A kick-off workshop on Economic value of the civil society in the Balkans took place in Belgrade on 3rd and 4th November. Civic Initiatives hosted BCSDN partners form Albania (Partners Albania, Center for Change and Conflict Management) Bosnia and Herzegovina (Center for civil society promotion), Croatia (CENZURA Plus), Montenegro (Center for NGO development), Slovenia (CNVOS), Macedonia (Macedonian Center for International Cooperation) and BCSDN Executive Office. The aim of workshop was to identify and discuss most important parameters of economic value of civil society in WBT countries, so that in 2015 and 2016 research and advocacy on the economic value of civil society sector and inclusion parameters in official statistical measurements could start.
Representatives of Serbian Business Register Agency (SBRA) – Mr Zvonko Obradović, SBRA Director , Nives Čulić and Jovana Janković, presented the system, type and access to data related to economic value of civil society in Serbia, as well as Interactive Map of Statistical Data and Financial Data.
During the workshop, participant tried to identify common and country-specific issues and build both a research/monitoring and advocacy basis for improvement of collection, access and standardized forms. Situation in each country was presented, including key missing data/data not collected, feedback on access to data (public, paid etc.) and bottlenecks/challenges per each issues, as well. The second part of workshop was dedicated to ongoing and future project’s activities – current state, consultation and preparation of the 2014 country MM reports, update on project reporting templates, procedures and deadlines for the final narrative report and project report ending 30th November, 2014.