estonian Air Navigation Services • AS Nordic Aviation Group • AS Operail

• AS Eesti Raudtee • AS Saarte timid

AS Tallinna Lennujaam AS Tallinna Sadam

• 00 Rail Baltic Estonia • oh Trarispordi Varahaldus

Estonian National Committee of tire World Energy Council

Estonian Environment Agency

Estonian Museum of Natural History

IT Centre of the Ministry of the Environment (KEMIT)

Estonian State Fleet

4.1.3 Support Measure management team

Geological survey of Estonia

Will external management personnel be hired to implement the Support Measure?

YesE No~

What personnel capacity will be dedicated Internal resources External resources for the management of the Support Measure implementation (in full-time equivalents 0,3 FTE FTE)?

Programme will be managed by the Programme Operator (MoC). 0,3 FTE of the internal re sources will be dedicated for this task: 0,15 FTE in Financial Department and 0,15 FTE in Biodiversity Protection Department. The Financial Department acts as the main managing unit within the Programme Operator. Financial Department will have the coordinating role and will be the main contact point at the Programme level. Biodiversity Protection Department is re sponsible for the Programme’s thematic area. The tasks of the employees and officials of the MoC are regulated with job descriptions and other relevant documents. The Programme Op erator will guide and monitor the implementation of the Programme Components. Annual ac tivities are defined in the annual work plan of the ministry. During year work plan is regularly monitored. Each Programme Component Operator will nominate the Programme Component manager, who will coordinate the implementation of the concrete component. The manage ment team at the Programme Component level is described in 6.3 and 9.3.

There will be Task Force for ongoing monitoring, that will meet at least two times per year and will consist of Programme Operator, Programme Component Operators, National Coordination Unit and Partner (KEMIT).

As prescribed by the Regulations there will be the Steering Committee established by the National Coordination Unit, that will be composed at least from the NCU, SCO, Programme Operator and Programme Component Operator. The Steering Committee will supervise the progress of implementation and make suggestions for improvements and approve modifica tions to the Support Measure. The Steering Committee will meet at least once per year.

~<1

Estonian Transport Administration

Environmental Board

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The Programme Operator will also participate at Annual Meetings of the Cooperation Pro gramme.

The function mentioned in Regulations Article 6.8 p.3 will be implemented by the State Shared Service Centre. In accordance with the Regulations Article 3.4.2. no Intermediate Bodies shall be set up for the implementation of the Support Measure. State Shared Service Centre, which acts as the competence centre for the implementation of structural and other funds in Estonia, carries out the tasks in accordance with Article 6.8 p.3 of the Regulations for the implementa tion of the Support Measure. The activities that are carried out in accordance with Article 6.8 p.3 by the State Shared Service Centre are financed from the Support Measure. The fulfilment of the functions of the National Coordination Unit, which is located in the same organization and is financed from the Technical Assistance Fund, is completely separated from these ac tivities.

The implementation scheme of the Programme is attached in Annex 7.

Are CVs attached to this documentation? YesLI No~

Are terms of reference for the management functions to be established Yes LI N0IXI attached to this documentation?

4.1.4 Programme and project management experience

The ministry has a comprehensive experience on use, management and monitoring of grants allocated by the European Union or other donors, as pursuant to the act of Government of the Republic, the minister monitors the accurate and purposeful implementation of the budget and the purposeful use of funds, aid and grants in the area of government of the ministry. Ministry coordinates and organises the development and use of support programmes and measures financed by external funds (European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund, Just Tran sition Fund, Recovery and Resilience Facility, European Economic Area and Norwegian Fi nancial Mechanisms, Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme) and monitors their use. Also, ministry is involved as project leader or partner into implementation of concrete projects.

As described in the previous sections the Ministry of Climate was formed on the basis of Min istry of the Environment (MoE). MoE was the intermediate body for the programme “Enhanc ing public environmental monitoring capacities” supported by the previous Swiss Contri bution in amount of 8 426 189,90 CHF. The objective of the programme was to enhance public environmental monitoring capacities for the whole country in order to reduce environmental pollution, to increase the quality of environmental information and living standards and to pro mote sustainable economic development. As clean water resources, high ambient air quality and radiation safety are of vital importance for humans and ecosystems, the programme was focused on development of surveillance capacities in these sectors. The biodiversity monitor ing was not covered by previous contribution.

Ministry of Climate acts as lead partner in several LIFE Integrated Projects:

• “Comprehensive management of forest and farming landscapes to improve the conservation status of Natura 2000 habitats and species” (LIFE18 IPEIEE/000007, ForEst&FarmLand, 3 FTE). Implementation period 01 .01 .2020 - 31.12.2029. Total eli gible budget is 19561 784 EUR, from which EU contribution is 11 611 434 EUR. The main objective of the project is to implement the most critical part of the Estonian Pri oritised Actions Framework (PAF) for Natura 2000 related to forests and agricultural land. The aims are 1) to improve the conservation status of forest and farmland habitats

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and species to achieve results that benefit whole ecosystems; 2) to improve conserva tion practices and collaboration between administrative authorities; and 3) to raise awareness and capacity of main stakeholders and general public, including the use of innovative conservation tools and solutions. “Development of an integrated water management and its modern tools in Esto nia - strategic choices for future” (LIFE17IPE/EE/000007, CleanEST). Implementa tion period 01.01.2019 - 31.12.2028). Total budget is 16666000 EUR. The main ob jective of the project is to implement the most critical part of the East Estonian water management plan. The project’s main fields of activity are reducing harmfulness of re sidual pollution, identifying and restoring the goods of ecosystems, developing solu tions to reduce the pressure from agriculture on the environment, identification of the need for reclamation of the local management systems, liquidation of migration barriers to improve the ecological status of the rivers, increasing environmental awareness. There are 4,8 FTE from MoC involved in this project.

• “Implementation of national climate change adaptation activities in Esto nia” (LIFE21 -IPC-EE-LIFE-SIP AdaptEstll 01069566). Implementation period 01 .01 .2023 —31 .03.2032. Total eligible budget is 18859 312 EUR, form which EU contribution is 11 294 017 EUR. Climate Change Adaptation Development Plan until 2030 sets eight subgoals based on the priority sectors of the economic and adminis trative structure in the Republic of Estonia (independently and partially combined) from which the implementation of five is supported by the project: (1) health and rescue capacity, (2) land use and planning, (3) natural environment, (4) bioeconomy, (5) so ciety, awareness and cooperation.

• “Pursuing Estonian national climate ambition through smart and resilient reno vation” (LIFE2O IPC/EE/000010). Implementation period 01 .11.2021 — 31.12.2028. Total eligible budget is 16 226711 EUR, form which EU contribution is 9 500 000 EUR. The long-term objective of the project is to increase the ambition, and pave the way for reducing CO2 emissions, of Estonia’s existing building stock by up to 100% (—4.5 mil lion tCO2/yr) by 2050. In the short-term, the project aims to pursue the 2030 goal of reducing the C02 emissions by 32% (—1.4 million tCO2/yr). Achieving the objectives will help to mitigate the effect that energy performance of buildings has on climate change.

4.2 Detailed intervention strategy and activities

4.2.1 Detailed description of activities and intervention strategy

One of the objectives of the programme is to enhance wildlife monitoring through the testing and implementation of new solutions and technologies. New technology will be integrated into monitoring schemes. For example, 3D bird radars will be used in bird monitoring, which will increase the accuracy of the data and also, it will increase the efficiency and operativeness. There are few programmes that support testing new solutions and tools in wildlife monitoring and this is one of the reason that this field is not developing as fast as it could. It is especially important to implement new and old methods at the same time in order to calibrate the results, so the longtime series of data sets will be continued. Also, eDNA, laser binoculars and other suitable tools and solutions will be tested and integrated into monitoring schemes.

Environment Agency is developing Al for the monitoring of game species. According to the existing method, data of the game species is collected in winter and the presence of snow cover is important. Due to the climate change, Estonian winters are smoother and there are fewer days with snow cover, especially in areas that are close to the sea. Developing and using Al is one alternative for the existing method. That also requires great amount of tracking cam eras. Development of the Al and purchasing of the tracking cameras is financed from other

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funds, but additional personnel is necessary in order to speed up the training and using of the Al and implement new Random Encounter Model in game species monitoring. At the moment there are around 100 cameras in use, but by 2024 there will be 700. There are 7 times more work in installing cameras and managing data. After the new system is in place and Al is smart enough to sort empty pictures and recognize different species, this extra person is no longer required.

As the main objective of the Swiss Support is to improve decision making through qualitative data, it is important to improve IT systems and databases that would decrease human work, help to analyse great amount of data and make it easier to understand. Data is often scattered in different systems and quality of data varies. It is necessary to bring the data together, de velop analytical tools and make it more attractive, visible, and understandable. Also, it is also necessary to improve citizen science. Citizen science can play an important role by filling data gaps where conventional data sources may not be sufficient, providing complementary tem poral and spatial data that supports official monitoring systems. Besides collecting additional data, promoting citizen science gives the opportunity to raise environmental awareness.

The second component of the programme is related to enhancing the protection of natural values in protected areas and endangered species. So far, the effectiveness of protection measures has been evaluated in few protected areas, so it is not clear which protection measures are the most effective for protecting species and habitats. Therefore, an evaluation of effectiveness of protected areas is carried out, and based on these results, it is necessary to update area-based conservation management plans. Management plans must also take into account those aspects that have not been paid attention to, e.g. how to contribute to the survival of species and habitats in changing climate conditions. Also, how to integrate conser vation management plans (the state’s responsibility) into the green networks specified in gen eral plans of municipalities. Improving the effectiveness of the green network is also important for achieving the conservation objectives of the protected area by providing green corridors for the spread of species between the areas. In order to evaluate the effectiveness, it is necessary to carry out additional inventories, otherwise it is not possible to have adequate up-to-date information about the status of species and habitats in protected areas. In order to ensure the uniform quality of the inventories, the inventory methodologies will be updated, and inventory guidelines will be prepared for those habitat groups where they are still missing.

Area based conservation objectives are not enough to achieve the favorable status of species and habitats. For this purpose, nationwide objectives will be set, including favorable reference values for each species and habitat, and measures on how to achieve the objectives. For this purpose, national action plans for habitat and species will be prepared for those habitat groups and protected species, where this has not yet been done. In addition to determining the threat- ness of species according to the Red List, species are divided into different protection catego ries, which are subject to different rules. For example, 100% of the localities of species of protection category I must be protected, at least 50% of localities of species of protection cat egory II, and at least 10% of localities of species of protection category Ill. The current distri bution needs to be reassessed because, for various reasons, the status of some species has improved in the meantime and that of other species has deteriorated. Designation of updated protection categories will help to protect more effectively those species that need it most.

The inventories made by the Environmental Board are inserted into the database managed by the Environmental Agency, the results of the inventory are the basis for national monitoring, while additional information about the natural values of protected areas can be obtained based on the monitoring results. Creating an automatic transfer between the Estonian nature infor mation system (data on protected areas, protected species, inventories) and the monitoring database enables the use of relevant information, so that there is no need to use different databases. Manual workload will be reduced. The information needed to manage the protected areas will be relevant, and easy to use for both state authorities and the wider public. The

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protection of natural values is more effective, is based on data that is comprehensible to all, and ensures the improvement of the status of species and habitats. Greater involvement of interest groups and voluntary monitoring will help to improve the understanding of the need to protect nature more broadly. These are the basic conditions for the general improvement of the state of nature, which in turn helps to contribute to the fulfillment of the goals and the targets of Global Biodiversity Framework.

4.2.2 Detailed description of selection process for Programme Components

Not relevant, as all components have been selected.

4.2.3 Communication activities

Programme’s launching and closing event is organized by the Ministry of Climate. We are planning to involve media, stakeholders and competent authorities on both events for the pur pose of increasing awareness of Programme and also environmental awareness.

We are planning to send joint press releases and social media posts once a year during the implementation period. Throughout the period, the public will be informed about the progress of the programme through various activities by Programme Component Operators. Also, we are monitoring media (articles, press releases etc) through “Station” (Estonian media monitor ing programme).

There will be communication activities (articles, social medias posts, television and/or radio) at the Programme Components level (Annex 1,3.1):

Environmental Agency

• We will use our social media channels (Facebook and Instagram) to post news of the results of the project (at least 20). Our Facebook page has approximately 10 000 fol lowers;

• Social media boosts: we will boost important and attractive posts (2) and with that, our posts will reach at least 200 000 social media users;

• We will publish at least 4 blog posts, which will be shared in the list of journalists. With that, we can reach biggest Estonian newspapers (Postimees, Delfi, Pãevaleht, Maaleht etc), both paper and web, which are covering most of the population in Estonia;

• 8 articles of the new solutions and technologies in the wildlife monitoring (Al, 3D radars, etc), target group wider public;

• 2 events where new solutions and technologies will be demonstrated, target group up to 150 persons, experts in the field and data users (scientists, hunters, windfarm de velopers, etc). This will also enhance networking and collaboration among different stakeholders;

• Citizen science campaigns (20) to involve volunteers in wildlife monitoring. During the campaigns we aim to reach up to 1000 people;

• 2 bigger events for volunteers to present the results of the campaigns, recognize vol unteers, enhance networking and collaboration for the future. This helps to strengthen the network and also this helps to bring the results of the project to more people through dedicated people. Target group up to 150 persons, volunteers, wildlife enthusiasts and specialists, active community members and environmental specialists of the local coun ties;

• Television, we will propose our topics at least to 2 national broadcasts and shows like Terevisioon (80 000 viewers) and Osoon (160 000 — 180 000 viewers);

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• At least 8 appearances/interviews on radio shows (e.g Vikerraadio, Okoskoop etc). Vikerraadio is the most listened radio (120 000 listeners/day and during a week they can reach up to 228 000 people);

• In the final stage of the project, we plan to make a presentation in Switzerland to intro duce the results of the project to interested target groups (wildlife experts and special ists, scientists, officials, financiers of the programme, etc) who could benefit from our experience and who could replicate the results.

The Environmental Board

• The overall communication and management costs for Programme Component 2 in clude newspaper and social media articles (e.g more than 36,000 print circulation of the national newspaper, more than 12,000 Facebook users) and compilation of the webpage. Examples of management plans and action plans are translated into English.

• When assessing the management effectiveness (Activity 1) of larger areas where dif ferent stakeholders are involved, meetings are organised to introduce the results of the assessment and get the input from stakeholders. There is a need to publish newspaper advertisements in local and/or national newspapers, introduce the topic on the webpage. When organising meetings with stakeholders it may be necessary to rent rooms and organise coffee breaks. During hybrid meetings it is necessary to rent extra technical equipment for audio and video solutions. The results of management effec tiveness assessment will be introduced to the public: a digital i~eport/summary will be published in Estonian and English. The report has to be digitally designed.

• In the process of preparing of site-based management plans (Activity 2) interest groups are involved. The project will produce a total of 64 management plans. All of them are introduced to the public on the website (www.keskkonnaamet.ee), newspaper adver tisements are published in local or national newspapers, meetings are organised (in- person meetings, hybrid meetings using MS Teams), letters are sent to stakeholders. When organising meetings with stakeholders it is necessary to rent rooms and organise coffee breaks. During hybrid meetings it may be necessary to rent extra technical equipment for audio and video solutions.

• In the process of preparing habitat action plans (Activity 2) interest groups are involved. The project will produce at least three habitat plans. They are introduced to the public on the website (www.keskkonnaamet.ee), newspaper advertisements are published in national newspapers, meetings are organised (in-person meetings, using MS Teams), letters are sent to stakeholders. During hybrid meetings it may be necessary to rent extra technical equipment for audio and video solutions. When organising meetings with stakeholders it is necessary to rent rooms and organise coffee breaks.

• In the process of proposing the changes in protection categories of species and pre paring action plans for protected species (Activity 3) interest groups (mostly universities and experts) are involved. The project will produce 60 action plans. When preparing the action plans http://www.keskkonnaamet.ee/ meetings with experts/universities are organised (in-person meetings, hybrid meetings using MS Teams). When organising meetings it is necessary to rent rooms and organise coffee breaks. During hybrid meet ings it may be necessary to rent extra technical equipment for audio and video solution.

• Communication with local authorities (79 local municipalities): one seminar per year (conservation management and green infrastructure) is organised. The costs include advertisements, room rent, coffee breaks, renting equipment for audio and video solu tions.

4.2.4 Detailed implementation schedule

Please see annex 6.

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4.3 Logframe

Hierarchy of objectives Key Indicators Sources & Means of Vent i- Assumptions & Risks Strategy of Intervention (mci. target values and baseline) cation (External Factors)

Impact Impact Indicators Impact: Sources and Means ofVerification

Improved conservation status of Proportion of habitat types and species National reports and data- Depends on other measures threatened habitats and species with an improved status, 30% by 2030. bases implemented in Estonia.

The baseline is the 2019 assessment of the Habitats Directive Article 17 report. A 30% improvement should be achieved compared to the results of this report (therefore baseline is 0).

Outcomes (Support Measure objectives Outcome Indicators Outcome: Sources and Means Outcome /purpose) of Verification Assumptions & Risks

1. The efficiency and reliability of bio- 1. Data collected as part of the biodiver- 1. Estonian Nature Infor- • insufficient financing of diversity monitoring has improved sity monitoring programme reaches the mation system; National Bi- national biodiversity mon

databases within one year through auto- odiversity Monitoring Pro- itoring programme and bi

2. The effectiveness of management mated process gramme odiversity protection in planning of protected areas as well as Baseline: no automated process, most of the future due the na protected species and habitats has the date reaches databases within more 2. Support Measure Corn- tionai security and improved than one year pietion Report with exam- changes in priorities andthat can affect the suspies of guidelines, manage-

2. New guidelines for drawing up man- ment and action plans tainability of the supportmeasure agement plans of protected areas have • Institutional reforms been implemented • Changes in legislation Baseline: The previous guidelines are outdated (2012, updated 2018)

Outputs: Support Measure deliverables/re- Output Indicators Output:Sources and Means of Verifica- Outputsuits per outcome tion Assumptions & Risks

1.1. Existing IT systems (databases and portals) and their connectivity is improved

2.1. Site-based and national conser vation objectives and measures for protected species and habitats are revised

2.2. The conservation management plans of protected areas, action plans for species and habitats are revised and updated

At least 4 additional connections or tools for the exchange of data between the IT systems have been established Baseline: 0 for additional connections and tools (overall, IT systems has already many other existing connections and tools)

The effectiveness of the management of at least 300 protected objects (dif ferent types of protected areas) is as sessed

Baseline: 0 (using new methodology) • 5 action plans for habitats; 64 conser

vation management plans for pro tected areas using a new format, 5 action plans for habitats and 24% of all the protected species in Estonia have action plans

Baselines: 2 action plans for habitats; 0 conservation management plans for pro tected areas (using the new format) • 16% of all the protected species in

Estonia have action plans. The pro tection categories of all the protected species’ groups (not separate spe cies) are evaluated

Support Measure Comple tion describing the connec tivity of IT systems

• Support Measure Com pletion with examples of guidelines, manage ment and action plans

• Final report of manage ment effectiveness as sessment

• Management plans and habitats action plans are compiled and are pub licly available through the database

• The draft regulation for the change of protection categories of species is prepared.

Risks:

• Price of the services and equipment will increase

• IT developments take longer than planned

• The number of potential service providers (includ ing experts) is limited that impacts public procure ments and public pro curements may fail

• The quality of services is low

• Being unable to hire the personnel for the pro g ramme

1 .2. New technologies and novel so- At least 5 new developed and piloted so- National Biodiversity Moni lutions for biodiversity monitoring are lutions (Random Encounter Method, Arti- toring Programme mapped, developed, tested and im- ficial Intelligence, 3D bird radar, eDNA plemented and, other new technical solutions that

will be worked out in first stage of the pro ject Baseline: 0 •

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Baseline: 0 • Draft document to change the regu

lations of protection categories is pre pared

Baseline: 0 • The toolset for conservation manage

ment effectiveness assessment is set up and in use in the Environmental Board

Baseline: 0 3.Competence of the specialists as well as public awareness and en gagement is improved

• At least 21 trainings/seminars • At least 8 study trips • A network of volunteers is created • At least 20 campaigns to involve vol

unteers in wildlife monitoring • 2 bigger events for volunteers • 2 bigger events for stakeholders • At least 8 articles of the new solutions

in wildlife monitoring • At least 8 appearances in radio

shows • At least 2 appearances in TV shows • 1 presentation in Switzerland to intro

duce the results of the project • CC_Cl_i Number of people benefit

ing from training to improve institu tional and professional capacity

• Annual Support Meas ure Reports

• Registration lists • In crosscutting indicator

the disaggregation of training participants only by gender, but not along disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged groups will be made

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4.4 Swiss Support Measure Partner(s)

Institutional partnership is not planned, however, the Environmental Board will organise two study trips to Switzerland (they have contacted the Swiss National Park): five days for six spe cialists each, the emphasis of one of the study trips is habitat protection and the emphasis of the other study trip is species protection. The aim of the trips is to learn about conservation management planning/strategies, habitat and species data collection, using GIS). Also Envi ronment Agency will have one study trip to Switzerland in late stage of the programme to share the experiences and present the results. Some of the planned public procurements exceed international threshold and Swiss organizations can participate in the process and make their offer.

4.5 Stakeholder consultations

Stakeholder consultation took place on the 5th of June 2023. The invitation was sent to about 150 persons and institutions: to all local authorities, universities, organisations involved into monitoring or biodiversity protection (please see invitation letter in annex 10). There were 32 participants (please see registration list in annex 10). After the event there was an opportunity for written feedback (please see afteiword and event materials in annex 10).

At the beginning of the event the objectives and expected results of the programme were introduced and an overview on the development trends in nature conservation was given. Afterwards each pro gramme component operator introduced main actions to the participants and two different workshops were organized where participants had the chance to point out problems, propose new ideas and actions.

Ideas and actions that were described in the proposal and introduced to the stakeholders, were all supported. Those were: 3D bird radar, development and training of the Al, including imple menting the Random Encounter Model more widely in game species monitoring, testing new solutions and technology in wild life monitoring (eDNA, remote monitoring solutions, automa tion, laser binoculars, drones with thermos cameras, telemetry surveys), promoting citizen sci ence and also development of the IT systems.

Stakeholders agreed that data should be easier to collect, more accessible and more under standable. The interface of different systems was considered necessary which would make data queries easier and faster. Data up-to-dateness was considered important, especially in decision-making. Stakeholders pointed out that entering data into databases should be simpli fied, including creating solutions for mass-data. If possible, some of the IT systems should be as mobile applications. Testing the capabilities of eDNA was strongly emphasized.

The project activities proposed by the Environmental Board, were also supported. The repre sentatives of local municipalities said that they would like to participate more in the process of compiling management plans. They pointed out that updating species data and management plans is crucial in general planning processes and decision making. It is necessary to know which areas are suitable for development and planning the use of mineral resources. The En vironmental Board will organise joint seminars for local municipalities in order to discuss how conservation management and principles of green infrastructure work together.

The representatives of universities said that they are ready to carry out necessary inventories, give expert opinions and put together methodologies for habitats inventories. They agreed that protection categories of species need to be updated as well. Expert opinions about species give input to action plans and help decision making and law enforcement.

It was pointed out that updated site-based management plans and action plans that describe objectives, pressures, risks and measures are necessary for environmental impact assess ment.

In summary, the proposed ideas and activities were supported, no one objected neither con cept nor content of Programme.

4.6 Tentative Budget

4.6.1 Detailed tentative budget

The budget is attached in Annex 4. Budget is split between three main parts:

1. ManaQement costs: o This part includes costs only for Programme Management (costs done at the Pro

gramme level). Costs connected to the management and implementation (including involvement of partners) of the Programme Components are included into the budget of components.

o This part includes also the costs of State Shared Service Centre for the fulfilment of the function in accordance with Regulations Article 6.8 p.3 In accordance with the Regulations Article 3.4.2. no Intermediate Bodies shall be set up for the imple mentation of the Support Measure. State Shared Service Centre, which acts as the competence centre for the implementation of structural and other funds in Estonia, carries out the tasks in accordance with Article 6.8 p.3 of the Regulations for the implementation of the Support Measure. The activities that are carried out in ac cordance with Article 6.8 p.3 by the State Shared Service Centre are financed from the Support Measure. The fulfilment of the functions of the National Coordination Unit, which is located in the same organization and is financed from the Technical Assistance Fund, is completely separated from these activities.

2. Programme Component 1 “Development of innovative monitoring technologies/solutions and improvement of Environmental databases and systems”

3. Programme Component 2 “Implementation of a systematic assessment of the social and conservation outcomes of protected areas”

~I5O

4~6.2 Tentative Disbursement Plan

Reimbursement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Period

Estimated reim- 926 117,50 926 117,50 843 284,71 843 284,71 854 997,31 854 997,31 836 038,88 836 038,88 9 122,84 bursement of Swiss Contribu tion in CHF

4.7 Risk Analysis and Risk Management

Risk Impact Likeli- Risk level Mitigation measure(s) [1—5] hood

[1 —5]

Institutional reforms 1 3 Low Internal institutional reform is on going in the Environmental Board, but it has low impact on support measure, because the project activities can be adjusted to the new structure of the insti tution.

Changes in legislation 3 3 Low-Medium Necessary adjustments in the programme will be made follow ing the legislative changes

Price of the services 3 3 Low-Medium To mitigate the risk, we have and equipment will in- taken this into account in the crease preparation of the budget and we

have added necessary buffer. In case buffer will be not needed we will make a proposal to transfer it to another budget line.

IT developments take 3 4 Medium-High We are already developing pro longer than planned curement documents to save

time and start as soon as agree ment is signed.

The number of potential 3 3 Low-Medium To mitigate the risks, we have in- service providers (in- volved stakeholder in the prepa cluding experts) is lim- ration of this programme and we ited that impacts public will actively spread the infor procurements and pub- mation of the public procure lic procurements may ments and as the number of po fail tential service providers is limited

in Estonia, we will use interna tional public procurements if nec essary and mandatory according to the law.

The quality of services 3 3 Low-Medium When ordering services it is nec- is low essary to plan well ahead and

provide the quality criteria that need to be followed. The ser vices have to be described in de tail in contracts, if work does not confirm to the contract, a chance to improve the work is given. It is necessary to check the quality services offered regularly.

Risk Impact Likeli- Risk level Mitigation measure(s) [1 —5] hood

[1 —5]

Institutional reforms 1 3 Low Internal institutional reform is on going in the Environmental Board, but it has low impact on support measure, because the project activities can be adjusted to the new structure of the insti tution.

Changes in legislation 3 3 Low-Medium Necessary adjustments in the programme will be made follow ing the legislative changes

Being unable to hire the 4 2 Low-Medium It is necessary to provide the sal- personnel for the pro- aries that motivate, also, ser gramme vices can be chosen instead.

Overall Risk Level Support Measure Medium-low

Comments on the overall risk level (if In general we think the risk is low, but there are any) some risk mentioned above that evaluated as low-medium.

4.8 Monitoring and Steering

In accordance with Regulations the Support Measure Steering Committee will be established to supervise the progress of implementation of the Programme and make suggestions for im provements, to approve in accordance with Regulations any modifications based on the pro posal by the Programme Operator.

There will be Task Force for ongoing monitoring of the Programme and Programme Compo nents. The Task Force will propose any modif ications to the Steering Committee.

The resources for Steering Committee and Task Force meetings are foreseen in the Pro gramme Budget.

4.9

N/A

Other operational issues

5. Annexes

# Annex 1 Intervention logic

2 Overview of Implementation locations

3 Programme Characteristics

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Annex 4 Budget

5 Procurement Plan

6 Implementation schedule

7 Implementation scheme

8 Detailed Information to Programme Component 1

8-1 Environment Agency actions and personnel

9 Detailed Information to Programme Component 2

10 Stakeholder consultation

11 Feedback on the recommendations

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Annex 2: Overview of Implementation locations

General (Programme Management)

Location name Address

Ministry of the Climate (Kllimaministeerium) Suur-Ameerika 1, Tallinn

Programme Component 1 “Development of innovative monitoring technologies/solu tions and improvement of Environmental databases and systems”

Location name Address

Estonian Environment Agency (Keskkonnaagentuur) Mustamäe tee 33, Tallinn

Programme Component 2 “Implementation of a systematic assessment of the social and conservation outcomes of protected areas”

Location name Address

Environmental Board of Estonia (Keskkonnaamet) Roheline 64, Pärnu

Annex [8] Detailed Information to Programme Component

Basic Programme Component Information

Title Development of innovative monitoring technologies/so lutions and improvement of Environmental databases and systems

Planned Duration [months) 48

Requested Swiss contribu- 2 883 589,89 tion (OH F)

Requested co-financing 85% rate of Switzerland [%}

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6. Programme Component Operator

6.1 Basic Information

Name of Programme Corn- Environment Agency ponent Operator

Type of entity National administration

If type of organization is “other”, describe the type briefly

Name of contact person Mr Lauri Klein

Position Wildlife monitoring coordinator

Correspondence address: Mustamãe tee 33, Tallinn, Estonia

E-Mail [email protected]

[email protected]

Webpage and social media https:I/keskkonnaaqentuur.ee/en (if any)

https://www.facebook.com/Keskkonnaaqentuu r

Date of establishment 01.06.2013 Tax number (if applicable) EEl 01646790

Number of employees 208 (31.10.2023)

Financial Turnover for each of the 3 previous years [in EUR] 2020 — 12 075 890;

2021 —11 873025;

2022—12 0111 311.

Has the Programme Component Operator previously received YesLi No~ funding from the Swiss Contribution?

6.2 Programme Component Operator Management

Since 1st of April 2022, matrix management is implemented in the Environmental Agency. There are three functional managers who are responsible for different functions and services. As seen in the chart, there are six main departments reporting to the director and functional managers. Wildlife department will be the main department responsible for the management and implementation of the Swiss-Estonian cooperation programme.

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Director

Functional manager o Functional manager o Functional manager Ot

developrnentc anti analysis and reporting data rn inagement and servicos monitoring

Development and Env*onmnn;ai analysis Data m,nounment and pi~nrvng departmnnt ~ mon znrinR dn~ar1mnnt

Cnnerai dopariment

Environmental use department

Wildlife department

Forest department

Weather forcast department

Meteorological department

Hydrology department

6.3 Programme Component Management

Will external management personnel be hired to implement the Pro- Yes~ No~1 gramme Component?

What personnel capacity will be dedicated Internal resources External resources for the management of the Programme Com ponent implementation (in full-time equiva- 1,0 4,0 FTE lents FTE)?

It is necessary to use external resources to implement the actions planned with the Swiss Estonian cooperation programme. All those people will be working in the Wildlife department.

Project manager (full-time, period 2024-2027) (hereinafter the term “project” refers to the term “Programme Component’) — responsible for the project team management and the implemen tation of the actions, preparation of the public procurements, documentation and budget, or ganizing study trips, communication and translation of the documents, etc. Potential project manager is already involved in the preparation of the application.

Chief specialist (monitoring specialist, full-time, period 2024-2027) — additional employee, who will be responsible for the development, testing and implementation of new monitoring meth odologies, including contribution to the preparation of the acquisition of mobile 3D bird radar and responsible for the implementation and integration of the equipment into the national mon itoring methodologies. In cooperation with scientists and technical experts, map possible novel methodologies, solutions (eDNA) and equipment (night observation equipment, transmitters, remote sensing solutions, etc.) to be used in the wildlife and ecosystem monitoring. Arrange testing of mapped novel monitoring methodologies, equipment, and solutions. Also, monitoring specialist will be responsible for the involvement of volunteers and organization of the cam paigns.

Specialist (monitoring assistant, full-time, period 2024-2027) — additional employee, who will help to implement the new REM (Random Encounter Model) methodology, contributes to the collection of data through track cameras, data management and training of the artificial intelli gence (Al) to be created.

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Chief specialist (IT specialist in the Environmental Agency, part-time, internal specialist, work load 0.5, period 2024-2027) — contributes to the compilation of the initial IT tasks: advises the IT developer, tests and introduces the results. A person with the same work load (0.5) will start working in the IT Centre of the Ministry of the Climate in the period 2024-2027. He/she will be responsible for the business analyses, organizing IT related public procurements and he/she will be the main contact person for developers. Also, he/she will be responsible for the quality of the services.

Specialist (data specialist, full-time, period 2024-2027) — organizes the entry and updating of data in Estonian Nature Information System (EELIS) collected within the framework of inven tories ordered by the Environmental Board. Also contributes to the development of IT systems.

It is more cost-effective to hire a person than outsource the service. It also ensures operational efficiency, better control of the work and sustainability of the results as it helps to preserve the institutional memory.

At the moment terms of reference for the functions is not yet established, but main tasks and actions have been described in the annex.

Are CVs attached to this documentation? YesLi No~

Are terms of reference for the management functions to be established Yes LI No~ attached to this documentation?

6A Programme and Project Management Experience

In the last 5 years, Environment Agency has implemented 9 environmental projects (15 addi tional FTE-s) and monitoring programmes (2019-2023). Most programmes are implemented on regular bases and are still ongoing. For example, implementing the national wildlife and landscape monitoring programme, developing the prototype of Al (game species), developing the nature observation mobile application.

