EU TACSO 3 Learning Brief – Experiences from Strategic Mentoring Programme  

This learning brief is based on the outcomes of a learning workshop organised by the EU TACSO 3 project in October 2022.  

EU TACSO 3 Strategic Mentoring is a programme of pragmatic and in-depth mentoring support from experts (mentors) to civil society organisations (CSOs) in the Western Balkans and Türkiye (WBT) region. The programme provided targeted hands-on capacity development support to 21 CSOs, tailored to each organisation. Mentoring sessions are designed as a combination of facilitation of workshops, training, individual team members’ coaching, online consulting sessions and training events, provision of feedback, practical work on documents, etc. Strategic mentoring is distinct from other forms of mentoring in that the mentor works at the level of the whole organisation, rather than at the level of the individual. 

Twenty-one people participated in the 2-day workshop; 13 were from CSOs and CSO networks who had participated in the EU TACSO 3 support, two mentors from other programmes not directly involved in the TACSO programme, and four members of the EU TACSO 3 team.  

The workshop aimed to consolidate learning from the EU TACSO 3 experience of this capacity development process so far and to provide practical guidance for future similar activities.  

This learning brief offers a set of recommendations for future capacity-building support to CSOs in the form of strategic mentoring.