The Philanthropy Award is becoming a tradition to express gratitude to individuals, families, and businesses who contribute to improving the quality of life in Albanian society. The appreciation and stimulation of this activity is important considering the human and economic dimension it represents. Partners Albania invites all social actors in and outside of Albania to submit their nominations for individuals or entities who have and continue to give their contribution in benefit of the community and its development in Albania. The categories for nominations for the Philanthropy Award 2013 are: entities contributing at the National Level; entities contributing at Local…
Author: anja
In their analysis entitled “Complicit in Dysfunction – Analysis of the National Council for European Integration’s performance in Kosovo” the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF) concludes that Kosovo’s National Council for European Integration after one year of operations is failing to fulfill its mission to guide the country through the elaborate reforms required of it to move closer to EU accession. KCSF’s research also revealed that the Council set up to lead this process is divided, sidetracked by political exigencies, managed ineffectually, and opaque in its operations and communications. It is not held accountable for its shortcomings. And it operates…
On a workshop organized at the EESC in Brussels last Wednesday (25th September), BCSDN with its members and partners discussed concerns with the DG Enlargement. The discussion focused especially on further ways to support capacity-building of CSOs, grant-making, support to grass-root and citizens’ initiatives, and networks as the cornerstones for the new support to be launched with the new IPA as of January, 2014. As the discussion concluded, it was clear that the time for input is now and it seems that this time around the DG Enlargement is poised to make the best of the local CSOs’ capacities and…
Partners Albania has prepared a series of publications as part of the programs and initiatives the Center is working on. The series include the study “Participation of civil society and citizens in decision making, study on the legal and regulatory framework and practice in Albania”, a monitoring report on the “Use of online procurement system at the local level”, a photonovel “Dashuria për njerëzit nuk ka çmim (Love for people is priceless)”, and “The Chart for Equal Gender Representation in Decision Making Structures in Rural Areas”. All the publications are available electronically on Partners Albania’s website. Printed copies can also…
During June 2013 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) presented the 16th edition of their Civil Society Organization (CSO) Sustainability Index focused on Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The index measures and reports on the sustainability of the CSO sector in twenty-nine countries throughout the region. BCSDN has prepared a short review and assessment of the countries in the Southern Tier, which covers the Balkans. It found that three countries in this tier received a more positive outlook towards their sustainability this year. Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Serbia were all perceived to have made significant positive developments towards…
A number of BCSDN member organizations (CNVOS, VESTA, and CRVNO) and BCSDN itself have partnered up with the Association for the Promotion of Human Rights and Media Freedoms (Cenzura Plus) and the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) from Belgium to implement the project “Learn about your benefits from active European citizenship”. The project aims at fostering and improving the sense of European citizenship in an already member country of the EU (Slovenia), in a new EU member country (Croatia), in candidate countries (Macedonia and Montenegro), and in a potential candidate country (BiH). The activities of the program will be directed…
BCSDN is organizing a workshop on aid modalities for civil society support under IPA 2013-2020 to be held in Brussels on the 25th of September, 2013. The objective of the workshop is to stimulate a discussion on implementation mechanisms and aid modalities, which according to our Donor Strategies and Practices research from 2011 seem to be the real bottleneck in achieving the overall objective of the IPA CSF in “anchoring democratic values and structures, human rights, social inclusion and the rule of law”. The workshop will bring together over sixty representatives of CSOs and donors from enlargement countries as well…
Following the expiration of the dead-line, 10 September 2013, for submitting applications within the Call for Proposals for the Slovak and Balkan Public Policy Fund, the Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) and the Pontis Foundation would like to inform you that the application procedure for SBPPF is officially closed. A total of 167 applications were submitted, out of which 143 (or 85,6%) fulfilled the eligibility criteria, and only 24 (or 14,4%) failed to satisfy the criteria. The total number of applications from CSOs that passed the technical check were 118, from individual researchers 25 passed. Currently the evaluation board…
The Balkan Civil Society Development Network has the pleasure to inform you that after a successful application process within the Call for Proposals of the International Visegrad Fund, Young Researchers Programme, the evaluation of submitted applications is terminated and the successful candidates have been selected. The selection was conducted jointly by all project partners, namely, BCSDN, the Pontis Foundation (Slovakia), the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (Kosovo), the Association of Czech Non-governmental Organizations – DEMAS (Czech Republic), and the Foundation for Development of Democratic Rights – Demnet (Hungary). The partners took in consideration the quality of the research proposals and the…
The Balkan Civil Society Development Network and the Pontis Foundation announce the second Call for Proposals for organizations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia to develop policy proposals dealing with one of the following priority themes: 1. Democracy and the rule of law 2. Non-majority communities Priority will be given to those research proposals which will involve CSOs and which will strenghten the cooperation with the sector. Who may apply: • CSOs registered in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro or Serbia. Priority will be given to those organisations which have not been recipients of…