Wildlife and landscape monitoring programme is mostly financed from national budget. In the past years, the yearly budget has been 455 000 euros (without VAT, personnel costs ex cluded), which is used to outsource services (e.g monitoring of eagles, amphibians, flying squirrels, bats, seals, forest birds, etc.) from wildlife experts. Every year there are around 50 monitoring works. Mostly public procurement is used or simpler procurements which is accord ance with the law and internal procedures of the Agency. Monitoring team consists of 12 per sons and their salary is covered from the state budget.

KAUR is the leading partner of the ELME project. The main objective of the project is mapping and assessment of Estonian ecosystems and related ecosystem services. Besides, new meth odologies and technologies were tested in wildlife monitoring, including Random Encounter Methodology (REM), drones and acoustic sensors. Project activities started in 2016 and it will be finished in the end of 2023. Total cost of the project is 1,65 million euros and it is financed from the EU Cohesion Fund. Co-financing comes from the state budget and National Environ mental Programme. Employees responsible for managing the project and implementing the activities are still working in the Agency.

Also, an Al prototype was developed in 2020-202 1 (duration 15 months), which was financed from European Regional Development Fund. Total cost of the development was 95 400 euros. The aim of the project was to develop an Al prototype that could recognize species from the tracking camera photos. In the first stage, Al had to recognize pictures with animal and without animal and remove pictures where no animal was recognized. The prototype had to learn two

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species (roe deer and marten), but it was able to learn other species too (accuracy depended on the quality and number of training photos). Public procurement was used to find the best developer. Employees responsiblefor the preparation of the public procurement documents and development of the Al, are still working in the Agency.

7. Programme Component Description

7.1 Short Summary

Goal of this Programme Component is to develop and implement new monitoring methods, technical solutions and approaches in wildlife monitoring to improve the quality and volume of the data. Also, cost-efficiency is also taken into account~

Wildlife monitoring has been done for decades using the same methodologies. On the one hand, it is important to use same methodologies so the data would be comparable and long time series would not be interrupted, but on the other hand, with the development of technol ogy, it could be possible to do the same work more efficiently, faster and with higher quality. Taken into account the costs, including salary and travel costs necessary to conduct field works and at the same time, the limited number of specialists, new solutions are essential. But it takes time to test new methods, solutions and approaches and compare the data that was collected with old methodologies. It is also important to validate new solutions and data.

With the use of modern technological solutions, we hope to achieve a new and higher level in wildlife monitoring. This will also improve the quality of the environmental decisions as smarter decisions can be made based on higher quality and more data.

7.2 Activities and Expected Results

Development and implementation of the new methods, technology and approaches (Annex 1, 1 .2.1). This includes acquisition of mobile 3D bird radar and also other new technologies for wildlife biodiversity monitoring — the aim is to map and test new technologies and solutions in wildlife monitoring to increase the quality and reliability of data. More specifically, the ambition is to create remote sensing solutions for mapping the spread of forest losses and reeds, auto matic renewal of the maps of ecosystem services completed in previous projects, acquiring modern technology and testing them in wildlife monitoring (new night observation equipment for monitoring e.g. Western Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) and Great Snipe (Gallinago media), drones with thermosensors, binoculars measuring height and distance for bird monitoring, etc.). Technologies and solutions must be mapped in cooperation with the experts in the field, which is why the list of activities is left open.

Output: 1 mobile 3D bird radar acquired and at least 3 new methodologies/solutions have been tested and integrated into wildlife monitoring programme. Result: These new methodolo gies/solutions can supplement or replace existing ones. Data volume and quality improved.

Wider deployment of Random Encounter Methodology (REM) and training of Artificial Intelli gence (Al) (Annex 1, 1.2.1) — The Environment Agency has tested the REM method to collect data in a small area using track cameras and created a prototype of Al that can identify different animal species from track camera photos and assess their abundance. The prototype will be further developed, and 700 track cameras have been procured (financed from the European Union Cohesion Fund), allowing them to be installed all over Estonia. Over the next years, the number of track cameras and photos they take, will increase at least by 7 times, which means

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more workload to install and maintain them and to work through the photos cameras automat ically take. It is temporarily necessary to hire a person to introduce a new methodology and train Al, which would allow replacing the old methodology with a new one.

Output: Al trained, REM fully developed and tested. Result: The REM methodology has been applied all over Estonia. Alternative method for monitoring of the game species developed and time-consuming photo-analysis automated with usage of Al.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) testing (Annex 1, 1 .2.1) in wildlife biodiversity monitoring — use of eDNA in biodiversity monitoring is a rapidly developing field, but its potential has not yet been tested in Estonian national biodiversity monitoring. Potential species or species groups will be mapped, pilot areas will be selected and eDNA usability will be tested for biodiversity monitor ing.

Output: usability potential of eDNA is evaluated, method is tested and where appropriate it is integrated into wildlife monitoring methodologies. Result: Data volume and quality is improved, cost-efficiency is increased.

Promoting citizen science and creating network of volunteers (Annex 1, 1.1.2 and 3.1)— use of citizen science and involvement of volunteers in environmental monitoring is an increasingly important topic around the world. It creates new opportunities to engage people, collect more data and improve the quality of data, promote cooperation between different parties, involve civil society organisations in policymaking, prevent and solve problems as well as increase environmental awareness in society. Among other things, it helps to pay greater attention to emerging environmental problems, prevent loopholes both in legislation and monitoring data as well as improve data collection process.

Output: a network of volunteers is created. At least 20 campaigns (some campaigns will be repeated every year) have been organised in 4 years: 2 bigger events for volunteers. Voluntary monitoring is integrated into wildlife monitoring methodologies. Result: involvement of volun teers in wildlife monitoring is improved and data volume is increased.

Development of IT systems (Annex 1, 1.1.1)— Environmental data is kept in different systems in Estonia and often those systems are not linked to each other which means that data must be transferred manually from one system to another. Also, there is a risk, that relevant and updated information is not used in decision making and analysis. In order to facilitate fieldwork, it is necessary to create a fieldwork tool that allows the field-workers to enter the monitoring and inventory data directly to the system already in the field. This would reduce the workload of officials and ensure a faster data delivery into system. It is also necessary to create a man agement efficiency assessment tool for the Environmental Board into EELIS. It should help officials assess the efficiency of the management of protected areas.

Output: the necessary connections and tools for the exchange of data between the IT systems have been established; management efficiency tool in EELIS has been created; fieldwork tool has been created. Results: time-consuming manual human work is decreased, data transfer between different IT systems is improved and quality of the automated analysis is increased. Thanks to this, quality of the environmental decisions is improved.

The activities are described in more detail in the annex of the application.

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7.3 Beneficiaries

Environment Agency is the main beneficiary, who will benefit directly from this Programme Component. In addition, 0,5 position, is planned for the IT Centre of the Ministry of the Envi ron ment.

According to the law, it is mandatory to organize public procurements in order to outsource services and equipment. Indirectly universities (eDNA) and enterprises that provided specific equipment (e.g. 3D bird radar) or service (IT developments) benefit from this programme.

After creating better tools (IT systems, Al) and using more efficient equipment in wildlife mon itoring that allows to collect more and improve the quality of the data, different private and public organizations benefit from this programme — Environment Board, Ministry of the Climate, companies that do environmental impact assessments, universities and scientists using wild life data, etc.

Is the benefit of the Programme Component a na- Nationals RegionalLi tional or regional benefit?

If regional, indicate the benefiting NUTS-2 regions.

7.4 Sustainability

After the end of the Swiss-Estonian cooperation programme, Environment Agency will main tain the results and finance the activities necessary to maintain the developed IT systems and implementing new monitoring methods. Aim of the programme is to develop more efficient systems and methods (e.g REM and Al), that would replace the old ones. Thanks to the de velopment of the IT systems, less human work is necessary and saved budget can be used to maintain the systems. Capacity will be increased as the object of the programme is to reduce human work, use new technical solutions and use more automatic solutions that would in crease the quality and volume of the data, make data transfers into the systems more efficient and increase the quality of the analyses. Environment Agency will continue with that also after the programme, but thanks to this cooperation, wildlife monitoring will be taken on to next level. Improved quality of the data improves also the decisions made by policy makers.

7.5 Budget

Detailed budget is included in the Annex 4.

7.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management

Main risks for the Environment Agency are: 1. Price of the services and equipment will increase (risk level: low medium). To mitigate

the risk, we have taken this into account in the preparation of the budget and we have added necessary buffer. In case buffer will be not needed we will make a proposal to transfer it to another budget line.

2. IT developments take longer than planned (risk level: medium high). We are already developing procurement documents to save time and start as soon as agreement is signed.

3. The number of potential service providers is limited that impacts public procurements and public procurements may fail (risk level: low medium). To mitigate the risks, we

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have involved stakeholder in the preparation of this programme and we will actively spread the information of the public procurements and as the number of potential ser vice providers is limited in Estonia, we will use international public procurements if nec essary and mandatory according to the law.

4. The quality of services is low (risk level: low medium). When ordering services, it is necessary to plan well ahead and provide the quality criteria that need to be followed. The services have to be described in detail in contracts, if work does not confirm to the contract, a chance to improve the work is given. It is necessary to check the quality services offered regularly.

8. Annexes

Annex 8-1 Annex 8-1 Environment Agency actions and personnel

Annex [9] Detailed Information to Programme Component

Basic Programme Component Information

Title Implementation of a systematic assessment of the social and conservation outcomes of protected areas

Planned Duration [months] 48

Requested Swiss contribu- 3 843 456,11 tion (CHF)

Requested co-financing 85% rate of Switzerland [%]

9. Programme Component Operator

91 Basic Information

Name of Programme Corn- The Environmental Board ponent Operator

Type of entity National administration

If type of organization is Government Agency “other”, describe the type briefly

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Name of contact person Ms Riina Kotter

Position Leading specialist

Correspondence address: Roheline 64, 80010 Pärnu, Estonia

E-Mail [email protected]

info @ keskkonnaamet.ee

Webpage and social media www.keskkonnaamet.ee; www.keskkonnaamet.ee/en (if any)

www.facebook.com/keskkonnaamet

Date of establishment 1 January 2021 Tax number (if applica ble): EE101281142

Merging the for mer Environ- Commercial register mental Board code: 70008658 and the Envi ronmental In spectorate

Number of employees: 584.05

Financial Turnover for each of the 3 previous years [in EUR] State budget:

2021 20,657,606

2022 20,979,697

2023 23,052,343

Has the Programme Component Operator previously received YesLi No~ funding from the Swiss Contribution?

9.2 Programme Component Operator Management

The Environmental Board is a government agency which operates within the area of the Min istry of Climate.

The Environmental Board’s task is to implement state policies on environmental use, nature conservation and radiation safety and to monitor the fulfilment of the laws and norms estab lished for the protection of the natural environment. It is also involved in the development and updating of legal acts and other official documents regulating the environmental field.

The areas the Environmental Board operates in are wide-ranging: from issuing fishing and waste management permits to placing natural assets under protection, and from publishing environmental fees to offering environmental education programmes. In total, the Environmen tal Board offers 65 public services. The clients include individuals, companies and local au thorities, and it provides a lot of public services for the benefit of the state and society in the broadest sense.

The Environmental Board is represented all over Estonia, with 31 offices around the country.

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The Swiss Support Measure programme will be managed by the conservation management planning department.

ECTOR GENERAL MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL USE WILDLIFE SURVEILLANCE Administrative Depart- Climate and Radiation Conservation Manage ment Department ment Department Surveillance Department

Conservation Manage- Circular Economy De- ment Planning Depart- Environmental Compen

Service Department partment ment sation Department Natural-Resource Use De- Investigation Depart-

Personnel Department Water Department partment ment

Public Relations De partment Forest Department Legal Department

Strategy and Analysis Environmental Education Department Department

Internal Control

Adviser

9.3 Programme Component Management

Will external management personnel be hired to implement the Pro gramme Component?

Yes~ NoEl

What personnel capacity will be dedicated Internal resources External resources for the management of the Programme Com ponent implementation (in full-time equiva- 15 FTEs lents FTE)?

The General Programme Manager (0.5 FTEs, 2024—2028) will be responsible for the general coordination of the project in the Environmental Board. He/She will coordinate the activities in general, be responsible for the use of the budget and procurements, organise the communi cation, seminars and study trips. She will also supervise and manage the personnel hired for the programme component activities.

Activity 1: Conservation Management Effectiveness Assessment

Management Effectiveness Assessment Coordinator (1 FTE July 2024 — 2028) will coordinate the management effectiveness assessment, supervise the assessors, be responsible for the use of methodology, analysing and summarising the assessment.

Management Effectiveness Assessment Experts (2 FTEs, 2025—2028) — carry out the assess- mont, possible splitting (e.g. part-time assessors).

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Data Analyst (0.4 FTEs, Dec 2024 — 2028) — initially coordinates the preparation and evalua tion of the assessment tool, later summarises the results and makes proposals for further de velopment of the tool if necessary, analyses the results of assessments, helps to get the nec essary data.

Activity 2: Conservation Management Planning

Programme Coordinators (1.25 FTEs, 2024—2028, will be split) — responsible for the coordina tion of Activity 2 regionally: methodologies of habitat inventories, instructions for preparing management plans, checking the quality of prepared plans etc.

Habitat Action Plan Expert (1 FTE, Sept 2024 — 2028) — prepares national habitat action plans, plans habitat inventories, if necessary plans the preparation of basic expertise for drawing up plans, involves stakeholders, analyses the integration of habitat plans in other Estonian stra tegic documents.

Conservation Management Planning Experts (3 FTEs, 2024—2028) — prepare site-specific management plans, help coordinate the preparation of habitat inventory methodologies, plan site-specific inventories of habitats and species, plan the preparation of the basic expertise required for the preparation of the management plan, involve interest groups and stakeholders in drawing up plans.

Data Analyst (0.3 FTEs, Dec 2024 — 2028) — with a background in statistics and mathematics, provides input to habitat protecion necessities by organising and analysing habitat data.

Data Specialist (0.5 FTEs, Dec 2024 — 202) — helps organise habitat inventory methodologies, manages data entry and verification.

Activity 3: Species Protection

Programme Coordinator L0.25 FTEs, Dec 2024 — 2028) — responsible for the coordination of Activity 3, supervise the preparation of action plans.

Species Action Plan Experts (2 FTEs, 2024—2028) — preparation of action plans, organising inventories and studies required for this purpose.

Protection Categories Expert (1 FTE, July 2024 — 2028) — coordinating inventories and expert assessments in order to propose changes to protection categories, preparing proposals for changes to protection categories to the ministry.

Data Analyst (0.3 FTEs, Dec 2025 — 2028) — with a background in statistics and mathematics, provides input to species protection necessities by organising and analysing species data.

Data Specialist (0.5 FTEs, Dec 2024; 2025—2028) — is engaged in updating the data of pro tected species n the basis of inventories commissioned under the project.

Why prefer FTEs to services?

- In Estonia, there are not enough competent bidders outside the Environmental Board to carry out planned activities (e.g. drawing up plans);

- these are specific activities that are easier to coordinate and guide in a coherent man ner;

- when coordinating the activities in the Environmental Board, we can ensure that the expertise will remain within the Environmental Board;

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- the outsourced service is more expensive; - in the case of outsourced services, the quality of the work performed is uneven and the

work needs to be improved later; - when ordering the service, the Environmental Board itself also has a heavy workload

(preparation of initial tasks, preliminary work, acceptance of work, introduction of cor rections, approval procedure).

Are CVs attached to this documentation? YesEl N0LXI

Are terms of reference for the management functions to be established Yes El No~1 attached to this documentation?

9.4 Programme and Project Management Experience

The Environmental Board is a partner in 25 ongoing similar international projects at the mo ment. The total budget of the projects is about 23 million euros. In recent years the amount of ongoing projects has been approximately the same.

Restoring Semi-Natural Habitats 2023—2029

The aim of the project is to restore wet semi-natural habitats (boreal Baltic coastal meadows, Northern boreal alluvial meadows, alkaline fens/wet meadows, molinia meadows on calcare ous, peaty or clayey-silt-laden soils (Molinion caeruleae), hydrophilous tall herb fringe commu nities of plains and of the montane to alpine levels) in order to adapt to the changes of climate.

The project partners are the Ministry of Climate, the State Forest Management Centre and the Estonian Seminatural Community Conservation Association. It is an ongoing project and the member team is part of the organisation.

The project is funded by EU Cohesion Policy Funding. The project period is 2022—2029, the total amount of the project is 5 million euros, EU funding is 4.25 million euros.

Restoring the Baltic coastal habitat networks 201 8—2025

CoastNet LIFE (LIFE17 NAT/Fl/000544) aims to improve the conservation status of Natura 2000 sites along the Baltic coastal zone. To achieve this, it carries out restoration work on four types of habitat: boreal Baltic islets and small, open habitats, mosaics of herb-rich, broad- leaved forests and semi-natural habitats, sun-lit habitats, as well as large coastal meadows and new forests on previously uncolonised land. The project’s work helps to increase the pop ulations of numerous species by giving them new areas to colonise. It also helps to combat the effects of habitat fragmentation and isolation, as well as boosting the populations’ resilience to climate change. Several species covered by the Birds Directive will benefit from improve ments to their nesting habitats and those on their migration routes.

In Estonia restoration is carried out on 41 project sites, e.g. in Lahemaa National Park, Kolga Bay and Aegna Landscape Protection Area, Paljassaare Limited-Conservation Area.

It is a joint Finnish-Estonian project, the partners in Estonia are the Environmental Board, Tal linn Urban Environment and Public Works Department. The lead partner is Metsähallitus from Finland.

The total budget of the project is 8.7 million euros, Estonian budget is 1.1 million euros. It is an ongoing project and the member team is part of the organisation.

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https:llwebgate.ec.eu rola.eu/Iife/publicWebsite/proiect/LI FE 17-NAT-Fl -000544/restoring-the- baltic-coastal-habitat-networks

Restoration of Estonian alvar grasslands 2014—2019

The LIFE to alvars (LIFE13 NAT/EE/000082) project’s main objective was to restore the most valuable, but currently overgrown, alvar grassland areas on 2,500 ha of land and to create the right conditions for local farmers to manage these areas after the restoration. In order to achieve this aim, the project planned to introduce effective large-scale restoration methods and to create the necessary infrastructure for continuous management of the restored sites. The project also aimed to directly involve private land owners and to raise awareness among the local community and the general public of the value of alvar areas and of the importance of managing them effectively.

The LIFE to alvars project achieved all its objectives and improved the conservation status of Estonian alvar grasslands at all the project sites. Specifically, the project restored, in total, 2 501.5 ha of alvar grasslands. This included restoration work on 1,000 ha of private land, with the involvement of approximately 600 private landowners.

The project won a Natura 2000 award in the socio-economic category in 2018.

The total budget of the project was 3.7 million euros. The Environmental Board was the lead partner of the project, other partners were Tartu University, Estonian University of Life Sci ences and the Estonian Seminatural Community Conservation Association. Some people from the member team still work in the organisation.

https://webgate.ec.eu ropa .eu/l ife/publicWebsite/projecflLl FE 1 3-NAT-E E-000082/restoration- of-estonian-alvar-grasslands

10. Programme Component Description

10.1 Short Summary

One goal of the programme is to evaluate the effectiveness of the management of the pro tected areas with the new methodology created under Technical Support Instrument financed by the European Commission. Also, site-based inventories are carried out and site-based con servation objectives and measures for protected species and habitats are revised. The con servation management plans of protected areas, action plans for species and habitats and protected categories of species (category I, category II and category III) are revised and up dated. The contents of management plans and action plans are revised and this helps priori tising what protection measures are most effective. The effectiveness of management of pro tected areas as well as protected species and habitats is improved because of national and site-based conservation objectives are better targeted and measures fully correspond to con servation objectives.

10.2 Activities and Expected Results

Activity 1: Conservation Management Effectiveness Assessment

- The operational guidance for the implementation of the TSI project action plan for car rying out the evaluation;

- development of the Management Effectiveness Assessment Tool (in cooperation with the Environmental Agency) (Annex 1,2.1.1);

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- additional training for the implementation of the Management Effectiveness Assess ment Methodology for the assessors and the staff of the Environmental Board (Annex 1,3.1);

- application of the methodology — the main assessors are from the project. The assess ment is carried out for approximately 300 natural objects (Annex 1, 2.1.2) (There are 6 national parks, 241 nature conservation areas, 150 landscape protection areas, 308 conservation areas and 2018 species’ protection sites in Estonia). The assessment provides input for the preparation of management plans and proposes what kind of additional expertise and fundamental research is necessary for the preparation of man agement plans;

- analysis of the results, compilation of a summary (digital report in Estonian and English) and its introduction to the public (Annex 1,2.1.1).

Activity 2: Conservation Management Planning

- Preparation and updating of inventory methodologies for habitats (habitat types listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive protected in Estonia). Inventory methodologies are prepared for lakes, springs, outcrops and caves. For all other habitats, the guidelines will be reviewed and, if necessary, updated. The completed and updated guides will be posted on the ministry’s website under the Natura 2000 network materials. The result is that there is an up-to-date guide for the inventory of all habitats (Annex 1, 2.1.3);

- organisation of training for the experts and specialists working in the Environmental Board carrying out inventories following the methodology and guidelines (e.g. a total of two training sessions per year) (Annex 1, 3.1);

- ordering habitat inventories and, if necessary, expert assessments for the preparation of habitat action plans (e.g. rivers and streams, lakes, springs, outcrops and caves) (Annex 1,2.1.3);

- updating the data in the database (in cooperation with the Environmental Agency); - preparation of habitat action plans (at least three action plans), stakeholder involve

ment, introducing to the public (e.g. an action plan for rivers and streams, an action plan for lakes and springs, an action plan for outcrops and caves);

- ordering inventories and expert assessments of habitats and protected species for the preparation of management plans (Annex 1,2.1.3);

- integrating climate change issues into management plans. Discussions, seminars, training sessions (one training day per year) are organised. The guidance materials on how climate-related issues can be reflected in the management plans is compiled (An nex 1,3.1);

- linking the issues of the Green Network to the preparation of management plans. Co operation with local authorities, discussions on how local authorities can integrate man agement plans into general planning (one seminar per year with local authorities, i.e. four seminars). The guidelines for the preparation of management plans are supple mented by a guideline on how to integrate the green network into the management plan, a digital leaflet for local authorities (available on the website) is compiled (Annex 1,3.1);

- preparation of site-based management plans, involvement of interest groups, publica tion of plans. The project will produce a total of 64 management plans.

Activity 3: Species Protection

- Ordering inventories, basic research and expert assessments for the preparation of species action plans (Annex 1, 2.1.3). The need is determined when preparing the compilation of the action plan;

- on the basis of inventories, the data is organised and updated (cooperation with the Environmental Agency), the species data is updated before/at the time of preparation of the action plan;

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- preparation and coordination of species protection action plans, stakeholder involve ment, cooperation with research institutions. 60 action plans for protected species will be completed within the framework of the project;

- organising trainings/seminars to the specialist of the Environmental Board in order to explain the principles of the protection of species and discuss and discuss what the fundamental principles of discretionary decision making are (one training/seminar per year) (Annex 1,3.1);

- inventories, studies and expert assessments of species’ groups in order to find out what changes in protection categories are necessary (Annex 1,2.1.4);

- preparation of proposals for amendment of protection categories to the ministry (Annex 1,2.1.4).

Study trips to Switzerland (Annex 1, 3.1)

- Organising two study trips to Switzerland (e.g. Swiss National Park): five days for six specialists each, the emphasis of one or the study trips is habitat protection and the emphasis of the other study trip is species protection. The aim of the trips is to learn about conservation management planning/strategies, habitat and species data collec tion, using GIS).

Cooperation with other countries (Annex 1, 3.1)

- Organising a study trip to Czech national parks in order to get experiences from their project activities of Swiss Support Measure, to study what the principles of habitat and species protection are in the Czech Republic;

- Possibility of organising similar trainings to Czech specialists in Estonia.

National Procurement (according to Estonian legislation)

- The Environmental Board organises two national (Estonian) public procurements with open announcements per year (7 calls per project period, one in May and one in Octo ber, no longer tendered in the second half of 2027) which commission methodologies for habitat inventories; species inventories and surveys;

- one national (Estonian) public procurement with an open announcement per year for the preparation of species conservation action plans (four procurements in total);

- separate ongoing procurements as small purchases.

Procurements are organised on the basis of the Estonian Public Procurement Act and the procedure for conducting procurements of the Environmental Board.

10.3 Beneficiaries

The direct beneficiary of the component is the Environmental Board who is responsible for the organization of the protection of protected areas and assessment of the efficiency of pro tection measures.

Indirect beneficiaries are:

- the Environmental Agency who can update the data of habitats and species in their database as the result of the inventories that are carried out;

- the State Forest Management Centre who carries out protection activities on state land according to conservation management plans and action plans of habitats and species;

- local municipalities use the data of habitats and species and also the information pro vided by conservation management plans in their overall planning of green infrastruc ture;

- the whole population of Estonia - as the beneficiaries are public authorities, they work for the public, the aim of the component is to make conservation management more

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effective at the national level in order to make better environmental decisions in the future.

Is the benefit of the Programme Component a na- National~ RegionalD tional or regional benefit?

If regional, indicate the benefiting NUTS-2 regions.

1O~4 Sustainability

The main result for the Environmental Board is that the protection effectiveness of protected areas will be assessed. The assessment will provide information how the current management planning practices can be made more effective and where the main drawbacks are. Hence, the process of preparing conservation management plans and national action plans for species and habitats will be more effective. The Environmental Board will be able to carry on conser vation management planning using the national budget. The Support Measure will help the Environmental Board to review its current conservation management planning practices in or der to match them with contemporary needs.

The expertise will remain within the Environmental Board, as the compilation of management plans and action plans will be part of our overall work. As the positions are open for all the specialists who have the required education and skills, specialists from the Environmental Board can also apply for these positions. The Environmental Board will then hire new special ists to fulfill their positions. As the project ends, the former specialists from the Environmental Board will remain within the Environmental Board. As the work requires special knowledge, the probability that other people who are hired to work in the project will apply for the positions in the Environmental Board or other institutions who deal with similar topics is very high. Estonia will have several skilled environmental experts. All the seminars and trainings are organised for larger audiences, other specialists from the Environmental Board will participate.

One of the challenges for the Environmental Board is the lack of experts in Estonia who can carry out inventories and gather the data of habitats and species. In order to carry out inven tories of habitats and species it is necessary to raise the level of expertise among conservation management planning and conservation management specialists in the Environmental Board. The competence of the specialists can be improved by organising seminars and study trips in the frames of Programme.

Another challenge is the opposition to conservation measures and activities among the repre sentatives of local people and developers. So, it is necessary to involve stakeholders in the conservation planning process and find the solutions that are acceptable to the people living in or near the site. Involving stakeholders to conservation management planning can be time- consuming, so it is necessary to analyse how it should be carried out effectively and plan it regarding the specifics of the area.

In the process of management planning, the Environmental Board proposes changes in the protection rules of sites in order to improve the protection measures. Also, the proposal to change the protection categories of species will be prepared, updating the protection catego ries of species helps to choose better protection measures.

10.5 Budget

Detailed budget is included in the Annex 4.

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10.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management

The main risks for the Environmental Board are:

- Institutional reforms (risk level: low). Internal institutional reform is ongoing in the Envi ronmental Board, however, the project activities can be adjusted to the new structure of the institution;

- changes in legislation (risk level: low-medium). Necessary adjustments in the pro gramme will be made following the legislative changes.

- the lack of competent experts to carry out inventories and give expert opinions (risk level: low medium). Accordingly, public procurements may fail. To mitigate the risk it is necessary to plan the procurements well in order to provide possibilities for a wide range of experts. The period of the programme is long enough to carry out new pro curements and change initial plans, the planning of procurements needs to be started right at the beginning of the programme;

- being unable to hire the personnel for the programme (risk level: medium low). It is necessary to provide the salaries that motivate, also, services can be chosen instead.

- the quality of services is low (risk level: medium low). When ordering services it is nec essary to plan well ahead and provide the criteria that need to be followed. The services have to be described in detail in contracts, if work does not conform to the contract, a chance to improve the work is given. It is necessary to check the quality services of fered regularly.

- the price of the services increases (risk level: medium high). The budget can be over viewed, a buffer against it is planned.

