The brief highlights the brighter side of CSOs state support, namely best practices of non- financial support (NFS) in order to demonstrate that these are possible and desirable for civil society development (CSDev) and sustainability in the Balkan countries and Turkey. The evaluation of NFS was guided by Standard 4: Non-financial support is available from the state from the Monitoring Matrix for Enabling Environment for CSDev, area 2: Framework for financial viability and sustainability of CSOs, sub-area 2.2 State support. The brief maps the state of play of the legal and policy frameworks regulating NFS availability and distribution for civil…
Author: anja
The EU has been supporting civil society and the enabling environment in which civil society operates in Enlargement countries through the IPA Civil Society Facility Instrument that was established in 2008. Since then, BCSDN has been following this issue, and in beginning of 2013 published the its first analysis – the Infograph on IPA CSF 2007-2011. As IPA I is closing down and in the frame of the planning of the EU assistance for the forthcoming period, BCSDN has updated and broadened the analysis to assess how the EU has supported the civil society in Western Balkans for the entire…
Special Rapporteurs Maina Kiai and Christof Heyns have embarked on a new joint project aimed at compiling a set of practical recommendations for the proper management of assemblies worldwide. Public assemblies are a central feature of the modern world but often boil over and lead to bloodshed. Societies are often not sure how best to deal with such protests and the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) wants to provide guidance in this regard. The project – which was mandated by HRC Resolution 25/38 in 2014 – will run throughout 2015, with the final report being presented to the HRC…
The Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF) during the previous year has been working on defining the minimum standards for the public consultation process at government level. Apart from reviewing the international principles and practices in the field of civil society participation in decision-making, KCSF has also consulted numerous representatives from the civil society and public institutions. This process has resulted in a policy brief on Minimum Standards for public consultation process, a document which contains an analysis of the current legal framework and its level of implementation, main challenges of public consultation process and a detailed list of standards and…
On 24th March, Bulgarian Center for Non-profit Law (BCNL) hosted a meeting for interested organizations working on civil society development and active citizenship in Sofia. At the meeting, Tanja Hafner Ademi, Executive Director of BCSDN, presented the network and its current work with the aim to exchange ideas about possible cooperation. Following the presentation of BCSDN and its areas of work, participants were most interested in how the network assesses its impact and makes effective work for individual citizens. Representatives of Forum for Citizen Participation, Bulgarian Charities Aid Foundation, Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation, Balkan Assist, Assoc CIPD and BCNL attended…
In June 2012 the Government of the Republic of Macedonia adopted a new strategy for Cooperation with civil soceity for the period 2012 – 2017, with the financial support of the European Union. The adoption of the new strategy prompted the need for continuous and regular monitoring of the Strategy implementation. MCIC has prepared a public policy document that covers the implementation period from June 2012 to December 2014. Led by its long-term goal to contribute to an entrenched and dynamic civil society that actively influences public policy, focusing on creating an enabling environment that supports the growth and functioning of…
The National Foundation for Civil Society Development, partner CSOs in the program of regional development of civil society and local communities and the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Croatian Government have prepared and published a guide for establishment of associations, which in a clear and simple manner gives instructions for all steps to be taken in the process of establishing an association in Croatia. The reason for the release of this Guide is the new Law on Associations which was adopted on 6th June, 2014 and entered into force on 1st October, 2014. The new Law on Associations…
On 11th March, 2015, the European Parliament has adopted Resolutions on the European Commission’s Progress reports on Kosovo, Macedonia,Montenegro and Serbia for 2014, calling governments in all four countries for improved involvement of the civil society in the law and policy-making process. The EP Resolutions, similarly to the Commission’s latest 2014-2015 Enlargement strategy and Progress Reports, puts the biggest focus on the need for improved CSO-government dialogue and greater involvement of civil society in the reform processes of the countries. In addition, some key issues related to the enabling environment on civil society noted in our own monitoring reports have…
The International Analysis of Public Participation includes 22 countries, of which 16 are European Union States. Country by country normative review was prepared in order to show and present the minimum standards of public involvement in each country. Therefore, each of the national reviews was further divided into 15 sections, one for each of the topics elaborated in the normative review. The analysis also includes summary table, consisting of proposed national solutions and a selection of best proposed practices at national and local level. More information is available here. More information is available here.
Centre for Development of NGOs (CRNVO) has published a Guide for establishment of social enterprises. This publication aims to encourage individuals to start realizing their social entrepreneurial ideas, but also to contribute to creating an enabling environment for the development of social entrepreneurship in Montenegro. Divided into six chapters, the publication explains the meaning of the concept of social entrepreneurship and describes in detail all the steps that are necessary for the establishment and successful management of a social enterprise. A special segment is devoted to presenting of the necessary incentives for launching such a company. Also, in the annexes there…