More than 300 NGOs throughout Croatia participated at the NGOs’ Open Days

The NGOs’ Open Days 2016 took place from May 23rd till 25th, when more than 300 NGOs presented their programs and activities to the Croatian citizens.

By participating in the activities of NGOs, the citizens were able to gain an insight into a wide range of activities implemented by NGOs and to be encouraged to participate actively and continuously within their local communities, either as service users or as volunteers. In this sense, the activities of sports playgrounds, radio amateur courses and workshops for manual crafts were organized; the European Day of Parks was celebrated; a coffee shop that employs disabled persons was opened, and numerous volunteering activities and other interesting events took place.

In order to participate at the NGOs’ Open Days 2016, NGOs had to apply via the UdrugeInfo application, which enabled a search for all the activities registered within this manifestation, while all the additional information on the NGOs’ Open Days 2016 were available on the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/DaniUdruga .

Marking the NGOs’ Open Days 2016, the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs organized the conference “The role of NGOs in social and economic growth and democratic development”, which was held on May 23^rd in Zagreb and opened by the Vice-President of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, Mr Božo Petrov.

In the morning part of the Conference, the discussion on the priorities of the National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development from 2017 to 2021 was in focus. The importance of an inclusive enacting process of the National Strategy was stressed, based on the impact evaluation of the present National Strategy 2012-2016. The emphasis was also put on the need to enable a continuous and sustained development of civil society and supporting institutions of civil society development. During the discussion on the new financing models of programs and projects implemented by civil society organizations (CSOs), the experiences in the use of various funding models were presented, mostly crowdfunding, social entrepreneurship, attracting the private, for-profit, sector into philanthropic activities and possibilities enabled by the foundation of the first ethical bank in Croatia.

In the afternoon, the parallel roundtable discussion were held, at which the participants, along with the speakers from Croatia, France and Slovenia, discussed about the following matters:

• the activities of CSOs in the international context- the influence on policy making and implementation, with the emphasis on a great potential for international activities of NGOs via international development cooperation, and
• the Croatian court practice referring to exercising of the right to free associating, with the emphasis on the challenges in exercising the right to free associating within the context of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Also, as a part of the Conference, the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs, in cooperation with the Croatian Association for Public Relations (HUOJ), the Croatian Network of Volunteer Centres and the HUOJ members- Edward Bernays College of Communication Management, Communication Lab and the Media Val agency, awarded certain NGOs within the call “Communication Support to Community Service Programs of NGOs”.

As a part of the NGOs' Open Days 2016, the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs, in cooperation with the National Archives in Zagreb and the historian Mrs Agneza Szabo, Ph.D., did a research on the history of the six associations that were active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The „Walk through the history of associations in Zagreb“ was organized, during which the citizens visited the historical sites that were important for the activities of the associations, and got familiar with the details about the work and activities of the mentioned associations. On Tuesday, May 24th, during the two „Walks“ the interested citizens learnt more about the rich history of the associations in Zagreb. The citizens were introduced to the rich history of activities of the Zagreb associations which had significantly contributed to the social and economical development.

We hereby would like to express our gratitude to all the NGOs which opened their doors, as well as to the citizens who took part in the activities within the NGOs Open Days 2016, thus contributing to the civil society development in Croatia.

We would also like to invite all the citizens who participated at this manifestation to send their completed DOVU passports to the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs by mail (Opatička street 4, 10 000 Zagreb), e-mail (dovu@udruge.vlada.hr) or fax (+385 1 4599 811), no later than June 3^rd 2016, in order to participate in the prize competition and win a prize!

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