Annex N/A

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Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme

Annex B: Budget

on

the Support Measure

Biodiversity Programme

~L4

Support Measure Name (according to SMP) Date: 0202.2024

Instructions Budget

EUR EUR EUR % CHF EUR EUR EUR EUR ELJR EUR EUR EUR EUR EUR

Co-financing Swiss No Budget items Unit costs Quantity rate (CII co- contribution Quantity ~ Quantity Quantity BUd~5t Quantity Quantity Budget

financing> (co-financing) Exchange rate CHF/EUR 1.04 Programme Management Costs 247384,00 85.00% 202953.63 71921.00 45211.00 452/1.00 73921.00 — 11120.00

1.1 Personnel 144560.00 16560.0 16560.0 16560.00 16560.00 5520.00 1,1,1 Programme Manager in the Budget and Strategy Department of the MoE 4600.00 0,15 FTE for 52 ItO 1.80 I .80 1.80 0.60

(responsible for general coordination of the implementation of the months Programme according to the Regulations) 35880.00 8280.00 8280.00 8280.00 8280.00 2760.00

1,1,2 Programme Manager in the Biodivernity Protection Department of the MoE 4600.00 0,15 FTE for 52 1.80 1.80 1.80 1.80 0.60 (responsible for the content of the Programme) months 35880.00 8280.00 8280.00 8280.00 8280.00 2760.00

1,2 Expenses of State Shared Service Centre for verification of incurred expenditure (inclUding 0,3 FTE for 52 months, travel costs) 72800.00 16800.00 16800.00 16800.00 16800.00 5600.00

1,3 Information and communication 57420.00 28710.00 0.00 0.00 28710.00 0.00 1,3,1 Communication activities (including launching and a closing evnnt) 28710.00 2.00 57420.00 1.00 28710.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 2871 0.00 0,00 1,4 Miscellanous 45404.00 9851.00 11851.00 11851.00 11851.00 0.00 1,4,1 Meetings (of the Sapport Measure Steering Commitfee, Tank Force etc) 2000.00 11.00 22000.00 2.00 4000.00 3.00 6000.00 3.00 6000.00 3.00 6000.00 1,4,2 Assignment (study trips, site vinits, on-the-spot checks etc( 23404.00 5851.00 5851.00 5851.00 5851.00 2 Programme Component 1 “Development of innovative monitoring

technolo-gieslsolutions and improvement of Environmental data bases and systems” (operator Environmental Agency) 3514862.00 85.00% 2883589.89 1 ‘42751 5.00 73521 5.00 732485.00 619647.00 0.00

2.1 Management costs Programme Component 1 301700.00 256445.00 75365.00 75865.00 74335.00 76135.00 2,1,1 Personnel: Project Manager (responsible for the projuct team management

and the implementation of the actionu, preparation of the public procurements, documentation and budget, organizing study trips, 1 FTE for 48 communication and translation of thu documents) 3650.00 months 174000.00 147900.00 12.00 43500.00 12.00 43500.00 12.00 43500.00 12.00 43500.00

2,1,2 Overheads” 15% 0 Component 1

pernsnnel costs 107460.00 91341.00 12.00 26865.00 12.00 26865.00 12.00 26865.00 12.00 26865.00 2,1,3 Transport 0,3 ear/km 14000 km 4200.00 3570.00 3500.00 1050.00 3500.00 1050.00 3500.00 1050.00 3500.00 1050.00 2,1,4 Study trips 120 study trip, con

perperson 3600.00 3060.00 1.00 1200.00 1.00 1200.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 1200.00 2,1,5 Translation of the documents 30 ear/page 98.00 2940.00 2499,00 25.00 750.00 25.00 750.00 /4,00 420.00 34,00 1020.00 2,1,6 Communication 2375.00 year 9500.00 8075.00 1,00 2000.00 1,00 2500.00 1,00 2500.00 1,00 2500.00 —

2.2 Activity 1: Development of new monitoring methods 1927562.00 1638427.70 — 1180750.00 — 287950.00 — 286750.00 — 172112.00 — 2,2,1 Personnu : Chief specialist (monitoring specialist) (responsible for

development, testing and implementation of new monitoring methodologies and equipment, including 3D bird radar, involving volunteers in wildlife 1 FTE for 48 monitoring and creating the network of volunteers) 2850.00 monthu 136800.00 /16280.00 12,00 34200.00 12,00 34200.00 12,00 34200.00 12,00 34200.00 —

2,2,2 Personnel: Specialist (monitoring assistant) in the Environmental Agency (responsible for the training of Artificial Intelligence and field works in 1 FTE for 48 implementation of Random Encounter Model). 2500.00 monfhs 120000.00 102000.00 12.00 30000.00 12.00 30000.00 12,00 30000.00 12,00 30000.00 —

2,2,3 Development of new monitoring mefhodn + technology purchase, including technology for volunteers 609862.00 518382.70 — 200000.00 — 175000.00 — 175000.00 59862.00

2,2,4 Purchasing mobile 3D bird radar 900000.00 1.00 900000.00 765000.00 1,00 900000.00 0,00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 — 2,2,5 Maudatory maintenance of the 3D bird radar 30000.00 3.00 90000.00 76500.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 30000.00 1,00 30000.00 1,00 30000.00 — 2,2,6 Field works (Implementation of new methods in wildlife monitoring, including

Random Encounter Method) 0,3 ear/km /4000 km 18300.00 15555.00 11500.00 3450.00 16500.00 4950,00 16500,00 4950.00 16500,00 4950.00

template v13.7.23

2,2,7 Accommodation 70 eur/night 60 nights 4200.00 3570.01) 10.00 700.00 20.00 1400.00 20.00 1400.00 10.00 700.00 2,2,6 Communication costs, including involving citizen in wildlife monitoring,

organizing trainings for volunteers and fees tor lecturers, catering and faciltiy renting costs, 10000.00 year 40000.00 34000.00 1.00 10000.00 1.00 10000.00 1.00 10000.00 1.00 10000.00

22,9 Study trips study trip, cost 1200.00 perperson 8400.00 7140.00 2.00 2400.00 2.00 2400.00 1.00 1200.00 2.00 2400.00

2.3 Activity 2: Devetopment ofT systems 1285600.00 I’092’760.00 171400.00 371400.00 371400.00 371400.00 2,3,1 Personnel: Chief Specialist (IT system specialist) in the Environmental 0,5 FTE for 48

Agency (responsible for the input of the IT developments and testing) 3100.00 months 74400.00 63240.00 6.00 18600.00 6.00 18600.00 6.00 18600.00 6.00 18600.00 2,3,2 Personnel: IT project manager in the IT Centre of the Ministry of the 0,5 FTE for 48

Environment )responeible for the developments of IT systeme) 4000.00 months 96000.00 81600.00 6.00 24000.00 6.00 24000.00 6.00 24000.00 6.00 24000,00 2,3,3 Personnel: Specialist (data manager( in the Environmental Agency

(responsible for the data managemesl collected by the Environment Board from Programme component 2 and also participates in the development of 1 FTE for 48 IT systems). 2400.00 months 115200.00 97920.00 12.00 28800.00 12.00 28800.00 12.00 28800.00 12.00 28800.00

2,3,4 Development of IT systems (IT Centre of the Ministry of the Environment) 75 eur/hour 13333.00 1000,000.00 850000.00 1333.00 100,000.00 4000.00 300000.00 4000.00 300000.00 4000.00 300000.00 3 Programme Component 2 “tmptementation of a systematic

assessment of the soctat and conservation outcomes of protected areas” (operatorEnvironmentat Board) 4’684’861.00 85.00% 3643456.11 758288.11 1275365.21 1306648.63 1344559.06 0.00

3.1 Management costa Programme Component 2 961 ‘111.14 153498.75 261025.88 269096.44 277490.08 3,1,1 Personnel: General Programme Manager (responsible for the general 0,5 FTEs for 48

coordination of Component 2) 2485.34 months 127593.1 1 12.00 29824.08 12.00 31166.16 12.00 32568.64 12.00 34034.23

3,1,2 Overheads21 15% of Component 2 personnel costs 338066.40 59543.67 88785.63 92780.98 96956.12

3,1,3 Transport 5964.00 FTE/year 326951.12 10.25 61131.00 14.00 86000.88 14.00 88580.91 14.00 91238.33 3,1,4 Study trips 51983.21 study trip 155949.63 0.00 0.00 1.00 51983.21 1.00 51983.21 1.00 51983.21 3,1,5 Communication (advertisements, translations, etc) 3000.00 year 12550.88 1.00 3000.00 1.00 3090.00 1.00 3182.70 1.00 3278.18

3.2 Activity 1: Conservation Management Effectiveness Assessment 492515.41 44889.90 144266.01 147403.53 155955.97 3,2,1 Personnel: Programme Coordinator (responsible for the coordination of 1 FTE for 45

Activity 1) 3345.00 months 152660.09 9.00 21073.50 12.00 41946.30 12.00 43833.88 12.00 45806.41 3,2,2 Personnel: Experts (responsible for conducting assessments) 2 FTEs for 39

6154.80 months 260583.73 3.00 18464.40 12.00 77181.19 12.00 80654.35 12.00 84’283.79 3,2,3 Personnel: Analyst )renponsible of the compilation of the aenesement tool 0,4 FTE5 for 40

and statistical analysis, making summaries of the annennement( 1338.00 months 57986.64 4.00 5352.00 12.00 16778.52 12.00 17533.55 12.00 18322.56 3,2,4 Digital Report )design) 2000.00 year 2000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 000 0.00 100 200000 3,2,5 Communication (advertisements, translations, rooms, etc) 5000.00 year 16149.95 0.00 0.00 1.00 5225.00 1.00 5381.75 1.00 5543.20 3,2,6 Seminars, trainings 3000.00 training 3135.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 3135.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

3.3 Activity 2: Conservation Management Ptanning 1916120.91 344791.02 512093.19 523657.47 535’629.23 3,3,1 Personnel: Analyst )renponsible of habitat data analysis and making 0,3 FTEs for 40

summaries) 1003.50 months 43489.98 4,09 4014.00 12.00 12553.89 12.00 13150.17 12.00 13741.92 3,3,2 Pernonnel: Programme Coordinators )reuponsible for the coordination of 1,25 FTEn for 48

Activity 2 in different regions) 4694.70 months 241017.89 ‘12.00 56336.40 12.00 58871.54 12.00 61520.76 12.00 64289.19 3,3,3 Personnel: Experts of Habitat Action Plans (responsible for compiling habitat 1 FTE for 43

action plans) 321 1.20 months 148801.53 7.00 22478.40 12.00 40268.45 12.00 42080.53 12.00 43974.15 3,3,4 Personnel: Enperts of Conservation Management Plans )responsible for 3 FTE5 for 48

compiling conservation management plans) 9232.20 months 473965.39 12.00 110786.40 12.00 115771.79 12.00 120981.52 12.00 126425.69 3,3,5 Personnel: Data specialist (reeponnibte for habitat data) 0,5 FTE5 for 40

1003.50 months 43489.98 4.00 4014.00 12.00 12553.89 12.00 13150.17 12.00 13741.92 3,3,6 Inventories, research, expert opinions 248323.64 year 869132.73 0.50 124161.82 1.00 248323.64 1.00 248323.64 1.00 248323.64 3,3,7 Commasicahon )advertisements, translations, rooms, etc( ii’ooo.oo year 46019.90 1.00 11000.00 1.00 11330.00 1.00 11669.90 1.00 12020.00 3,3,8 Seminars, trainings 3000.00 training 50203.52 4.00 12000.00 4.00 12360.00 4.00 12730.50 4.00 13112.72

3.4 Activity 3: Species Protection 1315113.54 215108.44 357980.13 366541.19 375483.79

template v13.7.23

1) Overheads are calculated according to the internal process in the Environmental Agency and it includes costs related to personnel (general trainings not connected to direct project activities, medicine, working clothes, health inspection and health insurance), rent for the office premises (rent and utilities), administration costs (tools, communication Costs, office supplies, inventory), Cost of support service (personnel service, legal service, financial service, administrative service, document management, customer service, communication, general management) 2) Overheads are calculated according to the policies of the Environmental Board and include the certificate of employment, office supplies, office furniture, mobile service cost and mobile phone compensation, IT equipment, workwear according to the post in the institution, internal business trip costs (transport not included), compulsory medical examination and health improvement cost, general framings, property management costs.

3,4,1 Personnel: Analyst (responsible of species data analysis and making summaries) 1003.50

0,3 FTEs for 40 months 161917,91 4.00 4014.00 12.00 50335.56 12.0C 52600.61

3,4,2 Personnel: Programme Coordinator (responsible for the coordination ot 0,25 FTE5 for 48 Aclivity 3) 1052.00 months 54007.88 12.00 12624.00 12.00 13192.08 12.00 13785.72 12.00 14406.08

3,4,3 Personnel: Eoperts of Species Protection Action Plans (responsible for 2 FTEs for 48 compiling species protection plans) 6154.80 months 315976.93 12.00 73857.60 12.00 77181.19 12.00 80654.35 12.00 84283.79

3,4,4 Personnel: Expert of protection categories of species (responsible for I FTE for 45 analysing the protection categories) 3345.00 months 128794.94 9.00 30105.00 12.00 31459.73 12.00 32875.41 12.00 34354.81

34,5 Personnel: Data specialist (responsible for species data) 0,5 FTEa for 40 1003.50 months 43489.98 4.00 4014.00 12.00 12583.89 12.00 13150.17 12.00 13741.92

3,4,6 Inventories, research, enpert opinions 164987.68 year 577456.88 0.50 82493.84 1.00 164987.68 1.00 164987.68 1.00 164987.68!

3,4,7 Commsnication (advertisements, translations, rooms, newspaper articles, elc( 5000.00 year 20918.14 1.00 5000.00 1.00 5150.00 1.00 5304.50 1.00 5463.64

3,4,8 Seminars, trainiags 3000.00 training 12550.88 1.00 3000.00 1.00 3090.00 tOO 3182.70 1.00 3278.18 TOTAL 8447107.00 85.00% 6929999.64 2257724.11 2055791.21 — 2084344.63 — 2038127.06 11120.001

12.00 54967.69

template v13.7.23

Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme

Annex C: Procurement Plan

on

the Support Measure

Biodiversity Programme

Procurement Plan

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urchasing mobile 3D bird radar 2024 2024 yes yes t0/2025 40/2025 950000 9/5524

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Q Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA Confederation suisse

Swiss Ag ncy for Development nd Cooperation SDCConfederazione Svizzera MENA.ELJrOpe Division Confederaziun svizra

CH-3003 Bern. DEZA

A Post

Mr. Urmo Merila Deputy Director General State Shared Service Centre Lãkke 4 10122 Tallinn Estonia E-mail: Urmo.Merila~rtk.ee

Your reference: Our reference: 7F-10768.O1 Bern, 27 March 2024

Subject: Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme Decision Letter on 2nd stage Support Measure proposal Support Measure Name: Bio-Diversity Programme Estonia Support Measure N°: 7F-1 0768.01 Swiss Contribution: CHF 6’930’000.-

Dear Mr. Merila,

We are pleased to inform you that the 2nd stage proposal of the Support Measure mentioned above, which was submitted by the NCU on 09 February 2024, has been approved subject to the following conditions. The proposal was considered as well written, clear and of a good quality.

Condition indicator of fulfilment Date!period

Since the Programme document Study visit justifications and Ongoing during the proposes study trips outside of rationale are submitted to the Programme Switzerland and the countries receiving SCO for agreement. implementation and funds in the area of cohesion (EU-13), prior to any travel the prior agreement from the Swiss arrangements made. Contribution Office (SCO) for study visits outside of the EU-13 countries or Switzerland is required.

Recommendation to further consider the Swiss Partners’ names should be Ideally, before involvement of Swiss partners included in the Support Measure signing the Support

Agreement (SMA) and not only in Measure Agreement the SMP as long as it is required to facilitate by the internal procurement rules procurement

processes A justification, listing of the costs and The justification should be Revised SMP, before estimation covered under the 15% included in chap. 2.10 of the signing the Support overheads should be delivered. Support Measure Proposal Measure Agreement

(SMP) and in the budget

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC Dominik Stillhart Eichenweg 5, 3052 Zollikofen Phone+41 584849278

We recommend to use a core indicator The final logframe may entail the Before signing the from the second Swiss contribution, crosscutting “core indicator” Support Measure namely the crosscutting indicator (revised SMP) Agreement. “CC_Cl_I Number of people benefiting from training to improve institutional and professional capacity” under output 3.

Further discussions and clarifications are Estonia and Switzerland agreed Before signing the needed with regard to the composition as on the set-up of the steering Support Measure well as additional voting rights of the committee. Agreement. participants of the steering committees.

You are kindly requested to take into account the conditions expressed above when finalising the Support Measure Agreement.

We would like to thank you for the excellent cooperation.

Yours sincerely,

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) Middle East and North Africa - Europe Division

Stilihart Dominik 3W0Z75 30.03.2024

tnfo: admin,ch/es~gnature I vakdator.ch

Dominik Stilihart Deputy Director General, and Head of Division a.i.

Copy: SECO Swiss Contribution to EU Member States I Cohesion Division Swiss Contribution Office for Estonia

Swiss-Eston ian Cooperation Programme

SUPPORT MEASURE AGREEMENT

between

the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

and

the State Shared Service Centre,

on

the Support Measure

Supporting Social Inclusion

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, acting through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (hereinafter referred to as the ‘SDC’) and

the State Shared Service Centre (hereinafter referred to as the ‘NCU’),

hereinafter collectively referred to as the ‘Parties’,

referring to the Framework Agreement, including its Annex 1 (Country-Specific Set-Up) between the Swiss Federal Council and the Government of the Republic of Estonia concluded on 21 November 2022 as well as to the Regulations on the implementation of the second Swiss Contribution to selected Member States of the European Union to reduce economic and social disparities within the European Union issued by Switzerland and setting out the general rules and procedures on the implementation of the Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Framework Agreement’ and ‘Regulations’), and

considering the financing of the Support Measure Supporting Social Inclusion (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Support Measure’) in the Republic of Estonia,

have agreed as follows:

Article I — General provisions

The legal framework as defined in Article 2 of the Framework Agreement shall apply.

Article 2— Objective and eligibility period

1. The Support Measure is assigned to the following thematic area: Providing support to migration management and promoting integration measures.

2. The objective of the Support Measure is - Managing migration and supporting integration. Increasing public safety.

3. The Support Measure starts on 01.06.2024 and ends on 31.08.2028. Only expenditures incurred during this period are deemed to be eligible in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Regulations.

Article 3 — Obligations of the Parties

1. Switzerland agrees to grant a contribution of up to 18,6 million Swiss francs for the implementation of the Support Measure according to the budget (Annex B).

2. The contribution of Switzerland shall cover a maximum of 85% of the total eligible expenditures of the Support Measure as specified in Chapter 6 of the Regulations.

3. Switzerland’s contribution to the Support Measure is based on: a) the final version of the Support Measure Proposal 7F-10699.01 dated 22.05.2024

attached to this Support Measure Agreement (Annex A); and

2

b) the conditions put forward by Switzerland as part of the final decision to support the Support Measure and communicated to Republic of Estonia by means of the letter 7F- 10699.01 dated 27.03.2024 appended hereto (Annex D).

4. In accordance with Article 7 of the Framework Agreement the responsibility of Switzerland with regard to this Support Measure is limited to providing funds in accordance with Article 3 paragraph I of this Support Measure Agreement.

5. The Republic of Estonia shall ensure the timely provision of the co-financing for the total eligible expenditures of the Support Measure, as described in Article 4 paragraph 5 of the Framework Agreement and in Article 3.1 paragraph 1 and Chapter 6 of the Regulations.

6. Costs for staff of the Programme Operator, Programme Component Operators, Implementers and Partners who are assigned to carry out tasks for the Support Measure, comprising actual salaries plus social security charges and other statutory costs included in the remuneration, are eligible expenditure under this Support Measure, within the limits set in the budget in Annex B of this Support Measure Agreement and in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Regulations.

Article 4— Implementation responsibility

The NCU and the Paying and Audit Authorities shall have the roles and responsibilities defined in the Regulations, in particular in Article 3.1 to 3.6, and further specified in the Country Specific Set-up.

2. The Programme Operator of this Support Measure is the Ministry of Culture. It is responsible for preparing and managing the Support Measure and for performing the following tasks: a) preparing the Management and Control System of the Support Measure to ensure the

effective implementation of the Support Measure; b) concluding the Support Measure Implementation Agreement with the NCU; c) concluding the Partnership Agreement with the Swiss Support Measure Partner

according to Article 4.10 of Regulations; d) preparing the Annual Support Measure Reports, the Support Measure Completion

Report, Reimbursement Requests and submitting them to the State Shared Service Centre;

e) organising meetings of the Support Measure Steering Committee and preparing minutes of the meetings;

f) planning and implementing the communication activities of the Support Measure in cooperation with Programme Component Operators;

g) submitting proposal to the Ministry of Finance for the modification of the Country specific set-up of the Framework Agreement and to the State Shared Service Centre for the modification of the Support Measure Agreement;

h) fulfilling other tasks of the Programme Operator arising from the Regulations.

3. The Programme Components have the following Programme Component Operators: a) For the Programme Component 1 “Cultural and linguistic integration”: the Ministry of

Culture; b) For the Programme Component 2 “Strengthening the social- and child protection

services”: the Ministry of Social Affairs; c) For the Programme Component 3 “Increasing multicultural competence in the education

sector”: the Ministry of Education and Research;

3

d) For the Programme Component 4 “Strengthening civil society through social innovation”: the Ministry of the Interior.

4. The Support Measure shall be implemented in partnership with the following Swiss Support Measure Partner: Bern University of Applied Sciences.

Article 5 — Support Measure Steering Committee

1. The Programme Operator shall establish the Support Measure Steering Committee as defined in Article 4.11 of the Regulations. The Support Measure Steering Committee shall assume the tasks defined in Article 4.11 of the Regulations.

2. The Support Measure Steering Committee shall be composed of the following members: a) The NCU - the State Shared Service Centre; b) The Programme Operator — the Ministry of Culture; c) The Swiss Contribution Office (SCO); d) The Programme Component Operator - the Ministry of Culture; e) The Programme Component Operator - the Ministry of Social Affairs; f) The Programme Component Operator - the Ministry of Education and Research; g) The Programme Component Operator - the Ministry of the Interior.

3. By the initiative of the Support Measure Steering Committee members the Chair has the right to invite the representatives of the partners and other organisations to the Support Measure Steering Committee meetings, who will act as observers.

4. The following members shall have a voting right: a) The Programme Operator — the Ministry of Culture as Chair; b) The NCU; c) The Swiss Contribution Office.

5. The quorum shall be constituted by the NCU, the Swiss Contribution Office and the Programme Operator.

6. Decision-making in the Support Measure Steering Committee shall be based on consensus by the members with voting rights.

7. The Programme Operator shall act as secretary and shall assume the tasks set forth in the Article 4.11 paragraph 7 of the Regulations.

8. The Steering Committee meeting shall take place at least once a year in line with Article 4.11 paragraph 6 of the Regulations.

9. The Steering Committee may also take decisions through the written procedure at the initiative of any member with voting rights.

4

Article 6— Programme Operator competences for modifications of the Support Measure

1. The Support Measure may be modified in accordance with the Article 4.12 of the Regulations.

2. In accordance with Article 4.12 paragraph 4.a of the Regulations the Programme Operator is entitled to modify Programme Components (including management expenditures of a Programme Operator), provided the following conditions are cumulatively met: a) the modification shall not contradict with the agreed outputs and outcomes of the Support

Measure; b) the modification must not change the duration of the Support Measure; c) the financial consequences of the modification must be within the following limits:

i. for reallocations within one Programme component: funds reallocated between different budget items must be less than 20% of the initial budget of the Programme component and less than CHF 100 000 (one hundred thousand Swiss francs);

ii. modifications may not be split with the intention of circumventing this restriction.

3. Switzerland shall be informed about the modification by means of the next Reimbursement Request under Article 8.2 paragraph 3 of the Regulations and the next Annual Support Measure Report under Article 4.13 of the Regulations.

Article 7 — Advance payments

In accordance with Article 8.3 of the Regulations no advance payments are foreseen in this Support Measure.

Article 8 — Policy dialogue

A policy dialogue is not foreseen for this Support Measure.

Article 9 — Procurement

1. The procurements under this Support Measure Agreement shall be made in accordance with Chapter 7 of the Regulations.

2. The initial procurement plan, including those procurements that are selected by Switzerland in accordance with Article 7.2 of the Regulations, shall be annexed to this Support Measure Agreement (Annex C).

3. This procurement plan shall be updated following the approval of further Programme Components and submitted to Switzerland for selection in accordance with Article 7.2 of the Regulations within 20 working days. The periodically updated procurement plan shall be submitted to Switzerland with the Reimbursement Request.

5

Article 10 — Post-completion obligations and ownership of assets

1. The post-completion obligations related to the assets (operating assets as well as equipment, installations and buildings) financed by the Swiss contribution under this Support Measure as well as their ownership are described in Article 4.15 of the Regulations.

2. For the duration of the Support Measure the assets provided with the Swiss Contribution are in the ownership of the acquirer and shall be used in accordance with Article 4.15 paragraph 6 of the Regulations.

3. The NCU or the Executing Agency shall ensure that the receiving entity agrees under contract to fulfil the obligations set out in Article 4.15 paragraph 2 of the Regulations concerning equipment, installations and buildings financed by the Contribution.

4. In accordance with Article 4.15 paragraph 7 the Parties shall agree in writing following the completion of the Support Measure on the use and ownership of the assets provided with the support of the Swiss Contribution.

5. The ownership of the proprietary rights in and to the results of the activities performed under this Support Measure, any intellectual property rights, including copyright, and the right to any revenues generated by the intellectual property rights shall be agreed in writing by the Parties on completion of the Support Measure.

Article 11 — Reimbursement procedures, reporting, audits, compliance

Reimbursement procedures, reporting, auditing and compliance rules are set out in the Framework Agreement and the Regulations.

Article 12—Annexes

The following Annexes are governed by this Support Measure Agreement: Annex A: Final version of the Support Measure Proposal 22.05.2024, including Logframe Annex B: Budget Annex C: Initial Procurement Plan Annex D: Decision Letter from SDC

Article 13 — Amendments

The Support Measure may be modified in accordance with Article 4.12 of the Regulations. In the cases as described in Article 4.12 paragraph 8 of the Regulations, the modification of the Support Measure shall be formalised by way of an amendment to this Support Measure Agreement. This shall be done by the Parties signing the amendment.

Article 14 — Suspension and termination

The Support Measure Agreement may be suspended or terminated in accordance with Article 4.16 of the Regulations.

6

Article 15— Entry into force and duration

This Support Measure Agreement covers the duration of the Support Measure as stated in Article 2 paragraph 3.

2. This Support Measure Agreement shall enter into force on the date of the last signature of the Parties and remain in force until all obligations under it have been fulfilled.

Signed in Tallinn on 31 May 2024, in two original copies in the English language.

For the Swiss Agency for Development and For the State Shared Service Centre

Cooperation

Martin Michelet Urmo Merila Ambassador of Switzerland to Latvia, Deputy Director General

Lithuania and Estonia

31.05.2024 31.05.2024

Swiss-Eston ian Cooperation Programme

Annex A: Final version of the Support Measure Proposal 22.05.2024, including

Logframe

on

the Support Measure

Supporting Social Inclusion

Second Swiss Contribution

Estonia

Support Measure Proposal

SWISS-ESTONIAN Cooperation Programme I

22.05.2024

Title Supporting Social Inclusion

Executing Agency Ministry of Culture

Partner State Support Measure Code (if any)

Support Measure Type Programme

Table of contents

1. Basic information 5

2. Strategic Support Measure description 6

2.1 Lead 6 2.2 Context and relevance 6 2.3 Impact hypothesis I Objectives 9 2.4 Intervention Strategy 13 2.5 Beneficiaries 17 2.6 Programme Component Characteristics and regional focus 18 2.7 Overview Swiss Support Measure Partners 18 2.8 Sustainability 19 2.9 Other strategic issues 20

3. Support Measure readiness 21

3.1 Context 21 3.2 Application for funds from Support Measure Preparation Fund 21

4. Operational Support Measure description 22

4.1 Applying organisation (Executing Agency) 22 4.1.1 Organisation structures of Executing Agency and Support Measure 22 4.1.2 Support Measure management team 22 4.1.3 Programme and project management experience 25 4.2 Detailed intervention strategy and activities 25 4.2.1 Communication activities 25 4.2.2 Detailed implementation schedule 26 4.3 Logframe 27 4.4 Swiss Support Measure Partner 42 4.5 Stakeholder consultations 42 4.6 Tentative Budget 44 4.6.1 Detailed tentative budget 44 4.6.2 Tentative Disbursement Plan 46 4.7 Risk Analysis and Risk Management 47 4.8 Monitoring and Steering 48

5. Annexes 50

6. Annex 1: Detailed Information to Programme Component I (Ministry of Culture) 51

6.1 Programme Component Operator 51 6.1.1 Basic Information 51 6.1.2 Programme Component Operator Management 52 6.1.3 Programme Component Management 53

2

6.1.4 Programme and Project Management Experience 53 6.2 Description of Programme Component 1 55 6.2.1 Short Summary 55 6.2.2 Activities and Expected Results 55 6.3 Beneficiaries 57 6.4 Sustainability 57 6.5 Budget 58 6.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management 59

7. Annex 2: Detailed Information to Programme Component 2 (Ministry of Social Affairs) 60

7.1 Programme Component Operator 60 7.1.1 Basic Information 60 7.1.2 Programme Component Operator Management 61 7.1.3 Programme Component Management 61 7.1.4 Programme and Project Management Experience 62 7.2 Description of Component 2 62 7.2.1 Short Summary 62 7.2.2 Activities and Expected Results 64 7.3 Beneficiaries 65 7.4 Sustainability 66 7.5 Budget 66 7.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management 66

8. Annex 3: Detailed Information to Programme Component 3 (Ministry of Education and Research) 68

8.1 Programme Component Operator 68 8.1.1 Basic Information 68 8.1.2 Programme Component Operator Management 69 8.1.3 Programme Component Management 69 8.1.4 Programme and Project Management Experience 70 8.2 Programme Component Description 70 8.2.1 Short Summary 70 8.2.2 Activities and Expected Results 71 8.3 Beneficiaries 72 8.4 Sustainability 72 8.5 Budget 73 8.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management 74

9. Annex 4: Detailed Information to Programme Component 4 (Ministry of the Interior) 75

9.1 Programme Component Operator 75 9.1.1 Basic Information 75

3

9.1.2 Programme Component Operator Management 76 9.1.3 Programme Component Management 76 9.1.4 Programme and Project Management Experience 77 9.2 Programme Component Description 78 9.2.1 Short Summary 78 9.2.2 Activities and Expected Results 79 9.3 Beneficiaries 82 9.4 Sustainability 82 9.5 Budget 82 9.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management 83

Annex 5: Overview of the policy dialogue for preparing sectoral development plans and strategies 85

1. Basic information

Title Supporting Social Inclusion (SSIP)

Support Measure Type Programme

Objective Managing migration and supporting integration. Increasing public safety

Thematic Area Providing support to migration management and promoting integration measures

Planned Duration [months] 51

Requested Swiss contribu- 18.6 million tion (CHF)

Requested co-financing 85% rate of Switzerland [%]

Name of the Executing Ministry of Culture Agency

Type of entity National administration

Name of contact person Olga Gnezdovski

Position Coordinator of the Estonian-Swiss Cooperation Programme

Correspondence address Suur-Karja 23, 15076 Tallinn

E-Mail olga gnezdovski~kul.ee

Webpage and social media www.kul.ee (if any) . .

https://www facebook com/Kultuuriministeerium/

YouTube Ministry of Culture

https:llwww. linkedin.com/comjany/kultuuriministeerium/

Mobile +372 555 28 081

Has the Executing Agency previously received funding from the YesLi NoI~ Swiss Contribution?

2. Strategic Support Measure description

2.1 Lead

The Supporting Social Inclusion Programme (SSIP) aims to improve the opportunities for people living in Estonia, especially people from different cultural and linguistic back grounds to participate more actively in Estonian society — focusing on improving the avail ability and quality of integration, education, social welfare services and promoting social inno vation.

The goal contributes to the national strategy “Estonia 2035” and objectives of the sectoral strategies. SSIP is coordinated in close collaboration with four ministries to address problems related to social inclusion in Estonia.

2~2 Context and relevance

Estonia is home to many people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds and given the future trends, Estonia is becoming even more diverse.

According to the data of the Population Register, as of 01.01.2024 there are 1 371 446 inhab itants in Estonia, of whom 1,130,330 are Estonian citizens. The number of persons with unde termined citizenship is 62 048 (4.5% of the population). The number of citizens from third (i.e. non-EU) countries is 179 068 (the largest share being citizens of the Russian Federation (80 313), followed by persons with Ukrainian citizenship (49 777)). An estimated 200 000 Estoni ans live abroad.

According to the 2021 census, 211 ethnic groups live in Estonia. 69% of the country’s popula tion are Estonians, 24% Russians, 2% Ukrainians, 0.9% Belarusians and 0.6% Finns.

On 24.02.2022, Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine intensified, forcing Ukrainian citizens to leave the country en masse. This is a large-scale humanitarian crisis, and it is not known exactly when those fleeing the war in Ukraine will be able to return safely and permanently to their country or region of origin. Estonia is supporting the Ukrainian refugees to help them settle quickly and manage their lives here until they can return home. As of 2022, the Ukrainian community in Estonia has grown by more than 68 000 people. As of 31.12.2023, 50 654 per sons have applied for temporary protection status and 6, 379 Ukrainian citizens have applied for international protection.

While Estonia has made significant progress in promoting social inclusion and cohesion, there are still some challenges that the country faces. Language-based and spatial segregation and the resulting inequality is present in many areas. Inequality and lack of unifying values may lead to the polarisation of society and increase the likelihood of value conflicts between people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Here are some of the challenges of social inclusion and aspects of inequality existing in the Estonian society that will be addressed by the activities of the SSIP:

• 59% (approximately 240 thousand) of permanent residents with non-Estonian origin and 84% (approximately 20 thousand) of new immigrants do not speak Estonian or speak it insufficiently. Insufficient Estonian language knowledge results in reduced social and educational opportunities, employment prospects, difficulties in understanding and participating in cultural and political life.

• Lack of communication between different ethnical groups. People, whose mother tongue is not Estonian, mostly live in ethnically homogeneous areas in Ida-Viru County

6

and Harju County (md. some parts of Tallinn) and do not communicate with Estonians on a daily basis. According to the Estonian Integration Monitoring (ElM)1, 44% of new immigrants communicate with Estonians less than once a week. Approximately half of new immigrants (44%) have no contact with Estonians.

• The media spaces of Estonians and people of other ethnicities differ, and this results in different attitudes and values. According to ElM, Russian-speaking residents of Estonia are simultaneously influenced by the local Russian-language media, Rus sian media and, to a lesser extent, Estonian-language media. Unlike Estonians, who are in a fairly cohesive media space (md. linguistically), people of other ethnicities re ceive quite conflicting information from the media about both Estonian and world events. Low level of media literacy among Russian speaking population makes it more susceptible to hostile propaganda and can cause wider spread of fake news.

• The segregation in the Estonian education system and the war in Ukraine have posed a challenge how to provide quality education in Estonian to all children in Esto nia, regardless of their mother tongue. In 2023, the Estonian government decided to implement the education reform and by 2030 the Estonian school system will be unified and focused on the Estonian language. Specialists in the field of education and social welfare require the knowledge and skills to teach and act in a multicultural environment. Parents also need guidance and support to reduce prejudices and fears related to the transition to Estonian-language education.

• Social sector must also adapt to the war refugees who have arrived in Estonia, both in terms of skills to work with them and to integrate them into the labour market. Estonian labour market of social welfare and child protection workers is characterized by ageing population, but at the same the need for labour force increases and the sector is becoming increasingly demanding in terms of the skills of the work- force. Another problem is the need for the social sector workforce. There is a great need for more than 20,000 workers over the next ten years, either due to the creation of new jobs, the turnover of workers or the replacement of workers in the main occupations in the sector. Estonia plans to implement a number of extensive reforms in the coming years that are directly related to the availability of the workforce and competencies in the field of social welfare and child protection. Reform of long-term care envisages increase in volume and quality of services, which in turn means need for additional employees and raising their qualifications. Proposed changes in the sup port system for children with special needs and organization of child protection will lead to a change in the role of child protection workers, which means creation of a new system of basic, vocational and in-service training, new specialties and additional corn petencies.

• Alongside the Estonian people, civil society is the cornerstone of a cohesive and inclusive society. There are a total of 23,390 non-profit organisations in Estonia and 49% of people have volunteered (survey of 2019). Among senior citizens, young people and people from different cultural and linguistic background, the desire to volunteer is higher than the actual participation so far.

• The integration and social inclusion of people from different cultural and linguis tic backgrounds is a complex challenge. Solving such challenges with no single owner can be promoted by using social innovation methods. Social innovation is about co-creating new ideas and new ways of doing things by involving various stake holders, resulting in more efficient societies and communities.

1 https://www.kul .ee/en/estonian-integration-monitoring-2020

7

National strategic framework

Activities will contribute to the national development strategy “Estonia 2035”, particularly its strategic goal “Estonia’s society is caring, cooperative and open”, which underpins a soci ety that is based on a sense of belonging, common values and a willingness of the people to actively contribute to the achievement of common goals.

