News and updates from BCSDN and the region
Ten years ago, the smartphones and social platforms that helped to enable the protests were celebrated as vectors of positive change, opening avenues for speech and organizing beyond the control of authoritarian governments. They are now more often seen as fueling division, empowering surveillance, invading our privacy, and eviscerating the economic underpinnings of a free
Read more →Protests are taking different forms, from large and repeated demonstrations to the occupation of public places and spontaneous assemblies. The reasons for increasing mobilization of protesters across Europe are manifold. They include economic inequalities, decreasing trust in the traditional political elites and institutions, violations of human rights and democratic rules, etc. Protecting the right to
Read more →The International Civil Society Centre is working with ICSOs and their CSO partners to develop a new playbook for solidarity and cooperation, to be able to better respond to the clampdown, to be better prepared and to push back to the boundaries of what civil society restrictions have come to be. Many organizations shy away
Read more →Activizenship is a magazine edited by the European Civic Forum, aiming to connect ideas and experiences, explore and capture current trends and transformations affecting civil society in Europe and beyond. Activizenship brings together stories and analyses to shed light on the potential of civic activism on democratic, social, environmental, cultural and political issues to contribute
Read more →Piloted in 2019, the CSO Meter assesses the civil society environment against a set of standards and indicators in 10 different areas. Based on the information in the country reports, ECNL developed a regional report to highlight the key trends and developments shaping civil society in the region and formulate recommendations to support efforts to
Read more →The Conference of INGOs adopted the revised Code of Good Practice at its plenary meeting on 30 October 2019. Ten years on from the first edition of the Code, new trends in civil participation and recent documents such as the Guidelines for civil participation in the political decision-making process adopted by the Committee of Ministers
Read more →In an attempt to better understand the importance of accountability mechanisms in the work of the pilot partners, Resilient Roots is presenting four case studies. The first case study looks at three dimensions of accountability (giving, taking, and holding to account) and provides examples of how different Resilient Roots partners navigate and practice each dimension.
Read more →On October 8th, 2019 SouthEast European Indigenous Grantmakers Network (SIGN) celebrated a decade of joint work on development of philanthropy, cross-sector partnerships and long-term sustainability of civil society on the local and national level, as well as across the WB region. In order to describe the context for philanthropy development, active citizenship and the ways
Read more →Climate finance makes up a significant portion of financing in the 2030 Agenda. With it, comes opportunities and challenges especially around how climate finance can be effectively governed, delivered and monitored. The delivery of climate funding however is still rife with issues especially when it comes to aligning with countries national development strategies. Donor harmonization,
Read more →The guide examines current trends in global philanthropy and how they are increasing the need for a strong ecosystem of support and development. The study also suggest questions funders should be asking themselves, to which supporting this ecosystem might provide an answer, as well as suggest concrete ways in which funders can help to grow
Read more →Meeting the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda requires the efforts of all of society. Everywhere, every day, ordinary people are acting on the issues that they care about. Over one billion active volunteers are carrying out a wide range of roles, from providing care and support to neighbors, extending basic services to under-served areas, campaigning
Read more →The instrument is designed to support civil society to become an effective force for political reform and defense of human rights. In doing this, it complements both geographical programs that focus on public institution-building as well as other thematic programs, such as the CSO-LA program. The global objective of this call for proposals is to
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