Policies towards Non-profit/Nongovernmental Sector in SEE
According to the most general and widely accepted definition, nongovernmental, i.e. non-profit organizations are formal voluntary organizations institutionally separated and independent from the Government which – if they do generate profit – they don’t distribute it among members of owners, but return it to the fundamental mission of the organization.
We could view the public framework for nongovernmental, non-profit organizations from several points of view. First of all, there are the legal solutions that regulate the legal forms that could be used to set up a non-profit organization (association, foundation, private institution, non-profit enterprise, social cooperative...). Such legal solution, by virtue of the fact that they define registration procedures and requirements, largely set the level of control that the state shall have over individual types of organizations and define the general direction of development of the sector in general. The second aspect includes institutions established by the government with the goal to establish structured relationship with NGOs, promote their development and, in general, deal with all issues related to such organizations (starting with preparation of legal solutions and administrative procedures, all the way to coordination of funding). The existence of such institution, even if their actual significance is not all that great, demonstrates the level to which a government values the importance of non-profit organizations as social actors. The third important aspect of public framework covers the strategic, policy documents adopted by governments in order to define and identified problems and long-term goals of policies towards nongovernmental sector and cooperation with the sector in a variety of areas. Such documents lack legally binding power, often fail to define concrete steps and deadlines for implementation (which makes them impossible to evaluate), and occasionally were not even adopted with a true intent to implement them, but rather to achieve political promotion goals. Still, strategy documents and papers can provide a clear picture about the ways in which the state defines the non-profit sector and what it expects from it. Ultimately, once adopted, even if it may be a simple list of wishes, a document provides lasting basis for continued pressure by the stakeholders. The fourth aspect concerns the financing of non-governmental organizations from public funds. This aspect is especially important in the light of the gradual pull-out of foreign donors from Southeast Europe. Their investments in the initial phase of transition were an important factor of development of the nongovernmental sector. In order for provide for future development of the sector, it is necessary for the state and the local authorities to secure significant funds for its financing, but also to find solutions to promote private donations and contributions for non-profit activities, primarily through tax policies’ instruments). Having in mind that political criteria and consideration always play a role in decisions about public financing, it is important for the system of financing to be as transparent as possible and to secure and opportunity for all organizations, especially those dealing with politically sensitive issues, to compete for funding. The fifth important element of policies towards the non-profit sector is the level of inclusion of the organizations in the process of creation of such policies. Having in mind that these problems are of vital interest for all NGOs, it is unlikely that they won’t be interested to know what the state does in that area. Also, a great number of organizations are prepared to invest efforts and work to influence such policies. However, in order for such policies to succeed, it is necessary for that influence to be formalized to some extent, i.e. that NGO representatives are officially present in the process of creation and shaping of laws and strategies, even decision making on financing by competent institutions. One problem that remains is, how to select those representatives? – since neither the arbitrary appointments made by the state officials nor democratic elections based on majority could guarantee proper representation of all relevant interests. This dossier intends to investigate what are the public policies, i.e. public framework for work of non-profit, nongovernmental organizations in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro. The analysis offers the following several conclusions. (1) In most countries there is a tendency of the state (it is most prominent in Serbia) to cooperation selectively and support those organizations that provide services and activities with little political importance, while organizations that work in advocacy and criticism of Government – especially in the area of human rights – are mostly ignored. Such a trend could be explained, to a certain level, by the fact that democracy is not yet stable enough and by the lack of proper understanding of the role of NGOs as “watchdogs”. On the other hand, such policies are strongly supported by the ideological thesis about the need to take off the burden and the cost of government and the NGO sector as an ideal entity that could take a part of that burden. (2) The legislation that regulates the status of nongovernmental/non-profit organizations in most countries (with the exception of Serbia and, up to a level, Albania) are relatively modern and provide for simplicity of registration and independence. In all countries, apart from Croatia, there are two legal forms to establish a nongovernmental, non-profit organization: civic association (membership-based organization) and foundation (funds-based organization). (3) With the exception of Croatia and Macedonia, there are no institutions with specific competences towards NGO sector, apart from those charged with registration. Also, only in these two countries the Governments have adopted policy documents that clearly define policies towards the sector. (4) In Albania, B&H and Kosovo, the NGOs receive almost no funding from state and local budgets, to the effect that their development and sustainability depend fully on foreign donors. In the other three countries (Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia), there are forms of public funding, but it remains under the influence of previously mentioned trends to ignore the critics and favour service-based organizations. (5) Tax policies are little used as instrument to promote the development of NGOs. Only Kosovo has introduced a status of public benefit organizations, but recently even that status has lost all tax relief benefits. For country-specific analyses and reports on Government policies towards the Civil Sector, visit the following links: Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Kosovo Macedonia Serbia |
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