The SSIP is in line with several sectoral development plans and other relevant Estonian stra tegic documents:

• Cohesive Estonia Strategy 2021-2030 • Integration Programme 2023-2026 • National Defence Development Plan 2022-2031 • Welfare Development Plan 2023-2030 • Education Strategy 2021-2035 • Youth Sector Development Plan 2021-2035 • Estonian Language Strategy 2021 -2035 • Estonian Language Development Plan

Synergieslcomplementarity with funding programmes and other donors

• Activities in the field of integration are also funded from the EU European Social Fund+ (ESF+), Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and Estonian state budget but are focused on different challenges and partly aimed at different target groups. Activi ties under the ESF+ aim to promote the socio-economic integration of new immigrants, permanent residents with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and returnees. Activities funded from AMIF are mainly targeted on receivers of international protection. AMIF will focus on early intervention measures and initial and rapid response, support ing integration, including adaptation, on a one-stop-shop basis as soon as third-country nationals arrive in Estonia, e.g. support services, information and participation activi ties, counselling, pre-departure measures, etc.

• ESF+ entails development of a new child protection management model and its piloting as well as promoting integrated services, improving the quality and access of social services, but activities related to labour force, their qualifications, support system have been channelled to the SSIP. Professional development and support for the target groups activities are also the aim of the in-service training offered with funding from state budget and the ESF+, but trainings for language Integrated Learning (CLIL) edu cators and A1-A2 level Estonian language as second language teachers and training to promote the development of knowledge and skills for teaching and working in a mul ticultural environment will be funded by the SSIP.

• Activities related to social innovation have been co-funded by the European Commis sion (EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation) through a two-year project “National Competence Centres for Social Innovation”. The project reached three main goals: 1) development of the social innovation (SI) ecosystem in Estonia; 2) introducing Estonian SI methods to project partner countries and other EU member states; and 3) getting to know the best practices in the field of SI in partner countries and learning from their experience. A key outcome of the project was also the creation of Estonian social innovation vision document until 2030 (an English language version of the vision document will be published in early 2024). The Swiss Contribution is built upon the results of SSIP and the objectives and policy recommendations described in the vision document have provided valuable input for the activities that will be undertaken within the framework of the SSIP.

8

Stakeholders

Programme Donor who provides financial support for the SSIP. Their interest is to obtain the greatest possible impact of SSIP activities; therefore, donor aims to reach a common under standing between the interests of the donor and Estonia.

Ministries who act as programme operator and programme component operators in SSIP. Their interest is to finance interventions in order to get their policy objectives met. Their power position in policy making is high therefore they are key players for SSIP donor to achieve its interest. They hold a significant influence over the SSIP, due to their role of policy setting in the fields of social inclusion.

Implementers hold a significant role in achieving SSIP results, as they communicate directly with target groups, they have to have clear understanding why and how activities are selected to address issues.

Partners of the implementers who have to get on board by explaining the added value their competence will provide and what they can gain from participating. Their influence is rather high to get planned results, but as they are also aware of the importance of the planned activ ities on their field, no major opposition is expected.

Opponents are organizations, parties and individuals who are sceptical or critical of integration policies and selected activities. No great opposition is expected, but providing information and monitoring their behaviour is crucial, also explaining one’s positions when necessary.

For more detailed analysis see annex 9. For stakeholder consultations see chapter 4.5.

2.3 Impact hypothesis I Objectives

The goal of SSIP is improved opportunities for people living in Estonia, especially peo ple from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to participate more actively in Estonian society.

The activities proposed in the Support Measure will contribute to reducing socio-economic disparities, addressing systemic inequalities, and empowering marginalized groups in Estonia because they help to ensure equal opportunities for people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This will be achieved by:

• Providing knowledge and enhancing opportunities for people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to actively engage in Estonian society.

• Developing and modernizing curricula for social sector workers. • Developing a complementary education/training system for social sector workers and

training of specialists. • Providing in-service training for professionals in the education sector and informing,

consulting, and supporting activities for parents. • Providing communities, organisations, and individuals information and opportunities to

implement social innovation methods to co-design innovative solutions to integration and social inclusion problems.

The activities proposed in the SSIP are based on analyses that were undertaken during the preparation of the Estonian national strategic development plan ‘Estonia 2035”, other sectoral development plans and strategies and previous projects funded by the EU.

Involvement of the Swiss partners will strengthen the bilateral relations between Estonia and Switzerland and create new connections between people, communities, and organisations.

The immediate outcomes of the SSIP are:

9

e Established processes enable people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds participate more actively in Estonian society.

• People from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are empowered to participate in Estonian society more actively.

• Professionals in education and social sector have acquired new skills and knowledge and are ready to work with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

• Communities, organisations and individuals have gained new knowledge in social in novation methods to design solutions to better integrate and include people from dif ferent cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society.

The intermediate outcomes of the SSIP are:

• People from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are actively participating in Estonian society.

• Professionals in education and social sector offer services according to modernised and new curricula tailored also to work with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

• Communities, organisations and individuals successfully implement the new knowledge gained in social innovation methods to design solutions to better integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society.

The following outputs are planned to be achieved during implementation of the SSIP.

• Activities introducing the Estonian cultural space to people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are provided.

• Counselling services are made available and used. • Activities for parents, md. from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, are devel

oped and provided. • Media literacy programme is launched. o Digital tools are developed, piloted and rolled-out. • Modernised curricula and new curricula for professionals in the fields of education and

social welfare have been approved and are in force. • Professionals in the fields of education and social welfare have received complemen

tary training according to new curricula. • A support/counselling system for social sector workers has been developed and is op

erational. • Civil society competence building activities carried out. • A set of social innovation training and information materials created, published, and

disseminated. • Volunteers are trained.

The SSIP goal and outcomes will be achieved by implementing four programme components (see Annex 1-4 for details).

10

In summary:

if, activities introducing the Estonian cultural space to people from different cultural and lin guistic backgrounds are provided, counselling services are made available and used, activities for parents, md. from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are developed and provided, media literacy programme is launched, digital tools are developed, piloted and rolled-out, mod ernised curricula and new curricula for professionals in the fields of education and social wel fare have been approved and are in force, professionals in the fields of education and social welfare have received complementary training according to new curricula, a support/counsel ling system for social sector workers has been developed and is operational, civil society com petence building activities are carried out, a set of social innovation training and information materials created, published, and disseminated and volunteers are trained

then established processes enable people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds participate more actively in Estonian society, people from different cultural and linguistic back grounds are empowered to participate in Estonian society more actively, professionals in edu cation and social sector have acquired new skills and knowledge and are ready to work with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, communities, organisations and in dividuals have gained new knowledge in social innovation methods to design solutions to bet ter integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Esto nian society

because opportunities for people living in Estonia, especially people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to participate more actively in Estonian society are improved.

11

Figure 1: Results chain with components vlsualised at activity level.

a, a

C ~ 1= 0

Improved opportunities for people living in Estouia, especially people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to participate more actively in Estonian society-

Outcome In: Established grocesses enable people Outcome 2: Professionals in education and social Outcome 3: Communities, organisatsona and individuals from different cultural and lmgusstic backgrounda sector have acquired new skills and knowledge and are have gained new knowledge in social innovation methods participate more actively in Estonsan society ready to work with people from dsff~rent linguistic and to design solutions to better integrate sod include people Outcome ib: People from different cultural and cultural backgrounds. from different cultural aid linguistic backgrounds in the linguistic backgrounds are opowered to pscbcspate Estouisu society. in Estonsan society more actnely. A

4’ I

• I I

II 1.2 1.3 1.4 13 21 2 2.3 3.1 3.2 33 Activities Counselling Activities Modernised

‘ introducing services ste forparents Media Digital ~uincuia and nan Professionals A Civil society Ases of win! Volunteers

the made liter- tools sre curnculs for ha e received suppost counselli competence anorstion re trained. Estoman available developed programme developed, professionals in ~ complementar) ng system for building

ad uad. ~ is piloted and fields of education tninmg social sector activates ~ space are provided. lsiiiidied. rolled~oiit and social welfare sccordin~ tO workers has been caned out. provided, have been approved new curricula, developed and is disseminated.

and ire in force. operations).

4 4’ t

ufrth~ tb~

C, tU

t -I I 1- Provision of ~ Provision of Psepsialion cossiselling ?ecnsuhing, media of digits) servicer a — niusfinma inchaiiig in suppg tsainisg. en lathe laguage ~L field of ~nieg p~. with —

biok~mla

Cteapeumt 3

Cunicula and Tsainiug la-service ofessiosal ad tsasoisg its

qn~hce~. cosmsellittg professionals modification sv~ lathe

education s~.

Building civil society mmpetecce.

is the ot~aton aethitia

Raising public sureness ad &s~testss~ i~emstiou on social

Cunpouct I

Ccennmet4Ctenpcruit I Conpeems 2 Cnspmasi 3

2.4 Intervention Strategy

The primary focus of the SSIP is on three main direct target groups.

• People from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (including recipients of tem porary and international protection status and new migrants).

• Professionals working in the fields of education and social welfare.

• Multiplicators: NGO-s and social enterprises who deal with migrants and people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, as well as public and private sector or ganisations.

Allocating funding and resources to these target groups is crucial for accomplishing the SSIP’s goal. The longer aim of the SSIP is to foster harmonized values and reinforce cultural, social, and economic ties within the Estonian society. The SSIP strives to create a society that appre ciates diversity, promotes inclusivity, and encourages active participation and a sense of be longing among different communities and nationalities. The long-term aim of the SSIP supports Estonian national development strategy “Estonia 2035”, particularly its strategic goal “Estonia’s society is caring, cooperative and open”. The activities of the SSIP are in synergy with and complement other sources of funding (please see chapter 2.2).

The Estonian government decided on the 26th of May and on the 6th of September 2022 which thematic themes and activities should be covered in the Swiss-Estonian co-operation pro gramme and which ministries should act as programme operators and programme component operators. The decisions were based on state level strategies, including the state budget strat egy of Estonia.

Intervention strategy aims to achieve outcomes related to the integration and social inclusion of people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in Estonia. The SSIP is structured into four programme components, each led by different programme component operators. The activities within each component are designed to contribute to specific outcomes and they derive from several national documents that set way for the strategic focus for the next years (please see chapter 2.2). The strategy documents have been developed by numerous stake- holders of the policy field and they have highlighted the challenges within the Estonian society that need to be tackled, like:

- insufficient Estonian language knowledge among residents and new immigrants result ing in reduced social and educational opportunities, employment prospect, difficulties in understanding and participating in cultural and political life;

- lack of communication between different ethnical groups; - different media spaces of Estonians and people of other ethnicities; - segregated Estonian education system (moving towards unified Estonian school sys

tem by 2030); - the qualification of child protection workers does not prepare them well enough to work

directly with children and families, the support system is insufficient (from the manage ment and professional development) and the current workforce is not trained specifi cally to work with migrants

- the participation of immigrants and third country nationals in the civil society organisa tions, which can enhance their integration, is relatively modest, especially in Eastern Estonia.

The selection of activities within each programme component was based on a careful assess ment of the specific needs and challenges faced by people from different cultural and linguistic

13

backgrounds in Estonia, as well as the broader goals of promoting integration and social inclu sion. Decisions are based on studies, previous experiences, and stakeholder consultations.

For more, please see Chapter 2.2 and Annexes 1-4.

The Programme Operator is the Ministry of Culture (M0C) financial department. Programme operator ensures effectively functioning management and control system, plans and imple ments the communication activities in cooperation with the programme component operators, prepares Programme reports, establishes the Support Measure Steering Committee and or ganises its work (also performs the duties of the Secretary). Programme operator may sign partnership agreement with Swiss partner.

The SSIP overall goal and outcomes will be achieved by implementing four Programme com ponents (see Annex 1-4 for detailed activities).

Programme component I “Cultural and linguistic integration”.

Programme component operator is the MoC. The responsibilities of the programme compo nent operator are carried out by the Department of Cultural Diversity (DCD) of the MoC whose task is to ensure policy formulation in the field of integration, to coordinate its imple mentation, and to support the development of the cultural life of minorities living in Estonia and compatriots living outside Estonia. Programme Component Operator is responsible for all pro gramme component coordination as well as content and financial reporting and communication with donors and oversight of activities at the component level. Activities are conducted by The Integration Foundation and partner National Library.

Implementer for four activities is The Integration Foundation which is a private legal entity of which the MoC exercises the rights of the founder, created for initiation and support of activities aimed at the integration of Estonian society among Estonians and non-Estonians, initiation and support of activities related to immigration. According to the Articles of Association of the Foun dation the founder of the foundation is the Republic of Estonia.

Partner of the DCD in activity “Provision of media literacy training” is the National Library of Estonia (RARA) which is a legal person in public law. The purpose of the national library is to increase the initiative, awareness and responsibility based on knowledge and information in the society, promote the country, European common values, culture, and democracy.

Programme component 1 will mainly contribute to outputs 1.1-1.5 and outcome 1 a and lb (See Annex 1).

Programme component 2 “Strengthening the social- and child protection services.”

Programme component operator is the Ministry of Social Affairs (M0SA) who is the policy holder for managing social insurance and welfare services, child protection services as well as integrating these services with employment. Programme Component Operator is responsible for all programme component coordination as well as content and financial reporting and com munication with donors and oversight of activities at the component level.

MoSa is also an implementer of the activities.

For curricula updates, the MoSA will engage partners as the University of Tartu, TTK Uni versity of Applied Sciences as well Tallinn University being also the only university in Es tonia providing a masters’ programme for child protection specialists.

At vocational level the care worker professional standards are developed and monitored by the Estonian Social Work Association. Care worker programmes for different specialists is

14

offered in 7 vocational schools (Haapsalu, Jarvamaa, Kuressaare, Pärnumaa, Valgamaa as well as Tallinn and Tartu Health Care Colleges). After the professional standards for care work ers have been updated, the MoSA will facilitate the modernisation of curricula in an equal manner in all 7 vocational schools where the specialists are taught.

For the creation of a complementary education/training system for child protection and care workers, training the specialists as well as providing a support/counselling system at local gov ernment level, the MoSA will partner up mainly with the Social Insurance Board. Social In surance Board is a government institution that is a central player in coordinating nationwide child protection work, training specialists and counselling local governments concerning social- and child protection services.

Additionally, engaging the Union of Child Welfare as one of the partners in child welfare activities is important and partnering with National Institute for Health Development is cur rently also under consideration, because they are currently the lead in complementary educa tion provision for care workers.

Programme component 2 will mainly contribute to output 2.1-2.3 and outcome 2 (See Annex

Programme component 3 “Increasing multicultural competence in the education sec tor,”

Programme component operator is the Ministry of Education and Research (M0ER) who is responsible for the planning of education, research, youth and language related national poli cies and, in conjunction thereof, managing the fields of pre-primary, basic, general upper sec ondary, vocational secondary, higher, hobby and adult education, organising research and development activities, youth work and special youth work, and compiling drafts of correspond ing legal acts. Programme Component Operator is responsible for all programme component coordination as well as content and financial reporting and communication with donors and oversight of activities within programme component.

MoER activities are implemented by the Education and Youth Board, who is a government agency, which deals with the implementation of the education and youth policy of the Estonian state. It is responsible for processing service providers and coordinating various training activ ities.

For the updating of the curricula, the Education and Youth Board will involve the University of Tartu and the Tallinn University as partners, as these two universities are the only univer sities in Estonia to offer teacher training and are responsible for high-quality in-service training for education and youth workers. University of Tartu offers research-based, in-service train ing for teachers, special education teachers and social pedagogues. There is also an extended in-service training programme for teachers, head teachers and university staff. Tallinn Uni versity offers degree programmes at Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral level and organises continuing education, research, development and creative activities.

Programme component 3 will contribute mainly to outputs 1.3, 2.1 and 2.2 and outcomes 1 and 2 (See Annex 3).

Programme component 4 “Strengthening civil society through social innovation”.

Programme component operator is the Ministry of Interior (Mol) who is responsible for en suring public order and internal security, regulating crisis management and rescue works, guarding and protecting the state border and assuring the border regime, coordinating citizen ship and migration issues, coordinating issues concerning population and vital statistics and supporting the development of civil society, as well as volunteerism and religious associations.

15

Programme Component Operator is responsible for all programme component coordination as well as content and financial reporting and communication with donors and oversight of activi ties within programme component.

The programme component activities will be implemented by the National Foundation of Civil Society (NFCS) which is a state financed civil society fund, development and support centre that focuses on helping to build the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs). While NFCS is funded by the government, it functions independently under the guidance of its board which consists mainly of the representatives of CSOs.

Programme component 4 will mainly contribute to output 3.1-3.3 and outcome 3 (See Annex

The activities within the programme components are in line with national strategic and sectoral development plans, are in synergy with other sources of funding and were thoroughly dis cussed with relevant stakeholders. Activities are budgeted cost-effectively considering experi ence with previous and ongoing similar projects.

Programme components are interconnected because they address various aspects of the in tegration process comprehensively, ensuring that people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds can become active participants in Estonian society. Moreover, they are aligned with sectoral development plans, coordinated with other funding sources, and involve stake- holder input to maximize their impact and cost-effectiveness.

Outcomes of the SSIP will be achieved by the activities of the four programme compo nents led by different programme operatorslministries as follows:

Immediate outcome la: “Established processes enable people from different cultural and lin guistic backgrounds participate more actively in Estonian society” and I b: “People from differ ent cultural and linguistic backgrounds are empowered to participate in Estonian society more actively” will be achieved by:

- programme component 1 activities, which deal with cultural and linguistic integration and programme component 3 activity, which deals with providing informing, consulting and supporting activities for parents md. parents from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Key activities: Activities introducing the Estonian cultural space; provision of counsel ling services including in independent language learning; preparation of digital trans formation in the field of integration (implemented by The Integration Foundation). Pro vision of media literacy training (implemented by (DCD) of the MoC and RARA as partner). Informing, consulting and supporting parents, md. parents from different cul tural and linguistic backgrounds (implemented by Education and Youth Board).

Immediate outcome 2: Professionals in education and social sector have acquired new skills and knowledge and are ready to work with people from different cultural and linguistic back grounds will be achieved by:

- programme component 2 activities that address the strengthening of social services and child protection services and the activities of programme component 3, which deal with in-service training of professionals in the education sector.

Key activities: Modernising the curricula (implemented by the MoSA, partners are Uni versity of Tartu, TTK University of Applied Sciences as well Tallinn University, at the

16

vocational level Estonian Social Work Association); Training the professionals (imple mented by the MoSA, partners are the Social Insurance Board, Union of Child Welfare, partnership with National Institute for Health Development is under consideration). In- service training for professionals in the education sector; (implemented by Education and Youth Board, partners are Tartu University and Tallinn University).

Immediate outcome 3: Communities, orcianisations and individuals have gained new knowledge in social innovation methods to design solutions to better integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society will be achieved by:

- programme component 4 activities, which deal with strengthening civil society, includ ing a focus on the social inclusion of migrants and refugees through social innovation and programme component 1 activity, which deals with the inclusion of volunteers in the integration activities.

Key activities: building civil society competence, raising public awareness and dissem inating information on social innovation (implemented by NFCS) and inclusion of vol unteers in the integration activities (implemented by The Integration Foundation).

For detailed information about the programme components see annexes 1-4

Policy dialogue

The activities of the SSIP are in line with Estonia’s sectoral development plans and strategies (mentioned in chapter 2.2 under National strategic framework) and national strategy ,,Esto nia 2035”, which have been widely discussed in a range of consultations In Estonia, the preparation of strategies is an open process, and everyone can participate in it. The strategy ,,Estonia 2035” was agreed upon through joint discussions, analyses, workshops and opinion gathering between non-governmental partners, experts, researchers, politicians, entrepre neurs, officials and many other stakeholders. Almost 17,000 people from all over Estonia have contributed to the completion of “Estonia 2035”. As regards strategic development plans and their strategy planning process, they have also been drawn up in a political dialogue that in volved discussions among stakeholders to raise issues, share perspectives and find common ground. Expert groups and sectoral working groups composed of representatives of sectoral organisations and non-governmental organisations was established. To formulate the strategic goals and metrics, the ministries formed working groups involving key partners and stakehold ers. The working groups discussed the strengths and bottlenecks of the sector, formulated goals and key development activities. The drafts of the sectoral development plans were agreed with partners and public consultation was carried out in the government draft infor mation system.

The need for additional policy dialogue will be monitored through the implementing process depending on actual needs.

Please find more detailed description of the consultation process in annex 5. For stakeholder consultations, see chapter 4.5.

2.5 Beneficiaries SSlP~s direct beneficiaries are: (i) Civic society organizations (including NGOs and social enterprises); (ii) care workers, (iii) child protection workers of the local authorities, (v) educa tional and youth work professionals, (vi) education officials of the local authorities, (vii) volun teers, (viii) educational and youth work organizations.

17

Indirect beneficiaries are: (i) people from different cultural and linguistic background (includ ing recipients of temporary and international protection status and new migrants), (ii) cultural societies of ethnic minorities, (iii) people in need of social welfare services (iv) children and families, (v) local authorities. It is expected that SSIP will have a national cover and benefit most of the population of Estonia.

For overview of implementation locations see annex 6.

2.6 Programme Component Characteristics and regional focus

Is the benefit of the Project national or regional? NationaII~1 Regional LI

If regional, indicate the benefiting NUTS-2 region(s):

2.7 Overview Swiss Support Measure Partners

Is/are a/several Swiss Support Measure Partner(s) foreseen to be YesI~1 Not] involved in and contributing to the implementation of the Support Measure?

A Terms of References for seeking a Swiss Strategic Partner was sent out to the identified institutions on February 02, 2024, The final decision will be made by March 08, 2024. The partnership agreement will be concluded after the signing of the Support Measure Agreement. Please see chapter 4.7.

Name of the partner organisation

If collaboration foreseen in Pro gramme Component, indicate name of Component

Partnership status Choose an element,

Type of organ isation Choose an element.

Type of support or partnership Choose an element.

Name of contact person

Position

Correspondence address

Webpage and social media (if any)

E-Mail

Phone Mobile

Has the partner organisation been previously involved in the Swiss YesLi Not] Contribution

18

2.8 Sustainability

Implemented activities have a potential for long-term impact and will continue to be devel oped, improved and funded after the end of the SSIP because they are based on national strategic development plans (see chapter 2.2 “National strategic framework” for a comprehen sive list). The activities implemented in the SSIP are in accordance with multiple national stra tegic documents, which are subject to regular evaluation and monitoring. The SSIP ‘s impact will be evident in the achieved results.

Long term goal of the SSIP, in line with national strategic framework, is cohesive and socially inclusive society through harmonized values and peoples strengthened cultural, social and economic connections with the Estonian society. The goal of the SSIP improved opportunities for people living in Estonia, especially people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to participate more actively in Estonian society. Intermediate outcomes of the SSIP are (1) people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are active-ly participating in Estonian society and (2) professionals in education and social sector offer services according to mod ernised and new curricula tailored also to work with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. (3) communities, organisations and individuals successfully implement the new knowledge gained in social innovation methods to design solutions to better integrate and in clude people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society. With immediate outcomes (see chapter 4.3 for logframe) these results are sustained when the SSIP has ended. Long term goal and intermediate outcomes will be achieved through national strategic framework as the duration of the SSIP is too short for these aspects to reveal.

The developed curricula, study materials and new ways of working will be integrated into social sector and educational processes. People working in the field will acquire competencies and skills that can be used in their daily work for a long term, as well as be passed on to other specialists in the future. Materials created during the SSIP, including written materials, visuals, video clips, etc, will be used to train specialists in the fields of integration, education, and social welfare. New knowledge and innovations that derive from the SSIP will be used to inform future policy making in the relevant fields. Networks and communities of practice to facilitate contin uous learning will be established and they will be able to collaborate and exchange knowledge among individuals and organizations engaged in similar work. This will enhance participants’ expertise and effectiveness, contributing to the sustainability of the SSIP outcomes.

Also, the sustainability and impact of the measures is strongly supported by synergies with activities carried out in parallel from other funds. All these different interventions and de velopments are in accordance and follow the strategic directions/goals set in the national stra tegic framework. For more, please see point 2.2.

The results and impact of the SSIP will be communicated and shared with stakeholders, the donor and the wider public. By demonstrating the value and achieved goals, we aim to maintain support and engagement even after the SSIP concludes.

One of the challenges is time schedule constraints as the period to implement the SSIP is limited. The outputs and the immediate outcomes will be monitored, and results are expected during the implementation period, but planned activities are also part of long-term strategic processes. Since the SSIP is among others aimed at different stakeholders expected to par ticipate in the activities, the challenge is to engage and generate interest in them, which is why an effective communication is a key.

Activities will also contribute to the Estonian state level reforms: child welfare reform and tran sition to Estonian-language education in Russian schools (see chapter 2.10).

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2.9 Other strategic issues

There are two ongoing reforms in Estonia for which this SSIP will contribute:

Child welfare reform

The main goal of the child protection service provision reform in Estonia is to tackle the root causes of current problems and introduce new approaches and practical solutions that will bring along long-term positive transformations in our society.

The vision foresees:

• better environment for improving the well-being of children and ensuring their safety;

• service provision that engages the families;

• trust-based and children-friendly service provision;

• preventive and network measures in determining the need for help;

• national case management model in use;

• different specialists working together in teams, expertise and support system is in place;

• service provision services and support services have been divided;

• life-long learning, growth and self-reflection.

Considering the volume and complexity of the reform, the planned changes will be imple mented in two stages — in 2023, first step of legal amendments were prepared and in 2024, the compilation of the complete text of the new Child Welfare Act will be started (to be com pleted in 2025).

The execution of the reform is implemented with the support of SSIP as well as with the support of ESF÷ period 2021-2027, the activities/interventions and target groups being clearly differ entiated from both financial mechanisms. The SSIP is focused on raising the competencies of the specialists working in the field of child protection service provision (curricula modernization as well as complementary education/training system for specialists already engaged in the field) while ESF+ financial support deals with the renewal of case management system in child protection services, providing a necessary toolbox for the specialists (science-based evalua tion tools and networking instruments) and developing an IT solution supporting the specialists in their activities.

Transition to Estonian-lanciuaqe education

In approximately 15% of Estonian schools the language of instruction is mainly Russian. Both PISA tests and basic school final exams and upper secondary state exams indicate that stu dents of Russian-medium schools achieve lower scores compared to their Estonian peers and the level of proficiency in Estonian as a second language is often not sufficient to be successful in the labour or educational market. In December 2022 Estonian government approved the detailed action plan prepared by the Ministry of Education and Research to transition to Esto nian-language education in Russian schools.

The primary objective of the transition is to provide all children in Estonia with quality education in Estonian, regardless of their mother tongue. This supports the development of Estonian national identity, promotes social integration, and reduces educational and socio-economic

20

segregation, benefiting learners in the process. An entirely Estonian-language educational en vironment also ensures better opportunities for further education, success in the labour market, and sharing of common information and values in Estonia.

The transition to Estonian-language education is set to begin in kindergartens and in 1st and 4th grades in 2024, with the aim of completing the process by 2030. Achieving this goal will require increasing the volume of teaching in Estonian at all levels of education and ensuring the availability of teachers with the necessary language skills. To conduct the transition, the Government will allocate 300 million euros from the state budget over the next four years, with an additional 46 million euros provided by the EU Structural Funds.

The state and ESF funding for the transition to Estonian-language learning contributes primar ily to hiring new teachers, raising salaries, creating new materials etc. This funding does not cover the provision of consulting and training activities for parents, who play a crucial role and require assistance and support in dealing with the fears and uncertainties that may arise during the transition, that is why support from the SSIP is very important in the transition process. Higher education institutions also need additional funding to train trainers in independent lan guage learning and independent language learning methodology and to supplement teacher training curricula in multilingual and cultural learning environments.

3. Support Measure readiness

3.1 Context

Is the Support Measure proposal a continuation of a Project or Pro- YesO No1XI gramme supported under the Swiss Contribution (I)?

Was the Support Measure proposal declined during a funding-application YesEl Nol~l process by other donors (e.g. EU, Norway/EEA)?

If it was declined, explain why.

3.2 Application for funds from Support Measure Preparation Fund

Is support from the Support Measure Preparation Fund requested? YesF~1 NoEl

Support from the Support Measure Preparation Fund was requested by the Programme Oper ator — MoC, Programme Component Operators MoER, Mol and MoSA to cover the costs re lated to the preparation of the second-stage Support Measure Proposal and the management expenditures in relation to the preparation of the SSIP. SMPF covers the Swiss expert costs, stakeholder consultation, study visit to Switzerland, staff costs and Support Measure agree ment signing ceremony. The costs were approved by the donor and were planned for 2023 and 2024. They are financed 100% by Switzerland.

21

4. Operational Support Measure description

4.1 Applying organisation (Executing Agency)

4.1.1 Organisation structures of Executing Agency and Support Measure

The Program Operator is the Ministry of Culture (M0C).

The management structure of the MoC is presented on the scheme bellow (figure 2). Ministry is directed by the Minister. The Secretary General of a ministry directs the work of the structural units of the ministry, co-ordinates the activities of state authorities within the area of govern ment of the ministry and manages the operations of the ministry. There are three Deputy Sec retary Generals and 9 departments in the MoC. The main department that is directly involved into management of the Support Measure is the Financial Department (marked with coloured ring on the figure 2). The Financial Department performs the duties of the programme operator.

Programme Component operators are the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of the Interior. The management structure of Programme Component Operators is presented in Annex 6.1.2, 7.1.2, 8.1.2 and 9.1.2.

Figure 2: The organisation structure of the support measure.

I%dlinister

I 1 Secretary Internal Audit ri.ilInster s General Department Advisers

Art Cultural Cultural Department Department D,~ Dep~rtment

Estonilan Cultural Attaches Abroad

Financial Department

Department Department Department of Communi of Human of Strategical

cation and Resources and Planning and International Legal Affairs Innovation Cooperation

4.1.2 Support Measure management team

Will external management personnel be hired to implement the Support YesEJ Nol~l Measure?

Estonlan National

Comm ssion for UNESCO

What personnel capacity will be dedicated Internal resources External resources for the management of the Support Measure implementation (in full-time equivalents 2,2 2 FTE)?

Are CVs attached to this documentation? YesLi NoI~l

Are terms of reference for the management functions to be established YesLi NoI~l attached to this documentation?

Programme will be managed by the Programme Operator.

The Programme Operator has an overall coordinating and monitoring role of the SSIP. Pro gramme operator ensures effectively functioning management and control system, plans and implements the communication activities in cooperation with the programme component oper ators, prepares Programme reports, establishes the Support Measure Steering Committee and organises its work (also performs the duties of the Secretary).

The Programme Operator will monitor the implementation of the Programme Components. Annual activities are defined in the annual work plan of the ministry. During year work plan is regularly monitored. Each Programme Component Operator will nominate the Programme Component coordinator, who will coordinate the implementation of the concrete component.

There will be Task Force for ongoing monitoring and internal steering, that will meet at least two times per year and will consist of the Programme Operator, the Programme Component Operators, the National Coordination Unit (NCU) and the Implementers.

As prescribed by the Regulations there will be the Steering Committee, that will be composed at least from the NCU, the Embassy of Switzerland’s Swiss Contribution Office to Latvia, the Programme Operator and Programme Component Operators. The Steering Committee will supervise the progress of implementation and make suggestions for improvements and ap prove modifications to the Support Measure. The Steering Committee will meet at least once per year.

Programme component operators coordinate the preparation and implementation of the re spective component. Each component operator prepares conditions for granting the support, monitor, report and communicate component activities. Also gathers information from imple menters and provides the programme operator with information for the preparation of the an nual support measure reports, support measure completion report and the reimbursement re quests.

For the implementation of the SSIP, description of the management and control system will be established within the timeframe of the year of 2024.

The organ isation structure of the support measure is presented on the figure 3.

Programme operator has externally hired a programme manager (1,0 FTE in Financial De partment) whose responsibilities encompass overall management and coordination of the SSIP, serving as the main contact point at the Programme level. This involves the monitoring, steering, and reporting, also communication with programme component coordinators to col lect and harmonize cross-programme data and provide input to the NCU for the preparation of the annual cooperation programme reports and the cooperation programme completion report. Programme manager will organize the meetings of the steering committee of the support

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measure, prepare annual support measure reports, the support measure completion report, reimbursement requests and submit them to the NCU.

Also, financial and technical coordinator (0,9 FTE) will support project lead on financial themes such as budget and financial reporting and technical issues. Internal resources will be dedicated for this task.

Programme component operator I the M0C implementation of respective programme com ponent will be coordinated based on 1 FTE, internal or external resources will be dedicated for this task.

Programme component operator 2 the MoSA the implementation of respective programme component will be coordinated based on 0,5 FTE and internal resources will be dedicated for this task.

Programme component operator 3 the M0ER the implementation of respective programme component will be coordinated based on 0,5 FTE and internal resources will be dedicated for this task.

Programme component operator 4 the Mol the implementation of respective programme component will be coordinated based on 0,2 FTE and internal resources will be dedicated for this task.

