Foreign Donors Pull-Out, Life-Line Identified in the EU Funds

27 July 2006

The announced availability of the news pre-accession EU funda � IPA, was received by NGOs with much joy. On the other hand, it increases their fears of a pull-out or reduction of foreign aid coming into the country. Foreign representatives in Macedonia warn that it is only a matter of time before the pull-out of foreign donors, writes Zaklina Gjorgjevic in �Utrinski vesnik�.

The prognosis are dire � the smaller non-governmental organizations will cease to exist completely, and even the survival of the larger organizations is questionable. The domestic donors are seen as the last option, but such donors can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Macedonia remains in the circle of isolated countries in which the companies have not adopted the custom to promote the NGO sector and its activities. Hungary, on the other hand, has established a well-functioning system of �philanthropy of percentages�.

Only a handful of companies the donate and contribute to humanitarian purposes are known to the public, including �Mobimak Foundation� and �Usje� cement factory. Over the past four years of its existence, �Mobimak Foundation� has donated tens of millions of denars to NGOs and institutions, as well as contributions for emergency medical cases needing treatment abroad. Kamelija Levenska from the Foundation says the links between business and NGO sectors need to be intensified and strengthened, and most importantly, made sustained and continuous.

The companies do greet the idea of �percentage philanthropy�, similar to Hungary, where companies dedicate one percent of their corporate taxes to NGOs. However, such a process in Macedonia remains largely in the realms of fiction.

The NGOs are not satisfied with the state support, amounting to 15 million denars (about 250,000 EUR) annually. The way out was identified in the start of the EU pre-accession process and availability of European funds. However, additional problems are posed by the administrative barriers and the lack of full implementation of the Law on Donation and Sponsorship, which creates a situation of double-taxing of NGOs for all donations they receive.

Slavica Indzovska from the Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia and Dragi Zmijanac from �Medjasi�, First Children Embassy in the World, believe that the only solution is to adopt western experiences and relieve the business donations from taxation.

A survey of cooperation between NGO and business sector, conducted in 2001, showed that 72 percent of the NGOs are not satisfied with their cooperation with the commercial sector. Over a half of the NGOs included in the survey have received some type of assistance and support, but only 32 percent of them submitted report on how they spent the money. Also, two fifths of the organizations said that there are NGOs favoured by the state, in terms of funding and support.

On the other hand, asked about their expectations of what would they need in return for their donation, the members of the business community said that they would just like to know whether the assisted organization kept to its promises and completed the project successfully.