Result of the “Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe – Monitoring 2019” study presented at the ARYSE “Social empowerment of youth at risk” conference

In June 2019, the NPO & SE Competence Centre together with the ERSTE foundation and a group of local experts has completed a monitoring study on the state of civil society in 15 Central and Eastern European countries. The study focused on how the political, legal and social environment shapes the operating conditions of civil society organizations (CSOs). Furthermore, the availability of resources – financial or otherwise – also plays a central role in this regard.

Flavia-Elvira Bogorin of the NPO & SE Competence Centre held a keynote speech at the ARYSE “Social empowerment of youth at risk” conference that took place in December 2019 in Podgorica, Montenegro. The presentation was based on select findings from the monitoring study and addressed aspects influencing the cooperation between state institutions and CSOs in Western Balkan. It served as an introduction for a panel discussion, where experts both from the state- and CSO-side explored this topic in more detail. Specifically, the discussion focused on the working relationship between government institutions and service providing CSOs operating in the field of at-risk youth.  

One of the main findings of this session was that the availability of funding is not the main problem faced by service-providing CSOs, but rather that intransparent procedures for allocating public funds as well as the lack of appropriate forms of collaboration between the state and CSOs is what impedes the activities of these organizations. Moreover, this also hinders attempts to explore further possibilities for cooperation. However, actors on both sides make constant efforts to reaffirm this collaboration.

All in all, attending the conference has allowed us to learn about innovative civil society initiatives currently being implemented in the Western Balkan region as well as to gain a deeper insight into the process of implementing these programmes. 

The study can be downloaded here.

Contact:

Mag.^a Eva More-Hollerweger, eva.more-hollerweger@wu.ac.at

Flavia-Elvira Bogorin, MSc, flavia-elvira.bogorin@wu.ac.at