Programme component coordinators are responsible for all programme component coordina tion as well as content and financial reporting and communication with donors and oversight of activities within programme component. Programme component coordinators collect infor mation from the implementers and provide the programme manager with the necessary infor mation about the activities, outputs, outcomes, and other related matters on an ongoing basis, including for the preparation of the annual cooperation programme reports, cooperation pro gramme completion report, annual support measure reports, the support measure completion report and reimbursement requests. They are members of Task Force for ongoing monitoring and internal steering.

The State Shared Service Centre (SSSC) (up to 1,2 FTE), the workload is shared between various employees and varies depending on the nature of the control tasks. SSSC controls expenditures paid from the support measure, transfers payments to the programme operator, component operators and implementers, conducts on-the-spot verifications, detects irregular ities and reclaims the ineligible funds.

The Detailed Management and Control System Description for the SSIP will be compiled.

A more precise division of tasks and responsibilities between the NCU, Programme operator and Programme Component operators will be provided in the regulation of the government.

The tasks of the employees and officials are regulated with job descriptions and other relevant documents.

For monitoring and steering mechanisms, see chapter 4.8.

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Figure 3: The organisation structure of the support measure.

National Coordination Unit

Programme operator

Ministry of Culture

Programme component Programme component Programme component Pro~omme component opeiator and implernem,ter operator and implemente Operator

M.nistry of Culture Mirnstry of Social Affairs Ministry of Education ~ Ministry of tIme Interior

lrnplei-,menter Integration Implernenter Education lmnplemenner National Foundation and Youth Board Foundation of Cml Society

Partners universities, siocactronal schools SocialPartner National Ubrary of Insurance Board National Partners universItIesEstona

institute for Health Oeveioprvent, NGOS

4.1.3 Programme and project management experience

The Programme operator and the Programme component operators (ministries) and imple menters (boards and foundations) have a long experience with different funding, for detailed information see annex 1-4.

4.2 Detailed intervention strategy and activities

4.2.1 Communication activities

Since informing public (including target groups, stakeholders, beneficiaries) about the SSIP is very important, various communication activities are planned during the implementation of the SSIP. Communication activities will be implemented in cooperation with the Embassy of Swit zerland’s Swiss Contribution Office to Latvia, NCU, programme operator, programme compo nent operators and implementers. Information about the communication activities is provided in the Communication Concept, which will be compiled by the NCU in cooperation with the programme operator and programme component operators by the end of April 2024. Commu nication activities are also discussed at the Support Measure Steering Committee meetings.

Information about the Swiss contribution will be made visible in all publications and other in formation materials related to the SSIP. Relevant and up-to-date information about the SSIP will be shared on the SSIP webpage. The official webpage of the Swiss contribution will be created on the national coordination unit’s webpage (www.rtk.ee) and programme operator’s webpage (www.kul ee). Information about the activities will also be presented on the webpages and social media channels of other institutions involved in the implementation of the SSIP.

A launching and a closing event for SSIP will be organized by the programme operator in cooperation with other institutions involved in the implementation of the SSIP.

Throughout the SSIP, whenever it is relevant, press releases to main media outlets and social media posts on the programme operator’s and component operators’ social media channels about the events, activities and results will be issued. Therefore, high-quality photo or video material will also be produced. Distribution statistics of press releases and social media posts will be regularly monitored and used to adjust the communication activities accordingly.

The detailed planning of the communication activities will be done on an ongoing basis in cooperation with the programme component operators, NCU and other partners.

4.2.2 Detailed implementation schedule

Please see annex 11.

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4.3 Logframe

Hierarchy of objectives Key Indicators Sources & Means of Verification Assumptions & Risks Strategy of Intervention (mci. target values and baseline) (External Factors)

Impactimpact Impact Indicators Sources and Means of Verification

Improved opportunities for people IMP I Contacts that persons of other ethnic nationalities Data received from the monitoring sys- Assumptions: living in Estonia, especially people have with Estonians2 tem of the development plan “Estonia Political Stability: The assumption that the polit from different cultural and linguistic Measurement unit: number of contacts 2035”~ ical situation in Estonia will remain stable, en- backgrounds to participate more suring a conducive environment for integration actively in Estonian society. Baseline 2020: 2 contacts efforts.

Target 2027: more than 2,5 contacts. Maintained Migration Flows: The assumption

IMP 2 Participation of persons with different language “Participation in culture” survey5 that migration flows into Estonia will continue attheir current level, allowing for effective integra and cultural background: tion planning. Measurement unit: percent

Risks:• in employment Bordering Countries’ Instability: The risk of in o Baseline 2020: 57,3°~’~ creased migration flows due to instability in o Target 2030: 62% neighbouring countries, potentially impacting

• in cultural life the capacity of integration services to meet the o Baseline 2020: 72,9% demand. o Target 2030: 76%

Resource Allocation: The risk of resource con• in sports o Baseline 2022: 22,1%, straints affecting the ability to provide improved

Target 2030: 30% quality and access to services in integration, education, and social welfare, which may limit op portunities for active participation.

Changing Government Policies: Potential changes in government policies and priorities

2 Indicator shows the average number of contacts between Estonians and persons of other ethnic nationalities in various spheres of life. Contacts or their absence are assessed based on how many interactions per month a person has with persons with a different mother tongue in 6 spheres of life: friends, family, leisure, internet, neighbours, work. https://tamm ~ https://tamm stat.eelkategooriad/ees i-areng?lang=en

~ https://andmed.stat ee/en/statlsotsiaalelu kultuur kultuurielus-osalemine

IMP 3 Proportion of people carrying strong or moderate that may affect the commitment and funding for social inclusion programmes.state identity3 Estonia’s Integration Monitoring

Measurement unit: percent Societal Resistance: Resistance or challenges • Ethnical Estonians from segments of society that may oppose or

o Baseline 2020: 78% hinder the goals of social inclusion and integra o Target 2027: ≥ 79% tion efforts.

. Persons of another ethnic nationalities o Baseline 2020: 85% o Target 2027: ≥ 86%

3The indicator shows the proportion of Estonians and Persons of another ethnic nationalities with a strong or medium state identity. State identity is measured using indices that differ for Estonians and people of other nationalities. In the case of people of another nationality, the index sums up the assessments of the following three statements: a) if you think of yourself as a representative of your nationality and a representative of the people of Estonia, to whom do you consider yourself to belong?; b) The Estonian state protects my rights and provides public benefits; c) I feel proud when I see the Estonian flag flying. In the case of Estonians, the index consists of three components, which summarize the assessments of the following three statements: 1. If you think of yourself as a representative of your nationality and the Estonian people, to whom do you consider yourself to belong? 2. The involvement of non-Estonians in the management of the Estonian state is beneficial for Estonia. 3. The opinions of non-Estonians should be known better and with them than before to consider more, because they are an important part of Estonian society.

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Outcomes (Support Measure objectives Ipur- Outcome Indicators Outcome: Sources and Means of Outcome pose) Verification Assumptions & Risks

Intermediate outcome 1: People from different OCIN 1.1 Percentage of participants who have Focus group discussion and self-eval- Assumptions: cultural and linguistic backgrounds are ac- claimed that after using the services they participate uation feedback form reports six Effective Integration Activities: As tively participating in Estonian society. more in cultural life or their number of contacts with months after participation in the activi- sumption that integration activities are

Estonians have increased or his/her position in the Ia- ties. effective in facilitating the active partic bour market has improved. ipation of individuals from diverse Measurement unit: percent backgrounds. Baseline: 0 Supportive Legal Framework: As- Target: 50% sumption that the legal framework and

policies in Estonia support and en courage the active participation of di

OCIN 1.2 Core Indicator: Number of migrants and for- System for events database, verse communities. cibly displaced persons participating in new or ex- registrations sheets. Positive Public Attitudes: The assump panded measures for social and economic integration tion that the general public in Estonia (disac,gregatedbygenderandbackground(Estonian, is open to and supportive of the active migrant))6, participation of individuals from di- Measurement unit: participations verse backgrounds. Baseline: 0 Effective Communication: Assumption Target: 20 ooo that there is effective communication

and information dissemination to reach and engage individuals from di-

Immediate outcome Ia: Established pro- OCIM (a) 1.1 Processes (the first stage of service cre- verse backgrounds. cesses enable people from different cultural ation (methodologies, materials, surveys etc)) have Programme reports. Risks: and linguistic backgrounds participate more been discussed with different partners and target Limited Community Engagement: actively in Estonian society. group. Risks associated with low engage-

Measurement unit: percent ment from some cultural and linguistic Baseline: 0 groups, potentially resulting in a lack Target: 100% of servicesz of diversity in active participation.

Discrimination and Prejudice: Risks of discrimination or prejudice against in dividuals from diverse backgrounds,

6 Measures (activities) used in determining core indicator: Activities introducing the Estonian cultural space; Inclusion of volunteers in the integration activities; Provision of counselling services

including in independent language learning; Provision of media literacy training;

~ Services: Activities introducing the Estonian cultural space; Inclusion of volunteers in the integration activities; Provision of counselling services including in independent language learning;

Provision of media literacy training;

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Outcomes (Support Measure objectives Ipur- Outcome Indicators Outcome: Sources and Means of Outcome pose) Verification Assumptions & Risks

OCIM (a) 1.2 Services are created and available to Programme reports. which can hamper their active partici the target group. pation in society.

Information Accessibility: Risks re Measurement unit: percent lated to limited access to information Baseline: 0 or communication challenges that may Target: 100% of services are created and available~ impede empowerment efforts.

Immediate outcome Ib: People from different OCIM (b) 1.1 Percentage of participants who have Focus group discussion and self-eval cultural and linguistic backgrounds are em- claimed that they are satisfied with the activities and uation feedback form reports immedi powered to participate in Estonian society that they have gained knowledge for more active par- ately after participation in the activi more actively. ticipation in the Estonian society, ties.

Measurement unit: percent Baseline: 0 Target: 75%

OCIM (b) 1.2 Services are made available online. Programme reports. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: 0 Target: yes9

Intermediate Outcome 2: Professionals in ed- OCIN 2.1 Trained professionals using new skills and Training feedback surveys; focus Assumptions: ucation and social sector offer services ac- knowledge working also with people from different group interviews / Existence of a sectoral support system cording to modernised and new curricula tai- cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Programme reports. - management support, horizontal co lored also to work with people from different Measurement unit: percentage operation network, support system cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Baseline: N/A (unknown) backed by trained staff (supervision,

etc.) Target: 70% of enrolled specialists that have passed a training module Specialists open to changing their

work methods.

8 Services: Activities introducing the Estonian cultural space; Inclusion of volunteers in the integration activities; Provision of counselling services including in independent language learning;

Provision of media literacy training;

~ Services: Provision of counselling services including in independent language learning; Inclusion of volunteers in the integration activities

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provision to people from different cultural and linguis tic backgrounds has changed for the better.

Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: 0 Target: yes

OCIM 2.1 Trained professionals with new skills and knowledge ready to work also with people from differ ent cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Measurement unit: percentage Baseline: N/A (unknown) Target: 80% of enrolled specialists that have passed a training module

OCIM 2.2 Professionals’ expectations asked before starting the complementary trainings.

Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: 0 Target: yes

Training feedback surveys; focus group interviews. Programme reports.

Training feedback surveys; focus group interviews / Programme reports.

Training feedback surveys; focus group interviews / Programme reports.

Risks: Lack of support and consistency at lo cal level. Skills provided are not corresponding to the needs and therefore are unusa ble in real life.

Outcomes (Support Measure objectives /pur- Outcome Indicators Outcome: Sources and Means of Outcome pose) Verification Assumptions & Risks

OCIN 2.2 Post-training feedback (after 6 months) given whether the professionals are in fact using the skills and knowledge acguired in their everyday work.

Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: 0 Target: yes

OCIN 2.3 Post-training feedback (after 6 months) ac- Training feedback surveys; focus guired from employers whether they see that service group interviews IProgramme reports.

Immediate Outcome 2: Professionals in edu cation and social sector have acquired new skills and knowledge and are ready to work with people from different cultural and linguis tic backgrounds.

OCIM 2.3 Professionals’ feedback acguired after hay- Training feedback surveys; focus ing finished the training module on having new skills group interviews /

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OCIN 3.1 Percentage of participants who claim that they have implemented at least some of the knowledge gained on social innovation methods in their organisations or communities to design solutions to social inclusion issues in Estonia. Measurement unit: percentage Baseline: 0 Target: 50% of respondents

OCIN 3.2 Number of innovative ideas developed fur ther at incubation programmes to help with solving social inclusion and integration problems. Measurement unit: number Baseline: 0 Target: 10

OCIM 3.1 Percentage of participants who claim (in end-of training evaluation) that they have gained new knowledge to implement social innovation methods. Measurement unit: percentage Baseline: 0 Target 75%

OCIM 3.2 Percentage of participants at hackathons and incubation programmes who are from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Participant feedback surveys; post- event and e-mail questionnaire; focus group interviews. Programme reports.

Participant feedback surveys; post- event and e-mail questionnaire; focus group interviews. Programme reports.

Participant feedback surveys; post- event and e-mail questionnaire; focus group interviews. Programme reports.

Assumptions: Communities, organisations and indi viduals in Estonia are open to use in novative solutions to integrate people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. People from different cultural and lin guistic backgrounds in Estonia are willing to engage in social hackathons and incubation programmes.

Risks: The level of willingness, knowledge and skills of the communities, organi sations, and individuals to implement social innovation methods varies con siderably. The surrounding societal environment does not support the implementation of gained knowledge.

Measurement unit: percentage Target: 25% ~-~~__________

Outcomes (Support Measure objectives /pur- Outcome Indicators Outcome: Sources and Means of Outcome pose) Verification Assumptions & Risks

and knowledge to work with people from different cul- Programme reports. tural and linguistic backgrounds.

Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: 0 Target: yes

Intermediate outcome 3: Communities, organ isations and individuals successfully imple ment the new knowledge gained in social in novation methods to design solutions to better integrate and include people from dif ferent cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society.

Immediate outcome 3: Communities, organi sations and individuals have gained new knowledge in social innovation methods to design solutions to better integrate and in clude people from different cultural and lin guistic backgrounds in the Estonian society.

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Outcomes (Support Measure objectives /pur- Outcome Indicators Outcome: Sources and Means of Outcome pose) Verification Assumptions & Risks

OCIM 3.3 Number of innovative ideas proposed dur ing hackathons to solve social inclusion and integra tion problems. Measurement unit: number Target: 15

Outputs: Support Measure deliverables/results Output Indicators Output:Sources and Means of Verifica- Outputper outcome tion Assumptions & Risks

Output 1.1 Activities introducing the Estonian OPI 1.1 Number of participants System for events database, Assumptions: cultural space to people from different cultural Measurement unit: participations registrations sheets. Cultural Program Development: As- and linguistic backgrounds are provided. Baseline: 0 sumption that cultural programs can (Activities introducing the Estonian cultural be developed and are readily availableTarget: 10 000space) for introduction to individuals from di

verse backgrounds. OPI 1.2 Activities introducing the Estonian cultural Commitment to Inclusion: The as- space are designed. Programme reports. sumption that there is a commitment Measurement unit: yes/no to updating and creating inclusion-ori

ented activities and measures.Baseline: 0 Target: yes

Risks:

OPI 1.3 Information about activities introducing the Es- Cultural Adaptation Challenges: Risks tonian cultural space is available on the webpage of In- Programme reports. Web-page and related to the complexity of adapting tegration Foundation and in social media networks. social-media channels of Integration cultural activities for diverse back

Foundation. grounds, which may affect their avail-Measurement unit: yes/no ability. Baseline: 0 Resource Allocation: Risks associated Target: yes with the allocation of resources and OPI 1.4 Activities are available also outside Tallinn and funding to create and update inclu Hariumaa county. sion-oriented activities.

Programme reports. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: 0 Target: yes

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Outputs: Support Measure deliverables/results Output Indicators Output:Sources and Means of Verifica- Output per outcome tion Assumptions & Risks

Output 1.2 Counselling services are made avail- OPI 1.5 Number of counselling sessions1° (at least 30 System for events database, Assumptions: able and used. minutes). registrations sheets. Qualified Counsellors: Assumption (Activity: Provision of counselling services in- Measurement unit: number that there are qualified counsellors cluding in independent language learning) Baseline: 0 available to provide services.

Target: 8000 sessions Counselling Facilities: The assump tion that suitable facilities are available

Programme reports. to offer counselling services. OPI 1.6 A system of peer counselling is in place. Measurement unit: yes/no Risks: Baseline: 0 Counsellor Shortages: Risks related to Target: Yes a shortage of qualified counsellors to

meet the demand for services.

OPI 1.7 The counselling service has been upgraded and Programme reports. Resource Limitations: Risks associ the capacity to provide the service has been created. ated with limitations in funding or facil

ities for providing counselling services.Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: 0 Target: Yes

OPI 1.8 Counsellors receive regular training. Measurement unit: number of trainings Programme reports. Baseline: 0 Target: at least once a year

Output 1.3 Activities for parents, md. from dif- OPI 1.9 Mapping of issues relevant to parents on multi- Programme reports. Assumptions: ferent cultural and linguistic backgrounds, are culturalism has been carried out. The ability and competence and avail- developed and provided. Measurement unit: number ability of experts to develop training (Activity: Informing, consulting and supporting Baseline: 0 and information materialsparents, md. parents from different cultural and The organisers have a good under- linguistic backgrounds) Target: 3 (years 2024, 2025, 2026) standing of the target groups and their

needs. Programme reports Risks:

10 Counselling session - involves seeking guidance, recommendations, or suggestions from someone with expertise or experience in a particular area. In the programme indicator, we take into

account sessions that last at least 30 minutes.

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Outputs: Support Measure deliverables/results Output Indicators Output:Sources and Means of Verifica- Outputper outcome tion Assumptions & Risks

OPI 1.10 Multicultual awareness-raising activities’pro- Finding experts with sufficient compe grammes are developed and ready to use. tence to compile as well as translate Measurement unit: yes/no the materials. Baseline: 0 Reaching the relevant target groups. Target: yes Scarce time resources of the target

Programme reports, which include group and their ability to participate. an overview of feedback. Time constraints to implement SSIP

OPI 1.11 Number of multicultural awareness-raising ac- activities by mid-2028 tivities for parents, including from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Measurement unit: Number Baseline: 0 Target: 30 (5 webinars, 5 workshops, 20 seminars for parents’ councils)

Output 1.4 Media literacy programme launched. OPI 1.12 Number of material sets created. Programme reports; link to the mate- Assumptions: rials/programme.

(Activity: Provision of media literacy training) Measurement unit: Number Media Literacy Expertise: Assumption Baseline: 0 that there are experts available to

launch the program and create educaTarget: 1 tional materials.

Interest in Media Literacy: The as OPI 1.13 Number of libraries and community centres Programme reports. sumption that there is an interest and taking part in the programme. demand for media literacy programs. Measurement unit: Number Baseline: 0 Risks: Target: 70 Expertise Shortages: Risks related to

the availability of experts in the field of

OPt 1.14 Number of participants in the programme Programme reports. media literacy. Lack of Interest: Risks associated withMeasurement unit: participations limited interest or engagement from

Baseline: 0 the target audience in the media liter- Target: 3000 acy programme.

Output 1.5 Digital tools are developed, piloted OPt 1.15 Number of digital tools developed. Programme reports. Assumptions: and rolled-out. Measurement unit: number Resource Availability: Assumption that (Activity: Preparation of digital transformation in Baseline: 0 the necessary resources for conduct- the field of integration) ing the survey and piloting digital tools

Target: 3 are accessible.

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Output:Outputs: Support Measure deliverables/results Output Indicators Sources and Means of Verifica- Output per outcome tion Assumptions & Risks

OP 1.16 Feedback of users of digital tools during pilot Survey on user feedback published Stakeholder Engagement: The as- phase and roll-out phase in programme report. sumption that relevant stakeholders Measurement unit: users involved in feedback process will actively participate in the survey

and provide valuable input for digitalBaseline 0 tool development. Target: 75% are satisfied and consider it useful

Pjsks: OPI 1.17 Number of analyses conducted Programme report. Resource Shortages: Risks associ Measurement unit: number ated with potential shortages in fund- Baseline: 0 ing or technology resources that may

hinder survey and digital tool pilot efTarget: 1 forts.

Stakeholder Disengagement: Risks related to a lack of engagement or co operation from stakeholders, poten tially leading to less effective analysis results and digital tool development.

Output 2.1 Modernised curricula and new curric- OPI 2.1 Curricula that will be modernised is identified. Programme reports. Assumptions: ula for professionals in the fields of education and Measurement unit: yes/no Knowing the channels to reach the tar- social welfare have been approved and are in Baseline: 0 get groupforce. Clear and relevant information about (Activities: Curricula and professional qualifica- Target: yes the target group tion modification) Relevant problem mapping

OPI 2.2 Modernised and new curricula developed and Programme reports, focus group dis- Political and strategic priorities remainapproved cussions with experts; draft and ap- as agreed upon are adequate Measurement unit: number proved curricula documents; follow-

Availability of target group Baseline: 0 up evaluation agreements. Target: 5 curricula updated in social welfare, 1 in educa- Risks: tion sector and 2 new curricula in education sector Universities’ lack of interest

Time constraints to implement SSIP OPI 2.3 85% of approved curricula opened for enrolment Programme reports activities by the end of 2028 of students. Price increases to activities Measurement unit: yes/no Target group overwhelmed with work Baseline: no and extra trainings Target: yes Political and strategic priorities change

due to world changing events.

36

Outputs: Support Measure deliverables/results Output Indicators Output:Sources and Means of Verifica- Outputper outcome tion Assumptions & Risks

OPI 2.4 Public awareness campaign highlighting new Few experts, who are very occupied. possibilities and positive changes in social care- and child protection studies and work environment carried Programme reports. 2~- Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

OPI 2.5 Target groups selected.

Programme reports. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

OPI 2.6 Campaign reach measured.

Programme reports. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

OPI 2.7 Campaign success evaluated. Programme reports. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

Output 2.2 Professionals in the fields of educa- OPI 2.8 Complementary training modules developed. Programme reports. Assumptions: tion and social welfare have received comple- Measurement unit: number Knowing the channels to reach the tar mentarv training according to new curricula. Baseline: 0 get group.

(Activities: Training and counselling system; In- Target: 15 modules developed Clear and relevant information about service training for professionals in the education the target group sector) OPI 2.9 In-service training modules that will be devel- Relevant problem mapping

Programme reports. Political and strategic priorities remain oped mapped. as agreed upon are adequate. Measurement unit: yes/no

Availability of target group Baseline: no Risks: Target: yes

Universities’ lack of interest

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OPI 2.10 Training modules developed. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

OPI 2.11 Trainers trained on new modules. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

OPI 2.12 Professionals trained. Measurement unit: completed training course participa tions. Baseline: 0 Target: 10 000

OPI 2.13 Child welfare, social work and education sec tor training participants identified. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

OPI 2.14 Regional and sector-based training plan and schedule with communication plan developed. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

OPI 2.15 Feedback from course participants acquired. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

Output: OutputOutputs: Support Measure deliverables/results Output Indicators Sources and Means of Verifica- Assumptions & Risks

per outcome tion

Time constraints to implement SSIP activities by the end of 2028. Price increases to activities Target group overwhelmed with work and extra trainings. Political and strategic priorities change due to world changing events. Few experts, who are very occupied.

Programme reports.

Programme reports.

Programme reports.

Programme reports.

Programme reports.

Programme reports, focus group dis cussions with teachers, focus group discussions with students.

38

Outputs: Support Measure deliverables/results Output Indicators Output:Sources and Means of Verifica- Outputper outcome tion Assumptions & Risks

Output 2.3 A support/counselling system for so- OPI 2.16 Support / counselling system for social sector Programme reports, Assumptions: cial sector workers has been developed and is workers developed, progress monitoring meetings. Knowing the channels to reach the tar- operational. Measurement unit: yes/no get group.

Baseline: no Clear and relevant information about (Activity: Training and counselling system) Target: yes the target group.

Relevant problem mapping. OPI 2.17 Needs of support/counselling services at local Programme reports, Political and strategic priorities remain level mapped progress monitoring meetings. as agreed upon are adequate. Measurement unit: yes/no Availability of target group. Baseline: no

Risks: Target: yes

Universities’ lack of interest OPI 2.18 Local level support and networking structure Programme reports, Time constraints to implement SSIP envisaged, progress monitoring meetings. activities by the end of 2028. Measurement unit: yes/no Price increases to activities. Baseline: no Target group overwhelmed with work

and extra trainings.Target: yes Political and strategic priorities change due to world changing events.

OPI 2.19 Support / counselling system for social sector Programme reports, Few experts, who are very occupied. workers in local governments piloted, progress monitoring meetings. Measurement unit: yes/no Baseline: no Target: yes

Output 3.1 Civil society competence building ac- OPI 3.1 Action plan for civil society competence building Programme reports. Assumptions: activities, including target group mapping.tivities carried out. The ability and competence and avail- Measurement unit: yes/no ability of experts to develop training

(Activity: Building civil society competence, rais- Baseline: No and information materials. ing public awareness, and disseminating infor- Target: Yes The organisers have a good under mation on social innovation) standing of the target groups and their

OPI 3.2 Number of civil society competence building ac- Programme reports. needs (in order to target the activitiesto organisations, communities and intivities carried out for communities, organisations, and dividuals that would be are interested individuals, including people from different cultural and in social innovation and the inclusionlinguistic backgrounds, of migrants).

39

Output: Outputs: Support Measure deliverables/results Output Indicators Sources and Means of Verifica- Output

Assumptions & Risksper outcome tion

Measurement unit: number Risks:

Baseline: 0 Finding experts with sufficient compe tence to compile as well as translateTarget: 14 (this number includes 2 social innovation the materials.

hackathons, 2 social innovation incubation pro grammes, 2 training programmes, 2 workshops, 6 study Reaching the relevant target groups. visits for organisations, communities, and individuals) Scarce time resources of the target

group and their ability to participate.

OPI 3.3 Feedback by participants on the civil society Time constraints to implement SSIP Programme reports, which include activities by mid-2028competence building activities. an overview of feedback.

Measurement unit: percentage of respondents

Baseline: 0 Target: 70% of respondents are satisfied with the activ ity they participated in

Output 3.2 A set of social innovation training and OPI 3.4 Action plan for the preparation of social innova- Programme reports. Assumptions: information materials created, published, and tion training and information materials, including target The ability and competence and avail- disseminated, group mapping. ability of experts to develop training (Activity: Building civil society competence, rais- Measurement unit: yes/no and information materials

ing public awareness, and disseminating infor- Baseline: No The producers have a good under mation on social innovation)

Target: Yes standing of the public and their inter ests (in order to target the activities to

Programme reports. organisations, communities and mdiOPI 3.5 Number of social innovation, training and infor- viduals that would be are interested in mation materials for organisations, communities and in- social innovation and the inclusion of dividuals, including people from different cultural and lin- migrants). guistic backgrounds. Measurement unit: number

Risks: Baseline: 0

Finding experts with sufficient compe Target: 5 (Includes 1 podcast series, 1 broadcast series, tence to compile as well as translate 1 online training programme, 1 handbook on social in- the materials. novation, I systematised collection of social innovation Reaching the relevant target groups. examples in Estonia

Time constraints to implement SSIP Programme reports which include activities by mid-2028

OPI 3.6 Expert opinion on the materials, overview of feedback.

Measurement unit: number of experts in the field of so cial innovation who have provided positive expert opin ion on the materials created.

40

Outputs: Support Measure deliverables/results Output Indicators Output:Sources and Means of Verifica- Outputper outcome tion Assumptions & Risks

Baseline: 0 Target: 2

Programme reports which include OPI 3.7 Feedback on the materials, overview of feedback. Measurement unit: percentage of respondents Baseline: 0 Target: 30% of NFCS newsletter subscribers have viewed/listened to the materials and are satisfied with the materials

Output 3.3 Volunteers are trained. OPt 3.8: Number of volunteers who attended in the ac- Programme reports. Assumptions: (Activity: Inclusion of volunteers in the integration tivities. Volunteer Availability: Assumption activities) Measurement unit: persons that there are individuals willing to vol

Baseline: 0 unteer and participate in training. Target: 3000 Training Resources: The assumption

that resources and materials for train ing volunteers are accessible and ef

OPI 3.9: Number of trained volunteer leaders. fective. Measurement unit: persons Programme reports. Baseline: 0 Risks: Target:100 Volunteer Shortages: Risks related to

a lack of volunteers or difficulties in re

OPt 3.10: Percentage of volunteers willing to continue Self-assessment feedback forms. cruiting individuals for training. volunteering in the future. Ineffective Training: Risks associated

with the ineffectiveness of trainingMeasurement unit: percent methods and materials, which may Baseline: 0 hinder the empowerment of volun Target: 40% teers.

41

4.4 Swiss Support Measure Partner

The strategic Swiss-Estonian partnership’s formation process is ongoing. Three Swiss part ners expressed an interest in principle to continue discussions with Estonia for a potential mandate in the end of 2023— beginning of 2024. On February 01, 2024, the Estonian side invited all three partners to provide an offer. The deadline for providing the offers is March 01 2024. The MoC along with the MoSA will select the Swiss Strategic Partner and notify the selected Partner by March 08, 2024.

During next two months the Swiss Strategic Partner might be invited to Estonia for negotiations meetings, might arrange negotiation meetings in Switzerland to agree on the draft of the Part nership Agreement after the first three weeks of the negotiations.

The Partnership Agreement between Swiss and Estonian sides will be concluded after the signing of the Support Measure Agreement. The Programme Operator signs the partnership agreement with the Swiss partner.

Role of the Swiss strategic Partner for the Social Inclusion Programme

The strategic partner from Switzerland will support the SSIP regarding the exchange with Swiss partners/institutions/civic organisations, specialists, and experts during its whole imple menting period. Strategic Partner will use its own internal resources/experts regarding the fol lowing programme areas. Also, the Strategic Partner will function as a “one stop shop” for the areas of the programme where the Swiss strategic Partner does not have its own internal expertise. For these areas, the Swiss strategic partner will identify other Swiss actors and fa cilitate the most appropriate format of exchanges between the Estonian and the Swiss sides. In general, for all programme areas, exchanges could for example be study visits in Switzer land, finding Swiss experts for study visits in Estonia, identifying the relevant speakers for conferences in Estonia, informing the Estonian side about the relevant events/conferences in Switzerland, organizing web-exchanges or other forms of exchange, etc. The budgetary frame of the Swiss strategic Partner would be a maximum of CHF 100,000 per year.

4.5 Stakeholder consultations

The stakeholder consultation event for the SSIP took place on the 21st of September 2023 from 10-1 6:30. 76 representatives from 45 organizations participated in the event. The SSIP was introduced at the beginning of the event, followed by workshops by four components in two sessions so that as many participants as possible could express their opinions. In the end, each component presented its results of the workshops.

The stakeholder consultation had valuable inputs and suggestions for improvement of the SSIP and most of them will be considered when implementing the SSIP activities. As a result of the stakeholder consultation, it was confirmed that the planned activities and interventions address gaps in targeted areas, they are relevant, feasible and complement activities funded from other sources. Some activities were suggested, which are not in the scope of the SSIP, but as programme component operators are also policy makers at their field, these sugges tions will be considered in the future. Here’s how some specific inputs were integrated and omitted:

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The stakeholders11 input to cultural and linguistic integration activities focused on effective use of resources while avoiding duplication of activities in fields of language education, targeted communication and information and involving the private sector and municipalities. These rec ommendations will be considered during the planning of activities and implementation process. For instance, in communication endeavors, the channels that the target audience is currently utilizing will be employed. Recent surveys indicate that local media platforms are gaining sig nificance, and therefore, we will incorporate these channels.

The group of stakeholders who gave their input to developing and modernizing curricula and complementary education/training system for social sector workers and training of specialists12 stressed the importance of the need for systemic in-house complementary training that is also accessible, a need for real-life practice in studies and updated curricula for more on-hands training. These suggestions will be considered while planning the changes to the basic and continuing education of social and child protection work.

Education and Youth Board, University of Tartu and the University of Tallinn, the education and youth sector and parents consultation, confirmed that the target groups need in-service training and new programmes that can be used to create regional networks linking all parties (youth, education, parents and local authorities), education and youth field professionals need more knowledge about multicultural education and the integration of non-formal and formal education is considered very important, but the skills and knowledge to implement it are lack ing. As a result, providing in-service training for professionals in the education sector and coun selling for parents will be one of the key activities in the programme component 3.

Civil society sector13: Their suggestions pointed out the importance of co-operation with other stakeholders and using the networks that have already been created, involving the target groups (i.e people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, immigrants, refugees) for determining the wider societal problems that could be solved with social innovation methods during the SSIP. Therefore, when implementing the activities proposed, the networks that have already been created will be used as a platform to reach the target groups and involve them in the social innovation ecosystem in Estonia.

The inputs omitted included: some activities were suggested, which are not in the scope of the Swiss contribution, for example monetary investments for social enterprises, which would need longer timeframe to see the longer-term impact created through these investments, these ac tivities were left out to maintain the SSIP focus on achievable outcomes. Topics covered also included the low wages as one of the reasons for poor image and less inadequately qualified personnel and personnel turnover, but it was admitted that this gap cannot be remedied though the activities of the current SSIP and need wider political decisions.

