The second round table, was held in Prague. It was part of the project led by CASE – Center for Social and Economic Research and Overseas Development Institute (ODI) with the participation of the NGDO platforms from the Visegrád group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, so called V4) and funded by the European Commission. The main objective of the roundtable was to promote a greater understanding of the development challenges, to facilitate greater public support in New Member States for poverty reduction efforts and to contribute to more strategic and evidence-informed policy dialogue and engagement for international development issues.

The Prague Round Table was co-funded by the International Visegrad Fund (www.visegradfund.org)

The Prague roundtable was taking place at the beginning of the Czech Presidency of the European Union, which is the first country of the so-called Visegrád countries to preside the EU; during the break-through periods of the European Parliamentary elections; and following the key global processes on Aid Effectiveness and Financing for Development.

The primary topic addressed by FoRS - Czech Forum for Development Co-operation, in cooperation with British Overseas NGO’s for Development (BOND UK), was the upcoming European Parliamentary elections and the contextual discussion of the V4 EU Election Manifesto for the new term of the European Parliament (2009-2014).

The second day was adressed to three sessions on policy research in development and conducted by ODI. This was a crucial moment for the NGDOs from Visegrád countries to gain knowledge on quantitative, qualitative and participatory research methods that can be further used in their own policy work.

• To discuss the opportunities and challenges for engagement of V4 NGDO platforms in the EU Elections
• To strengthen the knowledge and skills of NGDOs in the field of research for international development
• To evaluate the project progress and decide about the next steps within the project