BCSDN together with its regional members, CPCD and MCIC, organized two presentations of the new report “Donor Strategies and Practices in Supporting Civil Society in the Western Balkans” in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. Presentation in BiH was held in Sarajevo on 20th November and attended by 12 key donor representatives, whereas in Macedonia, the first findings of the report were presented in Skopje on 28th November in audience of 9 key donor representatives. The purpose of these meetings was to present the report to primary stakeholders and representatives of donor agencies who were interviewed for the needs of the…
Author: anja
On 18th of November, 2014 in Skopje, the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) promoted the publication “Government Mirror: Public participation in the legislation preparation procedures”. The project is implemented since 2012 as part of the USAID Program for anticorruption. The publication represents a monitoring tool which equips CSOs, state officials and the broader public with information on the openness of state institutions and the possibilities for participation in the legislation preparation processes. The publication is composed in two parts. The first part is dealing with evaluation of openness of state institutions based on data gathered through two questionnaires’ for…
To celebrate South Africa’s 20th anniversary of freedom and democracy, CIVICUS and its partners gathered change makers from around the world at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg for International Civil Society Week from 19-25 November 2014. The International Civil Society Week 2014 had over 500 civil society leaders and activists from more than 100 countries, tackling the world’s most pressing challenges. Under the banner of Citizen Action, People Power, the weeklong series of events was the premier global gathering of inspired thinkers, innovation leaders and influential organisations. Ilina Nesik, BCSDN programme manager represented BCSDN at the ICSW. MCIC, Macedonia…
The Affinity Group of National Associations (AGNA) convened its regional working group on the 23rd of November to discuss common trends and challenges for civil society in their respective contexts, and identify priority areas of action for the network during the ICSW in Johannesburg. Ilina Nesik presented the work of BCSDN as for the moment BCSDN is the only regional network affiliate member at AGNA. The aim of the regional meetings was to set up informal networks of networks in each of the regions represented in AGNA. The sessions focused on the discussions of common trends, challenges and opportunities per…
Partners Albania have published the Policy Paper “Social Procurement in Albania” advocating that the current political situation in Albania, with the development and undertaking of several important reforms, presents a unique opportunity for the successful development and implementation of social procurement. CSOs, with their expertise and long experience in the field of social services, will be a natural partner of the state in this process. This paper comes as part of PA’s long-term initiative to advocate for an enabling environment for the development of civil society organizations in Albania, and was presented at a roundtable on social procurement in Tirana…
On November 13, 2014, Civic Initiatives organized in Belgrade an informative workshop dedicated to the presentation of social contracting concept (regarding social services), good practices from Scotland and Slovenia, as well as possibilities for introducing the concept in Serbia. Tina Divjak, from CNVOS (Centre for Information Service, Cooperation and Development of NGOs), a member of BCSDN and ENNA, presented the system for financing CSOs delivering social services in Slovenia, while Lucy McTernan from SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organizations), another ENNA member, presented the Scottish system. While both countries are quite advanced from Serbia, where social services are still mostly…
On 25th November, BCSDN Board met at its 4th regular session in the network’s Executive Office in Skopje. Jasenka Perovic, TACSO Capacity-building expert joined the meeting to discuss cooperation on the Guidelines of the EU on Support to Civil Society in Enlargement Countries, 2014-2020 monitoring and target setting. The Board brainstormed ways to provide input to the EU with regards support to civil society under the IPA II being programmed at the moment. Proposal of the Annual Report 2014, Annual Plan 2015 and strategic tasks for mid-term strategic period 2015-2017 were also discussed. Finally, the Board was informed about the…
Partners Albania has published the Annual Report 2013 highlighting Partners Albania main activities and results during 2013, a very dynamic and challenging year but also a year of achievements and successes. The Report is available here. In addition, PA has published the latest edition of the newsletter “Towards a sustainable society”, with the latest news and PA main activities during July – October 2014, as well as plans for the upcoming months. In this issue of the e-newsletter, available at the following link, you can read about PA’s work for creating an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development in Albania,…
BCSDN in partnership with Queen Mary University London and the LSEE organized an international workshop on the EU Integration and Minority protection in the Western Balkans. The workshop organized as part of the FP7-funded MAXCAP project took place at the Radon Plaza Hotel, Sarajevo, on 20th-21st November. Around 30 participants – EU officials and leaders, domestic politicians, civil society representatives, and academics were gathered together to assess the effectiveness of EU instruments and strategies for strengthening minority rights protection in the Western Balkans. The keynote address was presented by Mr. Jakob Finci, who reflecting on the Sejdici-Finci vs Bosnia and…
TUSEV luanched a new report entitled Private Philanthropic Engagement in Turkey. The report, gives a snapshot of the current state of private philanthropic engagement in Turkey and its possible future directions as a background document for the discussions at The Global Philanthropists Circle Peer Exchange that took place in Istanbul, in October 2014. The report provides thought provoking inputs as an encouragement for enhanced coordination among philanthropists in Turkey. You can download the report from here.