~ National Library, the Institute of the Estonian Language, EdTech, the Estonian Parents’ Association and the

Estonian Folklore Council, Ida-Viru County Enterprise Center Foundation, the Civil Society Foundation edc

12 Social Insurance Board, Ministry of Education and Research, Estonian Social Work Association, Estonian Refu

gee Council, Narva City Government, TTK University of Applied Sciences, National Institute for Health Develop ment, NGOs working with youth and parents as well as offering support services for adults

13 Estonian Refugee Council, Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organisations and others), business and social entre

preneurship sector (e.g, Network of Estonian Social Entrepreneurs, East-Estonian Entrepreneurship Centre and others), public sector (government and local government representatives) and the academia (the University of TaI linn

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Please find more detailed stakeholder analysis in annex 9 and summary of the consultation event by programme components in annex 10.

4.6 Tentative Budget

4.6.1 Detailed tentative budget

The budget is attached in Annex 14. Budget is split between 5 main parts:

1. Management costs:

This part includes costs only for Programme Management (costs done at the Programme level). Costs connected to the management and implementation (including involvement of partners) of the Programme Components are included into the budget of components. This part also includes the costs of State Shared Service Centre for the fulfilment of the function in accordance with Regulations Article 6.8 p.3 In accordance with the Regulations Article 3.4.2. no Intermediate Bodies shall be set up for the implementation of the Support Measure. State Shared Service Centre, which acts as the competence centre for the imple mentation of structural and other funds in Estonia, carries out the tasks in accordance with Article 6.8 p.3 of the Regulations for the implementation of the Support Measure. The ac tivities that are carried out in accordance with Article 6.8 p.3 by the State Shared Service Centre are financed from the Support Measure. The fulfilment of the functions of the Na tional Coordination Unit, which is in the same organization and is financed from the Tech nical Assistance Fund, is completely separated from these activities. The budget line “1.5 Reserve costs” is planned to cover unforeseen costs that are related with the implementation of the support measure.

2. Programme Component I “Cultural and linguistic integration.” 3. Programme Component 2 “Strengthening the social-and child protection services.” 4. Programme Component 3 “Increasing multicultural competence in the education sector.” 5. Programme Component 4 “Strengthening civil society through social innovation.”

To alleviate the administrative burden and reduce the workload of programme component op erators, implementers, partners and controllers who verify expenditures in the NCU, reim bursement of overheads at a flat rate of 7% of the direct programme component’s costs is planned to be implemented in each of the four components of the SSIP. From the previous EU and bilateral projects’ implementation experience the rate of the overheads was higher than 7 % of the direct component’s costs. The use of overheads at a flat rate of 7% enables people involved in the implementation of the programme component focus on achievement of the objectives of the support measure as less resources are needed for collecting and verifying financial documents.

Programme component overheads include administrative expenses, such are:

• costs for purchasing, renting, maintaining and repairing office supplies and furniture; • communication costs, including internet, telephone and postal costs; • information technology costs, including the costs of buying and renting software and

hardware, office equipment, and maintenance and repair of servers, networks and of fice equipment;

• heating, water and electricity costs and the costs of cleaning the premises; • rental costs of premises; • security service costs.

44

Additionally, programme component overheads include expenses related to supportive activi ties, such as:

• accounting; • secretarial and personnel work; • legal advice; • organizing public procurement and conducting the purchase procedure; • information technology support services.

45

4.6.2 Tentative Disbursement Plan

Reimbursement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Period

Estimated reim bursement of Swiss Contribu tioninCHF 2224518 2455159 2455159 2334049 2334049 2313274 2313274 2118047 26235 26235

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47 Risk Analysis and Risk Management

Risk Impact Likeli- Risk level Mitigation measure(s) [1—5] hood

[1 —5] 2 Low-MediumRisk that the activities

do not meet the needs of the target groups

etc).

Risk that information 2 2 Low Designing of a comprehen about the SSIP activi- sive communication plan that ties does not reach in- takes into account the charac tended target groups teristics of different target

groups.

Lack of trained experts 4 2 Low-Medium Co-operation between experts to provide trainings and and organisations, so that ac services (updating cur- tivities would not take place at ricula etc) the same time.

Challenging time-frame ~ 3 Medium-High Consistent time-management, of the support measure commitment of the support implementation measure project team.

Fiduciary risk 3 1 Low Applying of the rules and pro cedures of State Shared Ser vice Centre that have been au dited.

Financial risk (inflation, 3 3 Low-Medium Operational financial monitor- VAT rise, currency ex- ing, conservative financial change fluctuation, ir- planning, consultations with regularities in the use of State Shared Service Centre. funds)

Security risk (escalation 3 3 Low-Medium Consistent monitoring of the in- of war in Ukraine, desta- ternational situation. bilisation of Russia, Russian hybrid aggres sion against Estonia)

Environmental risk 1 1 Low The SSIP activities have no significant harm on the envi ron ment.

Management staff risk ~ 3 Medium-Low Honest communication with (not enough personnel, donors, quick response to changes in staff or they needs that have occurred. Op are overloaded with timal planning of staff re

sources.other tasks)

Procurement process 4 Medium-High Swift and good cooperation complexity (donor in- with donors, translating and volvement, donor ap- providing them with materials

as fast as possible; consulta

Mapping of the needs of target groups (on the basis of rele vant recent studies, surveys

Risk Impact Likeli- Risk level Mitigation measure(s) [1—5] hood

[1 —5] proval process, irregu- tions with the procurement ex larities in procurement perts of the State Shared Ser procedures) vice Centre.

Polwcainsks(changes4lMediUm-Low Cons~tentrnonitonngofthe is political priorities due internal, political situation, to changes in the coali- clear communication about the tion or elections). terms and conditions of the

SSIP.

will be implemented by nication between the 4 minis- 4 ministries) tries and the NCU.

Overall Risk Level Support Measure Medium-low

The overall risk level is medium-low. The highest score risks are related to time-frame constraints and procure-

Comments on the overall risk level ments. The SSIP is quite complex, involving different ministries and partners, but they have close cooperation and good communication.

4.8 Monitoring and Steering

In accordance with Regulations the Support Measure Steering Committee will be established, which constitutes of the representatives of the Embassy of Switzerland’s Swiss Contribution Office to Latvia, the NCU, the Programme Operator and the Component Operators. It monitors the progress of the Support Measure activities, outputs and outcomes, discusses risks, prob lems and possible solutions. It also approves modifications to the Support Measure based on the proposal by the Programme Operator. The Ministry of Culture as a Chair, the NCU and the Embassy of Switzerland’s Swiss Contribution Office to Latvia have voting rights. The quorum is constituted by no fewer than 3 members of the Support Measure Steering Committee, in cluding at least representative of the NCU, the Embassy of Switzerland’s Swiss Contribution Office to Latvia and the Programme Operator. Decision-making in the Support Measure Steer ing Committee is based on consensus by the members with voting rights. The Steering Com mittee meets at least once a year. Upon need, the representatives of other beneficiaries and institutions attend the Steering Committee meetings. If needed, decisions are made using a written procedure.

Annual meetings are held once a year, which purpose is to ensure that the Cooperation Pro gramme, and Support Measures, is effective. The Cooperation Programme Report is reviewed and approved at the meeting. The progress of the Cooperation Programme, including SSIP risks, problems, possible solutions, milestones for the upcoming year are discussed. If neces sary, decisions regarding the overall Cooperation Programme are taken. The representatives of Switzerland, the Embassy of Switzerland’s Swiss Contribution Office to Latvia, the NCU attend the annual meetings. The programme operator, component operators and other institu tions whose participation is needed attend the annual meetings upon invitation.

48

There will be the Task Force for ongoing monitoring and internal steering of the Programme activities and the results. The Task Force will propose any modifications to the Steering Com mittee. Meetings will be held at least two times per year, organised by the Programme Opera tor. Task Force will consist of the Programme Operator, Programme Component Operators, NCU and Implementers.

The resources for the Steering Committee and the Task Force meetings are foreseen in the Support Measure Budget.

The NCU will procure the evaluation of the overall Cooperation Programme at the end of the Support Measure in 2027/2028. The content of the evaluation will be discussed with the Em bassy of Switzerland’s Swiss Contribution Office to Latvia, programme operators and compo nent operators.

Logframe (see chapter 4.5) elaborates on data sources and verification methods as well as the baseline and target values, therefore logframe is under continuous monitoring. Also pro gress towards the SSIP outcomes and goal according to agreed indicators and financial re quirements specified for the SSIP is monitored.

Each implementer is responsible for its activities, associated outputs and for gathering the data related to the activities. Every component operator is responsible for the activities taking place within its component. Component operator keeps an eye on the progress of the activities, reg ularly communicates with the implementers and collects from them information for the Support Measure Report.

The Programme Operator gathers information from the Component Operators about the im plemented activities, associated outputs and includes information in the Support Measure Re ports.

The NCU prepares the Cooperation Programme Reports, which are based on the information presented by the Programme Operators in the Support Measure Reports and if necessary, requests additional information from the Programme Operator and the Component Operators.

For exchanging information between implementers, the NCU, the Programme operator, pro gramme components operators, paying authority and audit authority the Estonian Structural Assistance Registry is used. The registry consists of:

System for data collection and proceedings (SFOS) (since 2004). The Structural Assis tance Operational System is used for data input and for self-service portal for implement ers. All data is gathered at project level and relates to individual projects. It contains all relevant project data, data on all expenditures of the project and payments made, also information about recoveries made, data on audits and other controls performed, monitor ing data (indicator levels). The Operational System is used to make payments to the ben eficiaries, hence it’s not only a data bank, but also an important management tool. There is also an interface under the system, E-service portal for implementers (since 2015) for submitting project reports and payment claims.

• System for compiling reports (SAP BO) (since 2004); It is a reporting tool, which draws data related to individual projects from the Operational System and aggregates it to desired overall reports or statistics. The system can in effect compile reports on the basis of any information available inserted and available in the Operational System. This reporting func tionality enables to analyse financial performance on measure level almost in real time.

• Digital participants data collection (since 2022). Specific module for participants data col lection purposes.

For monitoring information system see annex 7.

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5. Annexes

# Annex 1 Detailed Information to Programme Component 1 (Ministry of Culture)

2 Detailed Information to Programme Component 2 (Ministry of Social Affairs) - - -

3 Detailed Information to Programme Component 3 (Ministry of Education and Research)

4 Detailed Information to Programme Component 4 (Ministry of the Interior)

5 Overview of the policy dialogue for preparing sectoral development plans and strategies

6 Overview of Implementation locations

7 Structure of programme monitoring information system

8 Glossary - -

9 Stakeholder Analysis

10 Stakeholder consultation event 21st September 2023

11 Implementation schedule

- 12 Programme Characteristics -

13 Procurement Plan

14 Budget

15 Assessment of fulfilment of the conditions set for the 1st stage Support Measure proposal

50

6. Annex 1: Detailed Information to Programme Component I (Ministry of Culture)

Basic Programme Component Information

Title Cultural and linguistic integration

Planned Duration [months] 51

Requested Swiss contribu- 5 592 127 CHF fion(CHF)~ Requested co-financing rate 85% of Switzerland [%]

6.1 Programme Component Operator

6.1.1 Basic Information

Name of Programme Corn- Ministry of Culture ponent Operator Type of entity National administration

Name of contact person Eda Silberg

Position Undersecretary for Cultural Diversity

Correspondence address: Suur-Karja 23, Tallinn, 15076, Estonia

E-Mail [email protected]

Webpage and social media www.kul.ee (if any) Date of establishment 29.08.1995 Tax number 70000941

Number of employees 95

Financial Turnover for each of the 3 previous years Choose. N/A

Has the Programme Component Operator previously received YesLi No1~1 funding from the Swiss Contribution?

51

6.1.2 Programme Component Operator Management

Structure chart of M0C.

Minister

1 Secretary Internal Audit Ministers General Department Advisers

I I I 1 Arts Cultural f Cultural 1 S ~

Department Department L~r~~ntJ Department

Estonian Cultural Attaches Abroad

I I I Estonian Department Department Department National Financial of Communi- of Human of Strategical

Commission Department cation and Resources and Planning and for UNESCO International Legal Affairs Innovation

Cooperation

Programme component operator (PCO) is the Ministry of Culture. Implementers are MoC Cul tural Diversity Department, the Integration Foundation and a partner the National Library of Estonia (RARA).

The Cultural Diversity Department is a structural unit of the MOC, whose tasks is to ensure policy formulation in the field of integration, to coordinate its implementation, and to support the cultural self-governments and societies of national minorities, kindred nations and compat riots and to help to promote their cultural life and activities.

The Integration Foundation is a private legal entity registered in the register of non-profit or ganizations and foundations. The Integration Foundation was established by the Republic of Estonia and its’ founder’s rights are exercised by the MoC. The foundation was created for the following purposes: initiation and support of activities aimed at the integration of Estonian so ciety among Estonians and non-Estonians, initiation and support of activities related to immi gration.

The National Library of Estonia is a legal person in public law operating based on the National Library of Estonia Act. The purpose of the national library is to increase the initiative, aware ness and responsibility based on knowledge and information in the society, promote the coun try, European common values, culture and democracy.

6.1.3 Programme Component Management

Will external management personnel be hired to implement the Pro- Yes L~1 NoD gramme Component’? What personnel capacity will be dedicated for Internal resources External resources the management of the Programme Compo- 1 FTE 0 nent implementation (in full-time equivalents FTE)?

The component hires an external full-time programme component coordinator who will be re sponsible for all programme component coordination as well as content and financial reporting, communication with donors and target groups.

Are CVs attached to this documentation? YesD No l~

Are terms of reference for the management functions to be established YesEJ No l~ attached to this documentation?

6.1.4 Programme and Project Management Experience

MoC has managed/is managing the following foreign aid programmes over the last 5 years:

European Social Fund

• Measure 2.6.1 ‘Development and implementation of an information platform and sup port services”: a multilingual (Estonian, English and Russian) information platform on migration and its support services have been developed and implemented (budget 542 390,00 euros).

• Measure 2.6.2 “Development, piloting and implementation of adaptation training”: an adaptation programme has been developed, piloted, developed and implemented in accordance with the adaptation programme regulation and its annexes (Budget: 7 048 223,16 euros).

• Measure 2.6.3 “Development and implementation of support network concept”: A sup port network concept involving private, public and third sector actors has been devel oped and implemented (Budget: 1 814 289,25 euros).

• Measure 2.6.4 “Development and implementation of a counselling and information sys tem”: Access to integration support information and counselling services is ensured for permanent residents with low integration status in Estonia (budget 2 393 593,28 euros). The supported initiative ensured the availability of relevant, sustainable, and integra tion-supportive information for poorly integrated residents of Estonia and newcomers. It involved relevant ministries, research institutions, local governments, and represent atives of the target group. The activity included developing and maintaining a counsel ling and information system, establishing an information network, and organizing study trips for knowledge exchange with other European Union countries. The supported ini tiative ensured that poorly integrated permanent residents of Estonia, newcomers, their families, and employers are aware of and utilized the counselling and information sys tem. The initiative involved consistent media communication about the system and ser vices. Collaboration with relevant ministries and distribution of materials were key com ponents. Results from the “Piloting Information and Counselling Centers” project were used if needed, and experts were involved as required. The results of this activity will

53

be used to build SSIP intervention “Provision of counselling services including in inde pendent language learning”.

• Measure 2.6.5 “Developing and delivering an integration programme”: poorly integrated people in Estonia have acquired the knowledge and skills needed to function in society and have improved the social competences that ensure their social activity (budget 6 958 388,63 euros). The supported initiative aimed to enhance the integration of poorly integrated individuals into Estonian society. Through language and cultural immersion, it provided knowledge and skills necessary for functioning in the country. The outcomes included improved Estonian language proficiency, a stronger sense of the Estonian cultural space, enhanced personal connections, and increased readiness for societal participation. The initiative analysed previous activities, mapped educational resources, and developed training modules covering citizenship exam preparation, cultural under standing, and general independent language learning at various proficiency levels. Cul tural and language immersion were introduced through clubs, offering opportunities for non-native Estonian speakers to engage with the culture and language. Methodological support materials were developed for these clubs. To improve multilingual information dissemination, technical equipment for performance venues and museums was pro cured based on the needs of poorly integrated individuals, enhancing their access to cultural content in multiple languages. The initiative involved soliciting proposals from cultural institutions and determining partners for equipment procurement. The evalua tion results of this activity will be used to build SSIP intervention “Activities introducing the Estonian cultural space”.

• Measure 2.6.6 “Cooperation and communication activities”: Attitudes in Estonian soci ety have been developed in support of integration (budget 729 220,95 euros). The ini tiative improved cooperation among organizations working on integration in Estonia. Targeting the entire society, especially poorly integrated permanent residents and youth up to 26, the initiative organized joint activities across the country to enhance democratic participation, language practice, and multicultural awareness. Results and success stories were shared in print media. These activities, aimed at the entire popu lation of Estonia, including poorly integrated residents and newcomers, fostered pro- integration attitudes through communication. The initiative included public awareness campaigns in various media, an expert group for planning and coherence, and com missioned audio-visual programs and social advertising. Collaboration involved adver tising agencies, integration and media experts, and representatives from public, pri vate, and third-sector organizations.

The Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund • Project AMIF2O2O-8 “Estonian language learning for citizens of third countries in Esto

nia”, which is co-financed by the Ministry of the Interior (381 000 euros).

Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) program • Project ESTROM is aimed at promoting cooperation and dialogue between Roma peo

ple, integration stakeholders, local authorities and state institutions (budget of ESTROM III project 144 000,60 euros).

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6.2 Description of Programme Component I

6.2.1 Short Summary

Main focus of the component is to give knowledge and improved opportunities to people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds for more active participation in the Estonian soci ety. This will be done through inclusion of volunteers in the integration activities, creation of new digital tools in the field of integration and in the field of independent language learning, activities introducing the Estonian cultural space and provision of media literacy training, providing counseling services.

6.2.2 Activities and Expected Results

The activities of this component were chosen based on previous experience and feedback obtained during engagement events and are in line with “Cohesive Estonia 2021-2030 Strat egy”.

Activity 1: Preparation of digital transformation in the field of integration

The activity is led by the Integration Foundation and contains the following interventions:

• Carrying out the analysis to map how existing systems and platforms support integra tion activities and are compatible with each other.

• Developing digital tools to help the target group to learn Estonian more effectively and to improve access to integration services.

These activities will contribute to the foreseen output 1.5 “Digital tools developed, piloted and rolled-out” and outcomes: Intermediate outcome 1: People from different cultural and lin guistic backgrounds are actively participating in Estonian society; Immediate outcome Ia: Established processes enable people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds partic ipate more actively in Estonian society; Immediate outcome I b: People from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are empowered to participate in Estonian society more actively (see Chapter 2.3).

Activity 2: Inclusion of volunteers in the integration activities

The activity is led by the Integration Foundation and contains the following interventions: - Mapping the current situation in the landscape of voluntary activities, including focusing

on activities in the field of integration; - Creating of a volunteer program to support the implementation of integration activities; - Including Estonian speakers and Estonian language learners, as well as members of

social groups with limited opportunities, who have participated in integration services and activities supporting language and cultural learning, in the program as experience advisors;

- Creating of the Leader Growth Program, a development program for volunteer leaders within the framework of the volunteer program;

- Supporting, guiding and empowering non-governmental organizations in their work in communities of new immigrants;

- Developing and enforcing the ability of community centres to implement activities in the field of integration. Creating platforms for experience exchange meetings. Supporting cooperation between platforms.

55

These activities will contribute to the foreseen output 3.3 “Volunteers are trained” and to out comes: Intermediate outcome 1: People from different cultural and linguistic back-grounds are actively participating in Estonian society; Immediate outcome Ia: Established processes enable people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds participate more actively in Estonian society; Immediate outcome I b: People from different cultural and linguistic back grounds are empowered to participate in Estonian society more actively. (see chapter 2.3).

Activity 3: Provision of counselling services including in independent language learn ing.

The activity is led by the Integration Foundation and contains the following interventions: - Modelling and piloting peer counselling14 service (both independent language learning

and more broadly, peer support counselling in the field of integration); - Designing and providing counselling services to meet people’s needs and to support

independent language learning; - Ensuring the adequate availability of counselling services for target groups (related to

the drastic increase in clients and the rapid growth of counselling volume); - Increasing the competence of counsellors to work with the target group (e.g. counsel

ling of people with trauma experience and special needs, multiculturalism, development of counselling skills, virtual counselling, etc.).

These activities will contribute to the foreseen output 1.2 “Counselling services are made available and used” and to outcomes: Intermediate outcome 1: People from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are actively participating in Estonian society; Immediate outcome la: Established processes enable people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds participate more actively in Estonian society; Immediate outcome 1 b: People from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are empowered to participate in Estonian society more ac tively. (see chapter 2.3).

Activity 4: Activities introducing the Estonian cultural space

The activity is led by the Integration Foundation and contains the following interventions: - Organizing cultural visits and activities that support Estonian language practice and

learning about Estonian culture and customs; - Development and provision of activities that encourage social connections through joint

activities in the communities to support social inclusion and Estonian language prac tice;

- Cooperation with cultural institutions (museums, theatres, libraries etc) to raise their awareness about target group needs and specificities;

- Involving volunteers in meetings and cultural activities to provide language practice opportunities and contacts.

These activities will contribute to the foreseen output 1.1 “Activities introducing the Estonian cultural space to people from different cultural and linguistic background are provided” and to outcomes: Intermediate outcome 1: People from different cultural and linguistic back grounds are actively participating in Estonian society; Immediate outcome Ia: Established processes enable people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds participate more

14 Peer counselling is sharing of knowledge and experience, during which a person with similar experience offers experiential

emotional, social and practical support to the target group in adapting, maintaining independent language learning motivation,

etc.

56

actively in Estonian society; Immediate outcome Ib: People from different cultural and lin guistic backgrounds are empowered to participate in Estonian society more actively (see Chapter 2.3).

Activity 5: Provision of media literacy training

The activity is led by the MoC in cooperation with RARA and contains the following interven tions:

- Developing and implementing media literacy programme together with the partner. - Creating learning materials.

These activities will contribute to the foreseen output 1.4 “Media literacy programme launched” and to outcomes: Intermediate outcome 1: People from different cultural and lin guistic back-grounds are actively participating in Estonian society; Immediate outcome Ia: Established processes enable people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds partic ipate more actively in Estonian society; Immediate outcome I b: People from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are empowered to participate in Estonian society more actively.

6.3 Beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries are volunteers, cultural societies of ethnic minorities.

Indirect beneficiaries in activities are people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (including recipients of temporary and international protection status and new immigrants).

Is the benefit of the Programme Component a na- National l~J RegionalEl fionaIorre~ionalbenefit? If regional, indicate the benefiting NUTS-2 regions.

6.4 Sustainability

To ensure the long-term sustainability of the Programme Component and its results after the Programme Component has ended, several measures can be implemented.

• To ensure financial viability, we will actively pursue long-term funding commitments from government agencies that extend beyond the lifespan of the Programme Compo nent. These commitments will be sought specifically for activities that have demon strated their effectiveness and impact. By securing long-term funding, we aim to ensure the continuity and sustainability of these activities, enabling them to persist and benefit the target beneficiaries even after the Programme Component has ended.

• To enhance capacity building, we will establish networks and communities of practice that foster continuous learning, collaboration, and knowledge exchange among individ uals and organizations involved in similar work. These networks and communities will provide a platform for professionals to share experiences, best practices, and innova tive approaches. By facilitating ongoing learning and collaboration, we aim to strengthen the expertise and effectiveness of the participants, enabling them to con tribute to the sustainability and impact of the Programme Component’s outcomes.

57

• We will communicate and share the results and impact of the Programme Component with stakeholders, funders, and the wider community to demonstrate the value and continued relevance of the initiative.

• We will establish mechanisms for post-implementation monitoring and evaluation to assess the long-term impact of the Programme Component. We will conduct follow-up surveys, engaging in qualitative research, or utilizing feedback from beneficiaries and stakeholders to identify areas for improvement and measure the sustained outcomes.

6.5 Budget

Detailed budget is included in the Annex 14. Please see further details and budget break down in the budget Annex file.

Below are further clarifications of the some of the budget breakdown:

In the intervention “Provision of media literacy training”, our strategy involves the acquisition of tablets for people who participate in trainings, but don’t have necessary technical equip ment. This targeted intervention aims to enhance the effectiveness of the training program by integrating modern technology, specifically tablets, into the educational framework.

In collaboration with our partner RaRa, we carefully deliberated on two distinct options when it comes to tablets: whether to purchase or rent and from the perspective of project sustainability, the decision leaned towards purchasing.

The collaborative effort with our partner involved a comprehensive assessment of the ad vantages and drawbacks associated with both purchasing and renting tablets. The focus was on identifying the most effective and sustainable approach for the project’s specific needs. After thorough consideration, it was determined that acquiring the tablets through purchase would be the more prudent choice in terms of ensuring the project’s long-term viability as the tablets can be used in the future trainings.

This decision aligns with a strategic vision for the project’s sustainability. By opting for owner ship, the project gains not only immediate access to the necessary resources but also estab lishes a foundation for enduring success. This approach takes into account factors such as long-term cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and the ability to adapt to evolving project require ments.

To alleviate the administrative burden and reduce the workload of programme component op erators, implementers, partners and controllers who verify expenditures in the NCU, reim bursement of overheads at a flat rate of 7% of the direct component’s costs is planned to be implemented. From the previous EU and bilateral projects’ implementation experience the rate of the overheads was higher than 7 % of the direct component’s costs. The use of overheads at a flat rate of 7% enables people involved in the implementation of the programme compo nent focus on achievement of the objectives of the support measure as less resources are needed for collecting and verifying financial documents.

Project overheads include administrative expenses, such are:

• costs for purchasing, renting, maintaining and repairing office supplies and furniture; • communication costs, including internet, telephone and postal costs; • information technology costs, including the costs of buying and renting software and

hardware, office equipment, and maintenance and repair of servers, networks and of fice equipment;

58

• heating, water and electricity costs and the costs of cleaning the premises; • rental costs of premises; o security service costs;

Additionally, overheads include expenses related to supportive activities, such as: • accounting; • secretarial and personnel work; • legal advice; • organizing public procurement and conducting the purchase procedure;

6.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management

Risk Impact Likeli- Risk level Mitigation measure(s) [1 —5] hood

[1 —5] Development risk 2 Low-Medium Moc is using CAF framework

for monitoring and self-evalu ation of the processes. Expe rienced activity coordinators will be hired.

Security risk 1 1 Low Natural disasters are very rare in Estonia; development of IT-solutions will be carried out in accordance with na tional standards.

Fiduciary risk 4 1 Low-Medium State Support Services Cen tre’s will carry out procure ments.

Financial risk 3 2 Low-Medium Co-financing is guaranteed by the relevant legal acts.

Environmental risk 3 1 Low Activities carried out have no or very low impact on the en vironment

Social risk 1 1 Low Activities will be designed in accordance with service de sign principles.

59

7. Annex 2: Detailed Information to Programme Component 2 (Ministry of Social Affairs)

Basic Programme Component Information

Title Strengthening the social- and child protection services

Planned Duration 51 months

Requested Swiss contribu- 5 385 678 CHF tion

Requested co-financing 85% rate of Switzerland

7.1 Programme Component Operator

7.1.1 Basic Information

Name of Programme Corn- Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia ponent Operator

Type of entity National administration

Name of contact person Ms Helen Jöks

Position Department of Children and Families, Head of Child Protec tion Policy

Correspondence address: Suur-Ameerika street 1,

E-Mail Helen.Joks~sm.ee

Webpage and social media www.sm.ee (if any)

Date of establishment 08.01.1993 Tax number EE100535271

Number of employees 206

Financial Turnover for each of the 3 previous years Choose. N/A

Has the Programme Component Operator previously received Yesl~l No~J funding from the Swiss Contribution?

7.1.2 Programme Component Operator Management

Component Operator is Ministry of Social Affairs (M0SA) of Estonia and within the ministry, the component is managed under Deputy Secretary General on Social Welfare.

Structure chart of MoSA.

Minister of Health

Advisors

Crisis team

Deputy Secretary General

Opt. of Analysis and, Statistics

Dpt. of Development

Dpt. of ForelgnFlnancing

— Minister of Social Protection

Secretary General

DepUty Secretary General

Dpt. of Social~Welfare

‘Compensation and pension policy

departme,nD

Dpt~ âf Children and Families

Deputy Secretary General

Opt. of Public Health

Dpt.of Medicines

Dpt~ofiMental;HealtR

Opt. of. Health Systàm Development

Internal Audit dpt.

Legal dpt.

Dpto I-.

Communications

p of European Union airs and

Inter national Co operation

Human Resources

Dpt. of Finance

The implementer of the Support Measure Component is the MoSA. In Activity 1, dealing curricula and professional qualification modification, MoSA will include Tallinn University, University of Tartu, TTK University of Applied Sciences as well as Estonian Social Work Association with 7 vocational schools in curricula development.

In Activity 2, dealing with training and counselling system for social and child protection work ers, MoSA will engage Social Insurance Board, Union of Child Welfare, and the National Insti tute for Health Development (creation of a complementary education/training system for child protection and care workers).

Yes~1 NoD

What personnel capacity will be dedicated Internal resources External resources for the management of the Programme Com ponent implementation (in full-time equiva- 0,5 FTE 0 lents FTE)?

The leading departments in the MoSA are the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Social Welfare.

7.1.3 Programme Component Management

Will external management personnel be hired to implement the Pro gramme Component?

The component will hire a programme component coordinator (0.5 FTE) who will be respon sible for all programme component coordination as well as content and financial reporting and communication with donors and oversight of activities within programme component. The po sition will be filled internally within the organisation.

Additionally, Activity 1 and Activity 2 will hire full-time experts (2 FTE) to lead the activities.

Are CVs attached to this documentation? YesLi NoI~

Are terms of reference for the management functions to be established YesLi NoE~ attached to this documentation?

7.1.4 Programme and Project Management Experience

MoSA has managed I is managing the following foreign aid programmes over the last 5 years:

• EU Structural Funds 201 4-2020 (limited to 3 corresponding programmes/pro jects):

- ESF measure 1.1.2: “Development and availability of career services to children and youth”; total grant amount EUR 3,323,010.00

- ESF measure 2.1: “Children day-care service and social welfare services for children with disabilities to support to decrease the burden of care”; total grant amount EUR 51,722,060.00; of that MoSA is implementing itself EUR 1,390,913.00 in project “Devel oping support services for children with disabilities as well as promoting balancing work and family life balance”

- ESF measure 2.2: “Welfare measures supporting employability”; total grant amount EUR 43,174,177.00; of that MoSA is implementing itself EUR 5,245,481.00 in project “Welfare services supporting employability” and EUR 431,230.00 in project “Raising the quality in substitute care”

• European Economic Area and Norway Grants 2014-2021 programme “Local Devel opment and Poverty Reduction”; total grant amount EUR 18,000,000.00.

• Additionally, the Ministry of Social Affairs has also managed 3 projects from the previ ous Swiss-Estonian Cooperation programme (2007-201 6):

- Creation of the healthy environment for children without parental care - reorganisation of children’s homes in Viljandi, Saarepeedi, Juuru and Elva; total grant amount CHF 5,640,000.00

- Procurement of necessary radio communication and information technology means for linking the ambulance and emergency medicine units of active care hospitals to unitary state wide operative radio communication system of alarm services and accomplishment of required communication and it-development works; total grant amount CHF 1,280,000.00

- Automated gait orthosis: Procurement of Lokomat and Lokomat pediatric for disabled chil dren and adults; CHF 344,341.00.

7.2 Description of Component 2

7.2.1 Short Summary

Estonia must modernize its social studies’ curricula, including adding special modules for work ing with migrants and refugees. Additionally, we have to raise the competencies and working

62

conditions of people already working in the field, i.e., training, continuing education and support system for social and child protection workers both at the local government and state level. These long-term solutions have real impact on people’s lives and well-being.

State of play in the area of child protection services

Several studies15 have shown that child protection workers feel that the basic education does not prepare them well enough to work directly with children and families, that there is lack of support from the management and professional development, which are the main reasons for a high rate of turnover and burnout in the field.

Additionally, many large-scale reforms such as the reform in child protection system and chil dren with special needs are being prepared, and during the consultation process many working groups and meetings have been held, including involving also children and families themselves (their experiences, needs and expectations) and youth organizations but also asking direct feedback from the specialists working with children and families (management and child pro tection workers of local authorities, Union for Child Welfare, Estonian Chamber of People With Disabilities, Estonian Association for Social Work, Social Insurance Board, Chancellor of Jus tice, Estonian Unemployment Fund). Feedback from local authorities also suggest that the current workforce is not trained specifically to work with migrants, therefore topics such as how to work with this target group as well as how to integrate migrant workforce into the social sector, needs special modules both in universities, vocational schools and labor market training.

