The president-elect of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced on September 10th the nomination of Mr. Tibor Navracsics as Commissioner for Education, Youth, Culture and Citizenship. European Civil Society Organisations that delivered the European Year of Citizens in 2013 and 2014 consider that this appointment is completely unacceptable. Mr. Navracsics has been a key proponent of policies implemented by the Hungarian government led by Mr. Orban, which has been cracking down on the freedom of speech of journalists and NGOs critical of government policy and undermining other civil liberties and fundamentals of democracy, has weakened the state educational system and…
Author: anja
Earlier this month, BCSDN partnered with the Thomson Reuters Foundation through the TrustLaw Connect service. TrustLaw is the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s global pro bono legal service that connects NGOs and social enterprises with the best law firms around the world willing to provide their services free of charge. Launched in 2010, with the aim to help NGOs and social enterprises focus on their mission instead of spending resources on legal expertise, TrustLaw has grown to include over 2000 members in 180 countries. TrustLaw’s mission is to spread the practice of pro bono worldwide to drive social change, as connecting these…
During the summer of 2014, CNVOS conducted the most extensive analysis of public financing of CSOs so far. From the State Treasury data of over 19 million public financial transactions in the last ten years, CNVOS extracted those transactions where the recipients were civil society organizations. Furthermore, they examined the funding of CSOs by individual ministries and in all 212 municipalities separately, as well as the percentage of the pie of public funds that was received by CSOs with public benefit status. The analysis was done by comparing the data of the State Treasury on all public transactions in the…
Civic Initiatives’ Resource Center for Development of Civil Society, which has been providing information and organizing trainings and mentorships for civil society organizations (CSO), individuals and institutions for eighteen years now, has launched an innovative web platform to promote and encourage civil society development. It can be accessed at the following link: razvoj.gradjanske.org. The web platform has been developed with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and contains, among other things, educational materials for organizations, activists and volunteers interested in learning more about how the civil sector functions on topics such as: civil society and…
On 28th-29th August, BCSDN Board met in Budva, Montenegro to reflect on the achievements in the 2012-2014 period as a basis for developing a new 3-year strategy for 2015-2017. While concluding that the network has achieved considerable results in influencing EC policy and financing in civil society issues in Enlargement countries, the discussion focused on how to use the existing leverage to induce change at national level in member countries. A set of 5 issues (membership, member-EO relations, financing, visibility and political influence) with accompanying solutions, timeframe and responsible person were agreed. This will now present the blueprint for the…
As a member of CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation, we are happy to announce that BCSDN has joined the CIVICUS Affinity Group of National Associations (AGNA)! AGNA brings together national associations from around the world which provide and give a collective voice to civil society in their countries, serve as interlocutors between civil society and other sectors and struggle for the creation of an enabling environment for civil society at the national level. Launched at the 2004 CIVICUS World Assembly, the aim of AGNA is to engage these national associations to foster greater co-operation across national and regional boundaries…
The Department for Local Governance and Integrated Development of the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) organized the kickoff event of the “Monitoring and Assessment of the Decentralization Process in Albania” Project funded by Swiss Development Cooperation. The activity was organized at Rogner Hotel in Tirana on 25 July 2014. The kickoff event aimed at launching the project to relevant decentralization stakeholders in Albania, presenting and consulting the monitoring approach and methodology and ensuring a continuous commitment with public and civic decentralization constituents and interest groups. The event was targeted to representatives of the Working Group of the Decentralization Strategy…
How enabling is the environment for civil society in your country – and how do you measure it? In the latest issue of Global Trends in NGO Law, ICNL examined eight assessment tools that seek to measure civil society’s enabling environment, among which is the Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development, developed by BCSDN. The other seven tools that have been developed to measure the enabling environment are the following: USAID’s Civil Society Organizations Sustainability Index CIVICUS’ Enabling Environment Index The Hudson Institute’s Philanthropic Freedom Index The Global Partnership Monitoring Framework, Indicator #2 The CSO Contribution to…
Civic Initiatives published an analysis of the legal framework and practice related to public spaces and their accessibility to civil society organizations and informal youth groups in southern Serbia and Sandzak. The analysis deals with the accessibility of public spaces in nine cities of the two regions: Vranje, Bujanovac, Preshevo, Novi Pazar, Tutin, Sjenica, Novi Varosh, Priboj and Prijepole. A Serbian version of the paper can downloaded here. Ths manual has been developed with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the project “Empowered youth for positive change in Sandzak and South Serbia.”
In the frame of the advocacy initiative for the creation of an enabling environment for CSOs development in Albania, and following the National Conference “Social Partners-Time for Action”, organized on 13 and 16 December 2013, Partners Albania (PA) has undertaken concrete steps on addressing the issues presented in the Statement of Civil Society Organizations, for which the government has expressed its commitment. At the end of April, in a meeting organized with the Task Force for the Enabling Environment for Civil Society in Albania, it was decided to present a request for a meeting with the Prime Minister, to address…