Direct consultations with Tallinn University (that is the main higher education provider to edu cate social workers) have been held, the current and future needs have been discussed and the willingness and openness of the university to start modernizing the curricula is confirmed.

More practical and innovative tools and methods of social work need to be inserted in the basic curricula, in-service training for continuing professional development must be made available, support system for specialists (mentoring, supervision, trainings and counselling) needs to be in place to keep the workforce and raise the quality work done with children and families.

State of play in the area of social work services

In the area of social work, a study on labour force demand in long-term care sector was carried out in 202216. In-depth interviews were carried out with Social Insurance Board, Estonian Social Work Association, Unemployment Fund, Ministry of Education and Research, representatives of 7 nursing homes and special care homes, 6 local governments and their service providers. Additionally, 4 focus group meetings were held for nursing homes and local governments. The

15 OSKA social work research report, 202111] https Iloska kutsekoda.ee/wp-contentlup

loadsI2O17IOlIOSKA sotsiaaltoo uurinquaruanne terviktekst 2021 pdf, An Analysis of Today’s Child Protection Case Management, Data Exchange and e-Sei’vices, Civitta, 2022 https /Iwww sm ee/mediaI267O/download, Anal ysis of child protection work and basic training of working with children to ensure children’s well-being, noticing abuse and informing about a child in need, Civitta, 2022 https I/www.sm.ee/media/2671/download)

16 Foundation Praxis and Haap Consulting Ltd https//www.~raxis.ee/wp contentlup

loads/2022/01/20221 108 VaPra loDpraoort,odf

analysis report suggests the change in curricula, internship programmes and sector rep utation improvement activities. The study also revealed quite a scepticallconservative attitude towards migrant workforce in the sector.

National strategic view

In parallel, the new national Welfare Development Plan 2023-2030 of Estonia incorporates the same challenges as described above and sets action targets for overcoming them.

• Sub-target 1 “Children and families” of the Welfare Development Plan, in field of action “Renewal of child protection services to provide effective and purposeful assis tance to all children in need” states that:

V the qualification education, in-service training and qualification standards must be mod ernised;

V child protection specialists must be provided with up-to-date toolbox, i.e. guidance ma terials and evidence based evaluation tools;

V child protection specialists must be provided with motivating and supporting work con ditions.

• Sub-target 4: “Social services” of the Welfare Development Plan, in field of action “So cial services will support the rise of people’s wellbeing and perception of social security” brings out that:

V the workforce in social services must be more qualified and more valued (in this respect also ensuring the adequate number of people in the sector);

V to meet the needs of the labour market, the sector must modernise its academic cur ricula as well as central in-service training system and harmonise qualification stand ards.

7.2.2 Activities and Expected Results

Deriving from the problems identified and goals set in the area of social- and child protection services (please see above), the programme component focuses on Intermediate Outcome 2: Professionals in education and social sector offer services according to modernised and new curricula tailored also to work with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds and Immediate Outcome 2 of the programme “Professionals in education and social sector have acquired new skills and knowledge and are ready to work with people from different cul tural and linguistic backgrounds”. For that, two activity packs have been compiled — modern ising the curricula (contributing to Output 2.1) and training the professionals (contributing to Output 2.2 and output 2.3).

The curricula activity contains the following interventions: - development and modernization of curricula in higher education as well as vocational

education; - advertising new possibilities and positive changes in social- and child protection studies

and work environment; - supporting migrants and refugees accessing the labour market in social care sector.

The training activity contains the following interventions: - development of complementary education/training system for child protection and care

workers and training of specialists; - workplace-based counselling and support system for social sector workers.

64

Implementing these activities in cooperation with other national action outside the programme (like promoting integrated seivices, improving the quality and access of social services) will raise the quality of provision of social- and child protection services and thereof contribute to the overall goal of the programme.

Key players and partner organisations Programme component operator is MoSA who is the policy holder for managing social insur ance and welfare services, child protection services as well as integrating these services with employment.

For curricula updates, the MoSA will engage partners as the University of Tartu, TTK University of Applied Sciences as well TalIinn University being also the only university in Estonia providing a masters’ programme for child protection specialists.

At vocational level the care worker professional standards are developed and monitored by the Estonian Social Work Association. Care worker programmes for different specialists is offered in 7 vocational schools (Haapsalu, Järvamaa, Kuressaare, Parnumaa, Valgamaa as well as Tallinn and Tartu Health Care Colleges). After the professional standards for care work ers have been updated, the component operator will facilitate the modernisation of curricula in an equal manner in all 7 vocational schools where the specialists are taught.

For the creation of a complementary education/training system for child protection and care workers, training the specialists as well as providing a support/counselling system at local gov ernment level, the MoSA will partner up mainly with the Social Insurance Board, but also with NGO Union of Child Welfare. Social Insurance Board is a government institution that is a central player in coordinating nationwide child protection work, training specialists and coun selling local governments concerning social- and child protection services.

Additionally, partnering with National Institute for Health Development is also under consid eration, because they are currently the lead in complementary education provision for care workers.

7.3 Beneficiaries

The direct beneficiaries are care workers, child protection workers of the local authorities, youth work organizations; students who study to be child well-being specialists and social workers as well as educational institutions with relevant curricula.

The indirect beneficiaries will be children and families living in Estonia as well as adults in need of social welfare services.

Is the benefit of the Programme Component a na- NationalL~1 RegionalLi tional or regional benefit?

If regional, indicate the benefiting NUTS-2 regions.

65

7.4 Sustainability

Implemented activities (national reforms) have long-term impact and none of them require new or long-term costs. Developed curricula, study materials and new ways of working will be inte grated into social sector processes. People working in the field have acquired modern day competencies that will have effect in more qualitative social work and child protection services.

7.5 Budget

Detailed budget is included in the Annex 14. Please see further details and budget break down in the Annex budget file.

In Activity I “Curricula and professional qualification modification” we plan to procure and col laborate with an advertising company in order to promote new possibilities and positive changes in social care- and child protection studies and work environment.

To alleviate the administrative burden and reduce the workload of programme component op erators, implementers, partners and controllers who verify expenditures in the NCU, reim bursement of overheads at a flat rate of 7% of the direct component’s costs is planned to be implemented. From the previous EU and bilateral projects’ implementation experience the rate of the overheads was higher than 7 % of the direct component’s costs. The use of overheads at a flat rate of 7% enables people involved in the implementation of the programme compo nent focus on achievement of the objectives of the support measure as less resources are needed for collecting and verifying financial documents.

Project overheads include administrative expenses, such are: • costs for purchasing, renting, maintaining and repairing office supplies and furniture; • communication costs, including internet, telephone and postal costs; • information technology costs, including the costs of buying and renting software and

hardware, office equipment, and maintenance and repair of servers, networks and of fice equipment;

• heating, water and electricity costs and the costs of cleaning the premises;

Additionally, overheads include expenses related to supportive activities, such as: • accounting; • secretarial and personnel work; • legal advice;

7.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management

Risk Impact Likeli- Risk level Mitigation meas [1 — 5] hood ure(s)

[1 —5]

Time-schedule con- 3 Low-Medium Careful time-management, start straints; all activities ing with the activities as early as must be finished by mid possible, including more people 2028. in the organising activities.

Procurement process 4 3 Medium-High Swift and good cooperation with complexity; transla- the donors; understanding their tions, donor involve- needs, translating and providing ment, donor approval

66

Risk Impact Likeli- Risk level Mitigation meas [1 — 5] hood ure(s)

[1 —5] them with all the materials as quickly as possible.

Engaging target 4 2 Low-Medium Informal and wide-spread infor groups; lack of interest mation distribution to people in by vocational schools charge of curricula in vocational

schools

Engaging target 4 2 Low-Medium Informal and wide-spread infor groups; training of child mation distribution via umbrella protection and care organisations. workers

Excess administrative 4 3 Medium-High Quick responses to changes and burden and changes in obstacles. Honest conversations personnel with the donors in case of compli

cations.

67

8. Annex 3: Detailed Information to Programme Component 3 (Ministry of Education and Research)

Basic Programme Component Information

Title Increasing multicultural competence in the education sector

Planned Duration 51 [months]

Requested Swiss 5 358 753 CHF contribution (CHF)

Requested co-financ- 85% ing rate of Switzer land [%]

8.1 Programme Component Operator

8.1.1 Basic Information

Name of Programme Corn- Ministry of Education and Research ponent Operator

Type of entity National administration

Name of contact person Anu Vau

Position Chief Expert in the Area of Educational Leadership and Teachers Policy

Correspondence address: Munga 18, Tartu

E-Mail anu.vauc~hm.ee

Webpage and social media www hm.ee (if any)

Date of establishment 11.11.1918 Tax number (if applicable) 70000740

Number of employees 302

Financial Turnover for each of the 3 previous years [in N/A Choose.]

Has the Programme Component Operator previously received YesLi No~ funding from the Swiss Contribution?

8.1.2 Programme Component Operator Management

Component Operator is the Ministry of Education and Research (M0ER) of Estonia and within the ministry, the component is managed under the area of the Deputy Secretary General (Gen eral Education and Youth Policy). In more detail the leading departments are Department of General Education Policy and Department of Youth and Talent Policy.

Programme component 3 activities are implemented by Estonian Education and Youth Board, who is a government agency, which deals with the implementation of the education and youth policy of the Estonian state. It is responsible for processing service providers and coordinating various training activities.

Structure Chart of MoER:

Ministerial Advisers <— Minister Internal Audit Department Secretary Generals Advisers < Secretary General

~1Assistant Secretary General <-1 ~oft~~Ser~ AroaotthoDeputySocretasy Ar000fD.putySecietary General (General Education General (Research and Development. General (Adminlanstion)

Departments ( and Youth PoUc~t) Higher Educ on~ VocationalrGen~el Educafloti’~ Education and Troining Policy) General Administration

Strategic planning 11I4 ~yOII~y Departmen~) Higher Education, DePO~II~OI~ Communications Department Area of State Schools Vocational Education

Area of infermatlon-Areaof Communications Management and Training Policy Maen~t Area of EU and International Cooperation Area of General Education and Lifelong Learning *rea of Administration Analysis Department -Area of Pre.Prtmary Area of Stxateglc Planning Education Department SCIVICCS Area of External Finances . Area of Educational -Area of Higher Education -Area of State Assets Area of Learning~ Leadership and -Area of Vocational Education Management

Teachers Policy and Training Budget and Finance Area of inclusive Education Area of Skills endHuman Resowcos Department Iyuth and TaienT~ Qualifications Policy Management

Area of Empicyment Management ~.~ollcy Departmentj Area of Adult Education Policy Department

Area of FinancialLegal Affairs Department Area of Youth Work Research and Development Accounting Area of External Evaluation Area of Hobby Education Policy Department

- Area of Talent Policy Area of Research Infr~~tructur~ Technology Management

Language Policy Department Department Area of Language Policy n General Education and VET

Legond:S general services support services

8.1.3 Programme Component Management

Will external management personnel be hired to implement the Pro- Yes~1 No~ gramme Component?

What personnel capacity will be dedicated Internal resources External resources for the management of the Programme Com ponent implementation (in full-time equiva- 0,5 0 lents FTE)?

MoER will be responsible for component co-ordination as well as reporting and communication with donors and general monitoring of the programme component activities. Within the minis try, the component is managed by the Department of General Education Policy (0,5 FTE). The implementer of all the activities is the Education and Youth Board. There will be at the min imum 1,5 full-time personnel at the Education and Youth Board dedicated for the implementa tion of the Programme Component. Education and Youth Board is responsible for timely im plementation and achievement of results of activities, collecting necessary information as input for substantive and financial reporting and payment claims, main contact for the Ministry.

Are CVs attached to this documentation? YesEl NoL~1

Are terms of reference for the management functions to be established YesLJ NoI~l attached to this documentation?

8.1.4 Programme and Project Management Experience

MoER has managed I is managing the following foreign aid programmes over the last 5 years: (limited to 3 programmes).

1. EU Structural Funds 2014-2020 (limited to 2 corresponding projects):

• ESF (European Social Fund), measure 1.6.2. “Qualifications and skills meeting the needs of society and the labour market” Promoting adult education and expanding learning opportunities; 27 677 876 EUR

• ERDF (EU Regional Development Fund), Measure 1.4.1. Modernising sustainable schools in the course of reconditioning the school network; 228 920 776 EUR

2. European Economic Area and Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021

• Baltic Research Cooperation programme “Education and Reasearch”; the total amount (including co-financing by Estonia) is 8,352,941 EUR. Internationalisation of higher ed ucation institutions, support for cooperation projects, mobility of university staff; 1 .3 mil lion EUR. The aim of research funding is the co-operation of partner universities in the Baltic states; 6 million EUR.

8.2 Programme Component Description

8.2.1 Short Summary

The population in Estonia is becoming more diverse linguistically and culturally, and this trend is increasing rather than decreasing. This change poses clear challenges for local communities and their cooperating institutions (local government, youth and social work), but especially for the school as one of the central institutions of the community.

The programme component managed by the Ministry of Education and Research focuses on strengthening the capacity of schools, youth centres and local authorities in teaching and working in a multilingual or multicultural environment. This is achieved through two main lines of action, which in turn include different activities targeting different stakeholders and benefi ciaries.

70

Two main lines of action are:

1. in-service training for education sector; 2. Informing, consulting and supporting parents, including parents from different cultural

and linguistic backgrounds.

Education sector includes primary, general and vocational education teachers, support spe cialists, heads of relevant educational institutions, trainers and lecturers, professionals working directly with young people in hobby education and youth work, as well as youth work leaders, institutions providing or coordinating hobby education and hobby activities for young people.

We consider in-service training to be professional self-improvement, i.e. learning in a broader sense, which includes the acquisition and supplementation of professional, technical and/or specialist knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as individual self-improvement with the help of teaching materials, etc., participation in courses, learning with the help of a tutor, learning under the guidance of others, study trips, mutual professional advice between colleagues, in cluding the exchange of the best experience and knowledge, etc. In creating a learning-ori ented and flexible learning system, it is important to raise the awareness of workers in educa tion sector about modern learning and the integration of formal and non-formal learning.

With regard to this programme, the Education Strategy 2021-2035 (Annex 1), the Youth Sec tor Development Plan 2021-2035 (Annex 2) and the Estonian Language Strategy 2021-2035 (Annex 3) are important launching documents.

8.2.2 Activities and Expected Results

Ensuring the growth of education and youth workers and the development of competencies has a direct impact on the quality of teaching and youth services. The development of staff competences is based on the principles of the modern learning approach and special attention is paid to their implementation in practise. The activities of the programme component aim to support the professional development of education sector workers and ensure their qualified follow-up and informing and supporting parents, including parents from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The activities contribute to the strategic goal of “Estonia 2035” “Smart, active and health-conscious people in Estonia”,” the Education Development Plan 2021-2035, the Youth Development Plan 2021-2035 and the Estonian Language Development Plan 2021- 2035.

The activities were planned to take into account the studies on continuous professional devel opment (TALIS 2018); “Working conditions of the youth workforce: current status and chal lenges”, 2023; the report of the project “Development of the in-service education system for Estonian teachers and school leaders” implemented by the British Council and the European Commission in 2020-2021; “Mapping of multicultural education activities”, 2019.

Activities

Activity 1. In-service training for professionals in the education sector.

The activity contains the following interventions:

- the creation of new curricula; - the renewal of existing curricula; - in-service training based on above mentioned curricula.

Activities are implemented by Education and Youth Board, partners are Tartu University and Tallinn University.

71

This activity will contribute to the foreseen output 2.1 “Modernised curricula and new curricula for professionals in the fields of education and social welfare have been approved and are in force” and output 2.2 “Professionals in the fields of education and social welfare have received complementary training according to new curricula” and intermediate outcome 2 ‘Profession als in education and social sector offer services according to modernised and new curricula tailored also to work with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds” and imme diate outcome 2 “Professionals in education and social sector have acquired new skills and knowledge and are ready to work with people from different linguistic and cultural back grounds”.

Activity 2. Informing, consulting and supporting parents, including parents from differ ent cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

The activity contains the following interventions:

- Activities to raise parents’ awareness on the issues of learning and teaching in a mul ticultural environment (different levels of education, hobby education, youth work).

- Regional training for parents’ councils in schools and kindergartens. Training for par ents’ councils on parent education - how parents can support their children.

This activity is implemented by Education and Youth Board.

This activity will contribute to the foreseen output 1.3 “Activities for parents, md. from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, are developed and provided” and intermediate outcome 1: People from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are actively participating in Esto nian society and immediate outcome I b “People from different cultural and linguistic back grounds are empowered to participate in Estonian society more actively”.

8.3 Beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries are educational and youth work professionals and organizations and ed ucation officials of the local authorities.

Indirect beneficiaries are people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (including recipients of temporary and international protection status and new immigrants); children and families.

NationalE RegionalLi

Is the benefit of the Programme Component a na tional or regional benefit?

If regional, indicate the benefiting NUTS-2 regions.

8.4 Sustainability

Ensuring the development of competencies has a direct impact on the quality of teaching and youth services. This improves opportunities for children and young people to acquire quality education and develop their interests, which is an important prerequisite for active participation in society and the labour market as adults. The development of staff competences is based on the principles of the modern learning approach and special attention is paid to their implemen

72

tation in practise. Modern learning approaches support the growth of social competences (in cluding collaborative skills and caring). The modernised and new curricula developed during the programme will become part of the curricula for formal and in-service training of specialists in the field, financed from state budget funds. Specialists who have received in-service training under the programme are experts in their field at the regional and organisational level and pass on their knowledge to the staff of the region or organisation. The costs of in-service training are covered by state budget funds allocated to local governments.

8.5 Budget

Detailed budget is included in the Annex 14. Please see further details and budget break down in the budget Annex file.

To alleviate the administrative burden and reduce the workload of programme component op erators, implementers, partners and controllers who verify expenditures in the NCU, reim bursement of overheads at a flat rate of 7% of the direct component’s costs is planned to be implemented. From the previous EU and bilateral projects’ implementation experience the rate of the overheads was higher than 7 % of the direct component’s costs. The use of overheads at a flat rate of 7% enables people involved in the implementation of the programme compo nent focus on achievement of the objectives of the support measure as less resources are needed for collecting and verifying financial documents.

Project overheads include administrative expenses, such are: • costs for purchasing, renting, maintaining and repairing office supplies and furniture; • communication costs, including internet, telephone and postal costs; • information technology costs, including the costs of buying and renting software and

hardware, office equipment, and maintenance and repair of servers, networks and of fice equipment;

• heating, water and electricity costs and the costs of cleaning the premises; • rental costs of premises.

The labor cost of the coordinator for Activity I is itemized separately from the other costs as sociated with Activity 1 and is listed under budget (annex 14) line 4.3.1, titled “Activity 1 Coor dinator in the Education and Youth Board.” This distinction is made because, within the budget for Activity 1, only the coordinator’s labor cost is factored into the overhead calculations. Mean while, the expenses listed under line 4.3, “Activity 1. In-service training for professionals in the education sector (md personnel costs),” are not included in the calculation of the overheads for the component. This is due to the fact that this budget line incorporates a unified hourly rate, which encompasses all expenses directly linked to the provision of in-service trainings.

In the budget line 4.3 for the in-service trainings a unified hourly rate will be used to reimburse costs for partners. The rate was calculated based on Estonia’s actual data from previous pro jects and actual costs incurred for provision of in-service trainings. The hourly unit cost covers all expenditure directly related to the provision of trainings, including materials, rooms and instruction.

73

8~6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management

Risk Im- Likeli- Risk level Mitigation measure(s) pact hood [1— [1—5] 5]

Possible time con- 3 3 Low-Medium Careful time-manage straints ment by starting activities

as early as possible.

Risks related to pro- 4 2 Low-Medium Competence and experi curement process ence of the project imple

menter.

How to communicate 4 2 Medium-High Communication plan of effectively to the target the component activities groups? What if there is in cooperation with the a lack of interest? implementer and the

partners involved.

Taking time to partici- 5 4 High Good calendar plan and pate in training of target long notice. groups The regulations 1 1 Low Close cooperation between necessary for the universities, politicians and the microdegree MoER. qualifications are not adopted or in place.

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9. Annex 4: Detailed Information to Programme Component 4 (Ministry of the Interior)

Basic Programme Component Information

Title Strengthening civil society through social innovation

Planned Duration [months] 51

Requested Swiss contribu- 997 624 tion (CHF)

Requested co-financing 85% rate of Switzerland [%]

9.1 Programme Component Operator

9.1.1 Basic Information

Name of Programme Corn- Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Estonia ponent Operator

Type of entity -~ National administration -

Name of contact person Minna Harjo

Position Adviser at the Department of Citizenship Policy and Civil So ciety

Correspondence address: Pikk 61, 15065 Tallinn, Estonia

E-Mail minna. hario~siseministeerium.ee

Webpage and social media https:Ilwww. siseministeerium.ee/ (if any)

https://www.facebook.com/siseministeerium

https://www.youtube.com/user/Siserninisteerium

Date of establishment 1918 Tax number EEl 00907773

Number of employees 175

Financial Turnover for each of the 3 previous years [in EUR] N/A

Has the Programme Component Operator previously received Yesl~1 N0LJ funding from the Swiss Contribution?

9.1.2 Programme Component Operator Management

The Programme Component Operator is the Ministry of the Interior (Mol) of the Republic of Estonia. Within the ministry, the component is managed by the Department of Citizenship Policy and Civil Society (the leading department), which operates under the Undersecretary for Population and Civil Society, in cooperation with the Department of Foreign Financing, which operates under the Undersecretary for Assets.

The implementer for all the activities is the National Foundation of Civil Society (NFCS), which is a state financed civil society development and support centre that focuses on helping civil society organisations (CSO5) build their capacity to function purposefully and effectively. While NFCS is funded by the government, it functions independently under the guidance of its board, of which the majority of the eleven members are representatives of CSOs. The NFCS will involve external experts and partner organisations to carry out/co-organise different activ ities depending on their competencies and fields of specialisation.

Stru ture of the Ministry of the Interior EU and Foreign Relations

Department Internal Audit Department Minister

Perso ~nel Policy Department

Permanent Secretary Communications

Department

UniIei ~ecl uOiIv toi LJii su. C y o r’opulnt oil 011(1 tivil •flcieiy qpl

~zenship Policy an~~~il Information and Asset ~~ciety Departm~~ Management Department

Population Facts Department Financial Department

Religious Affairs Department j Strategy and Development Department

Fo eign Fi ianci g Department

Legal Department

YesLJ NoLXI

- scc C ~i Ci I1CCCuC ~isecie ti

~ C Css ~tiioiqenienl ~ii CISOD ill”

Rescue and Safety Policy Public Order and Criminal Department Policy Department

Internal Security and Crisis Border Guard and Migration Management Department Policy Department

lntei nal Secui ity Policy Department

9.1.3 Programme Component Management

Will external management personnel be hired to implement the Pro gramme Component?

What personnel capacity will be dedicated Internal resources External resources for the management of the Programme Com ponent implementation (in full-time equiva- 0,2 FTE None lents FTE)?

The Mol will be responsible for all programme component coordination as well as content and financial reporting and communication with donors and oversight of activities within programme component. Within the ministry, the component is managed by the Department of Citizenship Policy and Civil Society (0,2 FTE), which is the leading department, in cooperation with the Department of Foreign Financing. The implementer of all the activities is the National Founda tion of Civil Society (NFCS), which will hire minimum four personnel, who will be responsible for timely implementation and achievement of the results of activities. The NFCS will be re sponsible for collecting and providing input for progress and financial reports and payment claims, and it will be the main contact for the Ministry of the Interior.

Are CVs attached to this documentation? Yes~J NoI~1

Are terms of reference for the management functions to be established YesLi No1~i attached to this documentation?

9.1.4 Programme and Project Management Experience

The main tasks of Mol include ensuring a secure living environment and supporting the devel opment of civil society and voluntarism in Estonia.

Mol has managed seven foreign aid programmes over the past 10 years:

In the previous Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme, Mol was the intermediate body for two projects:

“Prevention and management of natural disasters. Strengthening information and com munication technology systems of Emergency Respond Centre”, duration 2010-2014, budget 2,4 million CHF. ,,Prevention and management of natural disasters - increasing fire safety in Estonian 24-hour social welfare and health care institutions”, duration 2010-2014, budget 1,3 million CHF.

In the European Union budgetary period 2014-2020, Mol was the intermediate body as well as the implementing body for three projects co-funded by the European Social Fund. The prevention programmes were for people at risk of social exclusion and for promoting secure living environment, duration 2015-2023, total budget 6.2 million EUR.

In the same budgetary period of 2014-2020, Mol was the intermediate body for two projects co-funded by the European Cohesion Fund. The projects were aimed at enhancing the ca pacity of the Estonian Rescue Services to eliminate forest and landscape fires and to control marine pollution, duration 2014-2023, total budget 62.1 million EUR.

Mol supports the work of civil society organisations through the NFCS, which is a state fi nanced civil society fund, development and support centre that focuses on helping CSOs build their capacity to function purposefully and effectively. The NFCS supports over 100 projects and initiatives annually, ranging from regional to international cooperation. The NFCS also has a nation-wide outreach involving all stakeholders. In cooperation with county governments and

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development centres, NFCS offers expertise and consultations on a variety of topics, including on how to start an NGO, how to apply for funding and how to become a sustainable organisa tion.

Recent key programme and project management experience of NFCS

o National Competence Centres for Social Innovation. NFCS was the Estonian lead partner in a two-year project that ended in May 2023 and was co-financed by the European Com mission that aims to establish national competency centres for social innovation, as well as develop transitional cooperation within and outside the five members of the consortium. International consortium members: lead partner Germany, other partners United Kingdom, Estonia, Denmark and Poland. Total grant amount 1,469,604.63 € of which budget for Es tonian partners was 128 333,70 €. Project was funded 80% by the European Social Fund and 20% was co-financed by the Mol. Duration: 24 months (14 May 2021 to 15 May 2023). The NFCS was the lead Estonian partner in the project, whereas Mol was an associate partner in the project. More information: https I/si-alliance.eu/partners

Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) programme. NFCS is the Esto nian contact point within the frame-agreement 2021 until 2027 with the budget of 143 605 € for 2021-2022. The activities of NFCS as the contact point are funded by the European Commission (87%) and co-financed (13%) by Mol. Activities include raising awareness of the programme through various dissemination channels, meetings, presentations, seminars but also consultation of applicants. Withing the framework of the programme, NFCS pro vides through various application rounds funding for civil society organizations, local gov ernments and their subsidiaries, and national institutions for the implementation of various projects. The purpose of the programme is to protect and promote the rights and values set forth in the European Union’s Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the preservation of an open, democratic, inclusive and creative society. Members of the contact point team are still part of the executing agency.

o Europe for Citizens (EFC) Programme. NFCS was the Estonian contact point 2014-2021 with the budget of 350 000 €. The activities of NFCS as the contact points were funded by the European Commission (80%) and co-financed (20%) by McI. Activities included raising awareness of the programme through various dissemination channels, meetings, presen tations, seminars but also consultation of applicants. Withing the framework of the pro gramme, NFCS provided through various application rounds funding for civil society organ izations, local governments and their subsidiaries, and national institutions for the implementation of various projects. The purpose of the programme was to support initiatives to strengthen remembrance of the recent European history and to enhance civic participa tion at EU level. Members of the contact point are still part of the executing agency.

9.2 Programme Component Description

9.2.1 Short Summary

The programme component focuses on strengthening civil society through civic participation and the activities of civil society organizations, including a focus on the social inclusion of mi grants and refugees through social innovation. This will be achieved through the activity “Build ing civil society competence, raising public awareness and disseminating information on social

innovation” which is in more detail described by five groups of sub-actions which were dis cussed and selected in cooperation with relevant stakeholders (for detailed information, please see section 5.23.2).

The supported actions will contribute to the national development strategy “Estonia 2035”, particularly its strategic goal “Estonia’s society is caring, cooperative and open-minded”, which underpins a society that is based on a sense of belonging, common values and a willingness of the people to actively contribute to the achievement of common goals.

The supported actions will also contribute to the sectoral development plan “Cohesive Esto nia Strategy 2021 -2030”, particularly sub-objective “Community Estonia”: Estonia is a people- centred country that promotes the development of communities and civil society where people are valued and engaged, share democratic values and improve their living environment through active participation in community and social activities. The activities listed below were selected by social innovation vision document stakeholders (please see point 5.23.1)

9.2.2 Activities and Expected Results

The National Foundation of Civil Society and Ministry of the Interior have been in the process of creating a social innovation visionary document since autumn 2021. The process of writing the vision document has included an in-depth review of Estonian and international reports and literature on social innovation as well as thorough consultations with representatives from the public, private and third sector, as well as the academia. Members of the steering group of the social innovation vision document are social innovation practitioners and academics — all of whom were also partners in the recently concluded project National Competence Centres for Social Innovation (funded by the European Commission). The same group of experts have also previously carried out SWOT analysis on the Estonian social innovation ecosystem.

The process of the stakeholder consultation: Three consultations with social innovation stakeholders: practitioners and academics were held. During the first consultation a brainstorming session was held with the aim of mapping out what kind of activities would have the most impact in Estonia within the framework of this programme. The second consultation focussed on supplementing the ideas and describing them in more detail.

The interventions included in the programme component were selected in the third consultation round. The selection criteria were that the interventions would be in line with the goal of the programme; that they could be completed in the given timeframe and that the interventions would have a long-term impact. Half of the initial 30 ideas were selected to be part of the program me.

The initial stakeholder consultations consisted of three meetings with participants from the Mol, NFCS, Estonian Social Enterprise Network (ESEN), VOru County Development Centre and Tallinn University. The participants covered different competencies: Tallinn University offered an academic view, but the university experts also had practical exposure to social innovation; Vöru County Development Centre had experience in the creation of local level social innova tion initiatives; ESEN had been working with Estonian social enterprises, including enterprises that were created by refugees and migrants.

Since the same expert group had been working together as the core working group of the social innovation vision document, the group had relatively similar points of view as to which interventions would be suitable and impactful within the scope of the Swiss contribution.

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Some interventions were suggested, which are not in the scope of the Swiss contribution (for example monetary investments for social enterprises, which would need longer timeframe to see the longer-term impact created through these investments).

Activity: Building civil society competence, raising public awareness and disseminating information on social innovation

The activity contains the following interventions:

Advising on the development, renewal, scaling or continuation of innovative prod ucts and services with social impact

- creating and delivering an incubation programme; - creating and delivering social hackathons, both for collecting ideas and working on the

solutions on social inclusion of migrants and refugees.

This intervention will contribute to the foreseen output 3.1 “Civil society competence building activities carried out” and intermediate outcome 3 “Communities, organisations and individ uals successfully implement the new knowledge gained in social innovation methods to design solutions to better integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic back grounds in the Estonian society” as well as immediate outcome 3 “Communities, organisa tions and individuals have gained new knowledge in social innovation methods to design so lutions to better integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society” (see chapter 4.3).

This will be achieved as there will be a better quality of services and products designed and provided by the target organisations; solutions to problems locally or nationally will be devel oped, with a focus on the social inclusion of migrants; increased co-operation skills of Estonian non-government organisations will be developed, including inter-sectoral and cross-sectoral co-operation.

• Providing workshops and trainings to target groups to increase knowledge on social innovation. - organizing workshops on best practices from the Nordic countries as well as Switzer

land on the inclusion of new immigrants and migrants using social innovation and social entrepreneurship methods;

- creating and delivering a training programme for consultants and advisers on social innovation and social entrepreneurship;

- creating and launching an online course on social innovation and social enterprises; - organizing study visits to other countries within Europe.

This intervention will contribute to the foreseen output 3.1 “Civil society competence building activities carried out” and intermediate outcome 3 “Communities, organisations and individ uals successfully implement the new knowledge gained in social innovation methods to design solutions to better integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic back grounds in the Estonian society” as well as immediate outcome 3 “Communities, organisa tions and individuals have gained new knowledge in social innovation methods to design so lutions to better integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society” (see chapter 4.3).

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This will be achieved as there will be an increased awareness and knowledge of social inno vation and social entrepreneurship and better cooperation and co-creation among consultants and advisers on social innovation and social entrepreneurship and other actors in the field.

• Disseminating information to raise public awareness on social innovation. - Creating, publishing and disseminating video clips, a broadcast series and a podcast

series on social innovation; - sharing thematic information via articles, newsletters, campaigns, website, social me

dia channels and presentations at events; - evaluation of the impact of the dissemination activities.

This intervention will contribute to the foreseen output 3.2 “A set of social innovation training and information materials created, published and disseminated” and immediate outcome 3 “Communities, organisations and individuals have gained new knowledge in social innovation methods to design solutions to better integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society” (see chapter 4.3).

This will be achieved as there will be an increased awareness of the topic and a more common information field among the wider public and, in the long term, an increased engagement of local communities in local life issues.

• Supporting the emergence and development of social innovation networks to pro mote cooperation between target groups.

- creating and managing a cooperation network and programme for social innovation actors;

- cooperation/lobbing with policy makers, decision makers and actors in the field; - organising study visits within Estonia.

This intervention will contribute to the foreseen output 3.1 “Number of civil society competence building activities carried out for communities, organisations, and individuals” and immediate outcome 3 “Communities, organisations and individuals have gained new knowledge in social innovation methods to design solutions to better integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society” (see chapter 4.3).

This will be achieved as there will be a more close-knit and knowledgeable social innovation eco-system and better cooperation within and between networks in the eco-system.

• Collecting, systematising, and disseminating social innovation know-how and best practices. - creating and disseminating a handbook on social innovation, with a focus on the inte

gration of migrants —

- collecting and systematising best practises of social innovation.

This intervention will contribute to the foreseen output 3.2 “A set of social innovation training and information materials created, published and disseminated” and immediate outcome 3 “Communities, organisations and individuals have gained new knowledge in social innovation methods to design solutions to better integrate and include people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the Estonian society” (see chapter 4.3).

This will be achieved as there will be an increased know-how of social innovation and its best practises, which will promote the application of useful tools in designing current as well as future services.

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9.3 Beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries of the activities will be civic society organizations (including NGOs and social enterprises).

Indirect beneficiaries are people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (including recipients of temporary and international protection status and new migrants), cultural societies of ethnic minorities and local authorities.

Is the benefit of the Programme Component a na- Nationall~1 RegionalD tional or regional benefit?

If regional, indicate the benefiting NUTS-2 regions. N/A

9.4 Sustainability

The implemented activity has a long-term impact and will continue to be developed, im proved and funded because it is based on national strategic development plans (for example “Estonia 2035” development strategy; Cohesive Estonia strategy 2021 -2030). Social innovation and social entrepreneurship can simultaneously help stimulate economic growth and ensure social and environmental sustainability. Understanding and applying social innovation helps contribute to sustainable development and use resources better and more efficiently. For example, when creating new products and services, a long-term perspective is taken, and the basis is that the entire process and the end result creates as much positive impact on people and the environment as possible. In addition, the entire creation, process and end result is economical, environmentally friendly and sustainable (from the point of view of each relevant resource including people, environment, resources etc). Hence, financial and environmental viability and sustainability are integral to the programme component.

Sustainability is at the core of the activity, as a strong focus is put on developing skills and capabilities for social innovation and social entrepreneurship. Stakeholders will obtain new competencies and skills that can be used in the longer term, as well as be passed over to other people in the future. Furthermore, the materials — including written materials, visuals, video clips, etc will be maintained by the NFCS and the Ministry of the Interior and can be used to train stakeholders in the future and raise awareness about the central themes in the pro gramme component. Potential new knowledge and innovations that come out from the pro gramme component may be used to inform future policy making in the relevant fields.

9.5 Budget

Detailed budget is included in the Annex 14. Please see further details and budget breakdown in the Annex budget file.

Below are clarifications of some of the budget breakdown:

To alleviate the administrative burden and reduce the workload of programme component op erators, implementers, partners and controllers who verify expenditures in the NCU, reim bursement of overheads at a flat rate of 7% of the direct component’s costs is planned to be implemented. From the previous EU and bilateral projects’ implementation experience, the rate of the overheads was higher than 7 % of the direct component’s costs. The use of overheads

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at a flat rate of 7% enables people involved in the implementation of the programme compo nent focus on achievement of the objectives of the support measure as less resources are needed for collecting and verifying financial documents.

Project overheads include administrative expenses, such are: • costs for purchasing, renting, maintaining and repairing office supplies and furniture; • communication costs, including internet, telephone and postal costs; • information technology costs, including the costs of buying and renting software and

hardware, office equipment, and maintenance and repair of servers, networks and of fice equipment;

• heating, water and electricity costs and the costs of cleaning the premises; • rental costs of premises; • security service costs.

Additionally, overheads include expenses related to supportive activities, such as: • accounting; • legal advice; • organizing public procurement and conducting the purchase procedure; • information technology support services.

9.6 Risk Analysis and Risk Management

Risk Impact Likeli- Risk level Mitigation meas [1 — 5] hood ure(s)

[1 —5] Possible time con- 3 Low-Medium Careful time-management, straints starting with the interven

tions as early as possible, including more people in the organ ising.

Risks related to pro- 4 2 Low-Medium State Shared Service Cen curement process tre’s procurement prelimi

nary consultation service.

How to communicate 4 2 Low-Medium NFCS will hire a communi effectively to the target cations specialist with expe groups? What if there is rience and knowledge of a lack of interest? reaching the target groups.

Involvement of foreign ~ 3 Low-Medium Together with other pro- language speaking gramme operators, making NGO’s and mi- sure that quality translation grants/refugees and interpretation services

are used and making sure that language barrier does not prevent the transmission of information and ideas.

Distribution of the mate- 2 2 Low Translation of materials to rials/materials reaching ensure that people with low the right target groups Estonian language skills will

be able to understand the materials. The materials will

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Risk Impact Likeli- Risk level Mitigation meas [1 — 5] hood ure(s)

[1 —5] be made available and dis seminated online.

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Annex 5: Overview of the policy dialogue for preparing sectoral development plans and strategies

Ministry of Culture

Preparation of the Estonian-Swiss cooperation agreement was carried out simultaneously with the preparation of the Cohesive Estonia Strategy 2021-2030.

The preparatory work for the development of the Cohesive Estonia Strategy 2030 started al ready in 2018, when several consultations with key-partners (other ministries, Integration Foundation etc) in the field of integration and adaptation were held.

During consultation rounds Ministry of Culture:

• Organised an opening seminar for stakeholders and partners. The aim of the seminar was to present the possible focus themes and the overall strategic framework of the Strategy; to get feedback and input on the focus themes and the issues raised; and to allow interested parties to join the thematic groups that will be set up (08.01.2019).

• Presented the core of the strategy on the Day of Estonian Cities and Municipalities, with a view to obtain information and feedback from representatives of local and re gional authorities (12.02.201 9).

• Nine seminars were held in spring 2019, with the aim of identifying integration bottle necks in Estonia and possible solutions. The seminars were targeted at the following audiences: o 18.03.2019 - youth organisations and youth work institutions. o 19.03.2019 - employers o 20.03.2019 - media outlets. o 22.03.2019 - start-ups and technology companies. o 8.04.2019 - representatives of early years education and training providers o 09.04.2019 - representatives of general education o 10.04.2019 - representatives of vocational education and training o 11.04.2019 - representatives of higher education o 12.04.2019 - representatives of the sport and physical activity sector

Seminar in English language was held at the International House of Estonia for new immi grants.

In the autumn 2019, discussions were held in 12 counties to present and gather input for the Culture 2030 development plan and the Integration Strategy documents.

Several meetings took place under the auspices of the RITA~RANNE17 scientifical project team for the preparation of a vision document 18for the migration and integration agenda (autumn 2019).

Two seminars to wrap up the input from consultation rounds were held in 2020.

Several studies and surveys were taken into account in the preparation of the strategy:

17 https://ranne.ut.ee/

18 https://sisu .ut.ee/sites/defaultlfiles/ranne/files/visioonidokument.pdf

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• Large scale survey Monitoring the Integration of Estonian Society 2020 (ElM) https://www. kul.ee/eesti-integratsiooni-monitooring-2020 (factsheets are available in the English language)

• Survey “Adaptation of new immigrants in Estonia” https://www.kul.ee/me dia/31 80/download

• Analysis: The Estonian state’s adaptation and integration services. htt s://www. kul.ee/media/3 18/download

• Applied study “Estonian language learning for adults whose mother tongue is different from Estonian in integration and employment policy: quality, impact and organization”

• https://www. kul.ee/rakendusuurinq-eesti-keelest-erineva-emakeeleqa-taiskasvanute eesti-keele-ope-loimumjs-ia (overview of the study is available in English language)

Also results and the evaluations of the previous integration programs was taken in account.

Ministry of Social Affairs

Child protection services

Several studies (OSKA social work research report, 2021, An Analysis of Today’s Child Pro tection Case Management, Data Exchange and e-Services, Civitta, 2022, Analysis of child protection work and basic training of working with children to ensure children’s well-being, no ticing abuse and informing about a child in need, Civitta, 2022) have shown that child protection workers feel that the basic education does not prepare them well enough to work directly with children and families, that there is lack of support from the management and professional de velopment, which are the main reasons for a high rate of turnover and burnout in the field.

Additionally, many large-scale reforms such as the reform in child protection system and chil dren with special needs are being prepared, and during the consultation process many working groups and meetings have been held, involving also children and families themselves (their experiences, needs and expectations) and youth organizations but also asking direct feedback from the specialists working with children and families. Feedback from local authorities also suggest that the current workforce is not trained specifically to work with migrants, therefore topics such as how to work with this target group as well as how to integrate migrant workforce into the social sector, needs special modules both in universities, vocational schools and labor market training.

Direct consultations with Tallinn University (that is the main higher education provider to edu cate child protection specialists) have been held, the current and future needs have been dis cussed and the willingness and openness of the university to start modernizing the curricula is confirmed.

The process of the stakeholder consultation

Large-scale data collection and analysis, focus group interviews, international data and system comparison, seminars and conferences were held. Local authorities (management and child protection workers), NGOs (e.g. Union for Child Welfare, Estonian Chamber of People With Disabilities), Estonian Association for Social Work, Social Insurance Board, Chancellor of Jus tice, Estonian Unemployment Fund were present and represented.

One of their concerns were, that more practical and innovative tools and methods of social work need to be inserted in the basic curricula, in-service training for continuing professional development must be made available, support system for specialists (mentoring, supervision,

trainings and counselling) needs to be in place to keep the workforce and raise the quality work done with children and families.

Input is grouped by common themes/points of view in order to avoid unnecessary repetition.

Since the main input has already been gathered and analysed in large scale studies, all the main and most time critical proposals have been taken into account. Unfortunately, it is not possible to fix this social problem of aging population and the raising demand of quality and personal social services with a magic wand, but some specific and very practical steps are foreseen within the framework of Swiss Contribution.

Social work services

In the area of social work, a study on labour force demand in long-term care sector was carried out in 2022 (Foundation Praxis and Haap Consulting Ltd). The analysis report suggests the change in curricula, internship programmes and sector reputation improvement activities. The study also revealed quite a sceptical/conservative attitude towards migrant workforce in the sector.

In-depth interviews were carried out with:

• Social Insurance Board, • Estonian Social Work Association • Unemployment Fund • Ministry of Education and Research • representatives of nursing homes and special care homes (7) • local governments and their service providers (6).

Additionally, 4 focus group meetings were held for nursing homes and local governments. The Ministry of Social Affairs held also a validation seminar for the report (Sept21, 2022) with target groups already listed above participating.

Ministry of Education and Research

With regard to Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme, the Education Strategy 2021-2035, the Youth Sector Development Plan 2021-2035 and the Estonian Language Strategy 2021- 2035 are important launching documents.

In 2021, a new system for long-term strategic partnerships was developed in cooperation with the partners. The selection of strategic partners is done in a transparent way through a public call for cooperation. The aim of the Policy Implementation Partnership is to identify competent and capable partners to implement the activities selected as priority activities for the imple mentation of the development plans.

Accompanying the prioritization, the strategic partners invited organizations willing to contrib ute. Targeted offers are made to youth work associations for youth work development activi ties; to higher education institutions associations for ensuring information exchange between higher education institutions, national and international databases; and to the umbrella organ ization of teachers (associations for providing know-how on methodological and pedagogical resources, cooperation between teachers), networks and support for teachers’ professional development.

The rrocess of Education Strateciy

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From 30 March to 21 April 2020, formal coordination of the draft development plan with part ners and public consultation took place on the Executive Information System (EIS). During the coordination and consultation, nearly 60 organisations sent their opinions and suggestions on the development plan through the ElS or directly to the Ministry. Based on the proposals, the Ministry supplemented the draft law through meetings with the authors of the more complex proposals.

The Ministry of Education and Research began preparations for the creation of a new devel opment plan in the field of education in Estonia in spring 2018, when expert groups were con vened to create a common vision for all their areas. In parallel, the Ministry organized a collec tion of ideas, gathered proposals from interested parties and organized vision discussions. The cross-sectoral vision documents were finalized by spring 2019.

To formulate strategic goals and metrics and agree on the activities needed to achieve these goals in the education sector, the Ministry established working groups in spring 2019 involving key partners and stakeholders, focusing on the education system, teachers, and teaching and skills. The working groups discussed the strengths and bottlenecks in this area, formulated goals and key development activities. All working group meetings were followed by an addi tional online consultation with working group members.

Furthermore, it was decided to discuss the issues of the new development plan in the field of education at the meetings of the Government and the Education and Youth Working Group of the Association of Estonian Cities and Rural Municipalities, which included other education experts and representatives of entrepreneurs who contribute to the promotion of education.

Input from the working groups was also sought for the proposal on the development plan. The Government approved the proposal for the preparation of the Education Development Plan on 28 November 2019.

The first working version of the development plan was finalised in December 2019 when it was presented and discussed at a joint meeting of the development plan working groups.

• 30.03 - 21.04.2020 formal consultation of the Development Plan with interested parties and partners and public consultation took place.

• On 10.07.2020, the Minister of Education and Research submitted an amended draft to the Government of the Republic for processing based on the proposals received during the coordination and consultation process.

• At the Cabinet meeting on 29.10.2020, the Government decided to approve the draft Education Development Plan and forward it to the Parliament for consideration.

• During the process of the Education Sector Development Plan, the Cultural Committee of the Parliament discussed the draft Development Plan several times and made amendments.

• In the meeting held on 13.09.2021, the Parliament discussed the Education Develop ment Plan.

• 20.10.2021 The Minister of Education and Research submitted the Education Devel opment Plan 2021 -2035 to the Government for approval.

The Process of the Youth Sector Development Plan

• 28 November 2019, the Government approved the proposal for the development of the Youth Development Plan 2021-2035 on. Representatives of the youth sector and rele vant partners were involved in the preparation of the proposal and the formulation of

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the objectives and action lines of the development plan, for which a youth working group was formed.

• 29 October 2020, the Government decided to approve the draft Youth Sector Develop ment Plan after discussion in the Cabinet meeting and send it to the Parliament for discussion.

• 19.05.2021, the Parliament discussion of the Youth Sector Development Plan. • 12.08.2021, the Government approved the Youth Sector Development Plan.

The Process of the Estonian Language Strategy

• On 22 October 2019, the Parliament proposed to the Government the preparation of the Estonian Language Sectoral Development Plan for 2021-2035 to strengthen the vitality, development and learning of the Estonian language.

• The Government approved the proposal to prepare the development plan on 16 April 2020.

• On 2 October 2020, the Minister of Education and Research submitted the draft devel opment plan to the Government.

• The Government approved the draft Estonian Language Development Plan for the pe riod 2021-2035 and submitted itto the Parliament for discussion on 20 October 2021.

• The Minister of Education and Research submitted the Estonian Language Develop ment Plan to the Government for approval on 11 November 2021.

• The Government approved the “Estonian Language Development Plan 2021-2035”.

Ministry of the Interior

National Foundation of Civil Society and Ministry of the Interior have been in the process of creating a social innovation vision document since autumn 2021. The process of writing the vision document has included an in-depth review of Estonian and international reports and literature on social innovation as well as thorough consultations with representatives from the public, private and third sector, as well as the academia. Members of the steering group of the social innovation vision document are social innovation practitioners and academics — all of whom are also partners in the ongoing project National Competence Centres for Social Inno vation (funded by the European Commission). The same group of experts have also previously carried out SWOT analysis on the Estonian social innovation ecosystem.

The process of the stakeholder consultation

Three consultations with social innovation stakeholders: practitioners and academics were held. During the first consultation a brainstorming session was held with the aim of mapping out what kind of activities would have the most impact in Estonia within the framework of this project. The second consultation focussed on supplementing the ideas and describing them in more detail.

The activities to be included in the programme were selected in the third consultation round. The selection criteria were that the activities would be in line with the project’s goal; that they could be completed in the given timeframe and that the activities would have a longer-term impact. Half of the initial 30 ideas were selected to be part of the programme.

The initial stakeholder consultations consisted of three meetings with participants from the Mol, NFCS, Estonian Social Enterprise Network (ESEN), Vöru County Development Centre and Tallinn University. The participants cover different competencies: Tallinn University offered an academic view, but the experts also have practical exposure to social innovation; Vöru County Development Centre have experience in the creation of local level social innovation initiatives;

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ESEN works with Estonian social enterprises, including enterprises that have been created by refugees and migrants.

Since the same expert group have been working together as the core working group of the social innovation vision document, the group had relatively similar points of view as to which activities would be suitable and impactful within the scope of the Swiss contribution.

Some activities were suggested, which are not in the scope of the Swiss contribution (for ex ample monetary investments for social enterprises, which would need longer time-frame to see the longer-term impact created through these investments).

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Swiss-Eston Ian Cooperation Programme

Annex B: Budget

on

the Support Measure

Supporting Social Inclusion

SWISS - ESTONIAN Cooperation Programme

EUR EUR EUR EUR EUR CHF EUR EUR EUR EUR EUR No Budget items Unit costs Quantity Total Budget Swiss contribution National contribution Swiss contribution Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

(85%) (15%)

Exchange rate CHF1EUR 1,036081

I Management Costs 1 542 928,07 1 311 488,86 231 439,21 1 265 816,92 192 86601 385 732,02 385 732,02 385 732,02 192 866,01

11 Personnel 692 732,00 588 822,20 103 909,80 568 316,76 86 591,50 173 183,00 173 183,00 173 183,00 86 591,50 111 Programme Coordinator Lead (M0C) 229 500,00 195 075,00 34 425,00 188 281,61 28 687,50 57 375,00 57 375,00 57 375,00 28 687,50

112 Programme financial and technical coordinator (M0C) 192 780,00 163 863,00 28 917,00 158 156,55 24 097,50 48 195,00 48 195,00 48 195,00 24 097,50

113 Expenses of State Shared Service Centre for venficatisn of incurred expenditure (up to 1 2 FTE for 52 months, labor and travel expenditure, estimation for vanous employees) 270 452,00 229 884,20 40 567,80 221 878,60 33 806,50 67 613,00 67 613,00 67 613,00 33 806,50

12 Meetings, seminars and visits 140 000,00 119 000,00 21 000,00 114 855,88 17 500,00 35 000,00 35 000,00 35 000,00 17 500,00 121 Seminars, working meetings, assignments (site visits) ‘ 40 000,00 34 000,00 6 000,00 32 815,97 5 000,00 10 000,00 10 000,00 10 000,00 5 000,00 1 2 2 Meetings of the Support Measure Steenng Committee and - 40 000,00 34 000,00 6 000,00 32 815,97 5 000,00 10 000,00 10 000,00 10 000,00 5 000,00

working group 123 Travel costs 40 000,00 34 000,00 6 000,00 32 815,97 5 000,00 10 000,00 10 000,00 10 000,00 5 000,00 124 Transportation costs 20 000,00 17 000,00 3 000,00 16 407,98 2 500,00 5 000,00 5 000,00 5 000,00 2 500,00

1 3 Swiss experts and partners 543 776,11 462 209,69 81 566,42 446 113,47 67 972,01 135 944,03 135 944,03 135 944,03 67 972,01

14 Information and communication 154 000,01 130 900,01 23 100,00 126 341,48 19 250,00 38 500,00 38 500,00 38 500,00 19 250,00

141 Communication and visibility costs (md personnel costs) ~ 54 000,01 45 900,01 8 100,00 44 301,56 6 750,00 13 500,00 13 500,00 13 500,00 6 750,00

142 Launching and a closing event - - 60 000,00 51 000,00 9 000,00 49 223,95 30 000,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 30 000,00

143 Evaluations ‘ 40 000,00 34 000,00 6 000,00 32 815,97 0,00 0,00 8 000,00 32 000,00 0,00

15 Reserve costs 12 41 9,95 10 556,96 1 862,99 10 189,32 1 552,49 3 104,99 3 104,99 3 104,99 1 552,49

151 Reserve costs 12 419,95 10 556,96 1 862,99 10 189,32 1 552,49 3 104,99 3 104,99 3 104,99 1 552,49

2 Programme Component I Cultural and linguistic integration” 6 816 349,13 5 793 896,76 1 022 452,37 5 592 127,22 681 634,91 2 726 539,65 1 363 269,83 1 363 269,83 681 634,91

2.1 Programme Component coordinator MoC 205 200,03 174 420,03 30 780,00 168 345,94 25 650,00 51 300,01 51 300,01 51 300,01 25 650,00

2.2 Overheads* 445929,38 379039,98 66889,41 365 840,10 55741,17 111 482,35 111 482,35 111 482,35 55 741,17

23 Activity 1. Preparation of digital transformation in the field 1 446 121,03 1 229 202,88 216 918,15 1 186 396,50 180 765,13 361 530,26 361 530,26 361 530,26 180 765,13 of integration (mci personnel costs)

2.4 Activity 2: Inclusion of volunteers in the integration ~ 910 648,12 774 050,90 136 597,22 747 094,97 113 831,02 227 662,03 227 662,03 227 662,03 113 831,02

activitiesvvOncl personnel costs) as Activity 3: Provision otcosnselling services including in 870 453,10 739 885,14 130 567,97 714 119,01 108 806,64 217 613,28 217 613,28 217 613,28 108 806,64

language learning (md personnel costs) 26 Activity 4: Activities introducing the Estonian cultural 2 023 214,40 1 719 732,24 303 482,16 1 659 843,43 252 901,80 505 803,60 505 803,60 505 803,60 252 901,80

space (md personnel costs) 2.7 Activity 5: Provision of media literacy training (md

personnel costs) ‘. 914 783,07 777 565,61 137 217,46 750 487,28 114 347,88 228 695,77 228 695,77 228 695,77 114 347,88

3 Programme Component 2 “Strengthening the social~ and child protection services” 6 564 705,00 5 579 999,25 984 705,75 5 385 678,58 659 195,81 1 318 391,63 1 963 960,88 1 641 176,25 981 980,44

3.1 Programme Component coordinator in M0SA . 109 012,50 92 660,63 16 351,88 89 433,77 13 626,56 27 253,13 27 253,13 27 253,13 13 626.56

32 Activity 1.cerricuia and professional qualification 2 622 140,19 2 228 819,16 393 321,03 2 151 201,65 262 214,02 524 428,04 786 642,06 655 535,05 393 321,03 modification (maci personnel costs)

3.3 Activity 2: training and counselling system (mci personnel , 3 404 085,63 2 893 472,79 510 612,84 2 792 709,05 340 408,56 680 817,13 1 021 225,69 851 021,41 510 612,84 costs)

3.4 Overheads*

429 466,68 365 046,68 64 420,00 352 334,11 42 946,67 85 893,34 128 840,00 107 366,67 64 420,00

4 Programme Component 3 “Increasing multicultural competence in the education sector” 6 531 88512 5 552 10235 979 78277 5 358 753,18 657 322,64 1 951 297,27 1 951 297,27 1 314 645,29 657 322,64

4.1 , - ,- . 102 600,00 87 210,00 15 390,00 84 172,96 12 825,00 25 650,00 25 650,00 25 650,00 12 825,00

Programme Component coordinator in M0ER 4.2 Overheads*

‘ 62 765,30 53 350,50 9 414,79 51 492,60 7 845,66 15 691,32 15 691,32 15 691,32 7 845,66

43 Activity 1. In-service training for professionals in the education sector (mci personnel Costa) ‘ . ‘ - 5 572 472,72 4 736 601,81 835 870,91 4 571 652,03 557 247,27 1 671 741,82 1 671 741,82 1 114 494,54 557 247,27

4,3.1 .,. , - 152 617,50 129 724,88 22 892,63 125 207,27 15 261,75 45 785,25 45 785,25 30 523,50 15 261,75

Activity 1 coordinator in the Education and Youth Board** 4,4 Actindy 2 Informing counselling and supporting parents

wft’n a different linguistic and cutural backgrounds (mcI 641 429,60 545 215,16 96 214,44 526 228,32 64 142,96 192 428,88 192 428,88 128 285,92 64 142,96 personnel couts)

5 Programme Component 4 “Strengthening civil society through social innovation.” 1 216 022,79 1 033 619,37 182 403,42 997 624,10 121 602,28 304 005,70 304 005,70 304 005,70 182 403,42

5.1 Programme Component Coordinator in Mol

. ‘ 44 103,97 37 488,37 6 615,60 36 182,86 4 410,40 11 025,99 11 025,99 11 025,99 6 615,60

5.2 Overheads’

79 552,89 67 619,96 11 932,93 65 265,13 7 955,29 19 888,22 19 888,22 19 888,22 11 932,93

5.3 Building civil society competence, raising public awareness and disseminating information on social innovation (mci , ‘. 1 092 365,93 928 511,04 163 854,89 896 176,11 109 236,59 273 091,48 273 091,48 273 091,48 163 854,89 personnel costs)

6 TOTAL 22 671 890,11 19 271 106,60 3 400 783,52 18 600 000,00 2 312 621,66 6 685 966,26 5 968 265,69 5 008 829,08 2 696 207,42

DURATION OF THE PROJECT month 51 Number of Calender Years in Programme year 5 Exchange rate CHFIEUR CHF/EUR 1,036081

* To alleviate the administrative burden and reduce the workload of programme component operators, implementers, partners and controllers who verify expenditures in the NCU, reimbursement of overheads at a flat rate of 7% of the direct programme component’s costs is planned to be

implemented in each ot the four components of the SSIP. From the previous EU and bilateral projects’ implementation experience the rate of the overheads was higher than 7 % of the direct component’s costs. The use of overheads at a flat rate of 7% enables people involved in the implementation of the programme component focus on achievement of the ob-jectives of the support measure as less resources are needed for collecting and verifying fi-nuncial documents. Programme component overheads include administrative expenses, such are: •costs for purchasing, renting, maintaining and repairing office supplies and furniture; •communicution costs, including internet, telephone and postal costs; •information technology costs, including the costs of buying and renting software and hardware, office equipment, and maintenance and repair of servers, networks and of-fice equipment; •heating, water and electricity costs and the costs of cleaning the premises; •rental costs of premises; •security service costo; •land tax; •costs of opening and managing a bank account and payment transfer fee. Additionally, programme component overheads include expenoes related to supportive activities, such as: •eccounfing; •secretarial and personnel work; •legal advice; •organizing public procurement and conducting the purchaoe procedure; property management; information technology support services.

The labor cost of the coordinatorfor Activity 1 is itemized separately from the other costs associated with Activity 1 and is listed under line 4.3.1. This distinction is made because, within the budget forActivity 1, only the coordinattws labor cost is factored into the overhead calculations. Meanwhile, the expenses listed under line 4,3, “Activity 1. In-service training for professionals in the education sector (md personnel costo),* are not included in the calculation of the overheads for the component. This is due to the fact that this budget line incorporates a unified hourly rate, which encompasses all expenses directly linked to the provision of in-service train-ings.

Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme

Annex C: Procurement Plan

on

the Support Measure

Supporting Socia’ Inclusion

Procurement plan

If applicable, Tender English Actualplanned dead- notice will translation Tender an- English trans- line for be submit- of tender launch ActualNon-ob- lation of ten- of tender Contract sig- cont- ContractProgramme Compo- noun- submitting Launch often- ted to documents Actual contract Initially estimated costsnent or Project Ref. No Contract Name ection by cement in der do- documenta- der planned Swiss side will be (publica- nature plan- ract completion completioncuments for tion of ned signa- plannedCH CH tion to Swiss before made avai

bidders tender ture‘non ob- publics- lable to bi ~ection” tion dders notice)

quarter I year quarter I year yes/no yes/no date quarter I year date quarter / year date EUR CHF

Advertising new possibilities and Strengthening the positive changes in social care- social- and child pro- and child protection studies and tection services work environment lll-IV 0 2024 I - II 0 2025 II Q of 2026 400,000

Cultural and linguistic Development and implementation IV Q of 2025-I Q integration of new digital tools 2026 800,000

Cultural and linguistic Development and piloting a vo- II 0 2025- liii Q integration lunteer programme 2025 220,000

Development and providing acti vities to introduce Estonian cultu

Cultural and linguistic ral space and increase social integration connections I-Il Q 2025 700,000

Development and providing acti vities to introduce Estonian cultu

Cultural and linguistic ral space and increase social integration connections lll-lV 0 2026 700,000

Swiss-Eston ian Cooperation Programme

Annex 0: Decision Letter from SDC

on

the Support Measure

Supporting Social Inclusion

Schweizerische E~dgenossenschaft Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA ~ Confederation suisse ~ Confederazione Svizzera Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC

EU Member States Secti onConfederaziun svizra

CH-3003 Bern, DEZA

A Post

State Shared Service Centre of Republic of Estonia Mr Urmo Merila Deputy Director General Lökke 4 10122 Tallinn Eston ia

Your reference: Our reference: 7F-1 0699.01 Bern, 07 July 2023

Subject: Swiss-Estonian Cooperation Programme Decision Letter on 1st stage Support Measure proposal Support Measure Name: Supporting Social Inclusion Support Measure N°: 7F-1 0699.01 Swiss Contribution: CHF 18’600’000

Dear Mr Merila,

Thank you for the submission of the above mentioned Support Measure Proposal by the National Coordination Unit (NCU) on 14 June 2023. The Programme is well embedded into the national plans and strategies and will contribute to two Estonian state level reforms, which is highly appreciated. We are content and commend you on choosing a holistic approach to address Social Inclusion and integrating the Ukrainian refugees in Estonia.

We are very pleased to inform you of the 1st stage approval of the proposal, subject to the following conditions:

• The rational between Outputs — Outcomes — Overall Goal should be further strengthened through a conceptional clarification regarding the target groups. Will the Ukrainian refugees be addressed in all the components? As the programme focuses on Leaving No One Behind, please integrate information about specific sub-groups in the target groups, such as elderly people for instance.

• The Cooperation with Swiss partners should be set up and confirmed for the second stage approval.

• Considering the strategic importance of the Programme, a special emphasis needs to be put in the risk analysis on external and internal factors such as the inflation, lengthy procurement procedures and resistance to the reforms, as well as political and operational risks, especially if we take into consideration the complexity and fragmentation of the programme.

• A Stakeholder analysis should be provided. • The sustainability aspect needs to be further developed. What will be done after the

programmes duration and how will the achievements be guaranteed and maintained? • The Intervention strategy needs to be further developed and revised, including aspects of

complementarity with other actors or funds.

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC Debora Kern Efflngerstrasse 27, 3003 Berne Phone +41 5846231 24 www.deza.admin.ch

• Core Indicators of the 2~ Swiss Contribution shall be incorporated into the Logframe. • Considering the political sensitivity of the Program elements such as the ongoing school reform,

Switzerland would like to be actively involved in ally official communication about the Social Inclusion programme.

• Budget: In chapter 2.9 a qualitative justification of the budget shall be provided. The budget line “administrative costs” under “1 .5 miscellaneous” needs to be more specified.

You are kindly requested to take into account the elements expressed above when proceeding with the elaboration of the 2nd stage Support Measure Proposal.

We would like to thank you for the excellent cooperation.

Yours sincerely,

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) EU Member States Section

Kern Debore DXYXWI 09.07.2023

L..~. Info: admin.chiesignature valiclator.ch

Debora Kern Head, EU Member States Section

Copy: Swiss Contribution Office for Estonia

Lõkke 4 / 10122 Tallinn / 663 8200 / [email protected] / www.rtk.ee / Registrikood 70007340

Meie 07.06.2024 nr 11.1-23/24/1393-1

Riina Virkus

Rahandusministeerium

Suur-Ameerika tn 1

Tallinn

10122, Harju maakond

Sildfinantseerimise taotlemine Šveitsi-Eesti

koostööprogrammi toetusmeetmete

projektidele

Palun võimaldada vastavalt riigieelarve seaduses § 54 sätestatule Riigi Tugiteenuste Keskusel

kasutada 2024. aastal sildfinantseerimise vahendeid projektidele 6R40-SH00-01113KUM

“Šveitsi-Eesti koostööprogrammi juhtimiskulud KUM” summas 26 000 eurot ja 6R40-SH00-

01213KLIM “Šveitsi-Eesti koostööprogrammi juhtimiskulud KLIM” summas 6 500 eurot.

Toetusmeetmete rakendamiseks sõlmis Riigi Tugiteenuste Keskus Šveitsi Arengu- ja

Koostööametiga 30.04.2024 toetusmeetme „Elurikkuse programm“ lepingu ja 31.05.2024

toetusmeetme „Sotsiaalse kaasatuse toetamine“ lepingu. Riigi Tugiteenuste Keskuse kulud on

planeeritud mõlema toetusmeetme juhtimiskuludesse.

Kinnitan, et vahendite osalise või täismahus mittelaekumise korral vastutab Riigi Tugiteenuste

Keskus projekti sildfinantseerimise jäägi tagastamise eest.

Lugupidamisega

(allkirjastatud digitaalselt)

Pärt-Eo Rannap

peadirektor

Lisad:

1. Toetusmeetme „Elurikkuse programm“ leping

2. Toetusmeetme „Sotsiaalse kaasatuse toetamine“ leping

3. Toetuse eelarve avamise taotluse vorm

Helena Musthallik tel. 663 2073

[email protected]