On the NGO Open Days 2015, held throughout Croatia from 28 to 30 May, the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs organised a conference „Associations as agents of local development“ on 27 May 2015, at National and University Library in Zagreb (Hrvatske bratske zajednice 4).
During the named manifestation nearly 500 associations all across Croatia will present themselves. In this view, the associations will present their socially beneficial project and programs as well as possibilities of volunteering to interested citizens, through series of creative workshops, lectures, performances, actions and various other innovative ways of doing. By participating in their activities, citizens will get insight into a wide range of activities carried out by the associations and be motivated by this for active involvement in their communities, either as beneficiaries, or as volunteers but ultimately also as organisers of those activities in the next year!
Introductory speeches were held by Mrs Ivana Kordic, president of the National Committee for the Development of Volunteerism and Mr. Igor Vidačak, director of the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs. The Conference panelists, Mr Vili Bassanese, mayor of the town of Umag, Mrs Jany Hansal, the president of DESA from Dubrovnik and Mrs Snjezana Kovacevic, project manager of the Association for youth Breza and member of the Osijek Council for Development of Social Services discussed the best practices from the three communities, three local context as well as the participation of associations in local policies creation.
At the Conference discussed were experiences and challenges of the cooperation with the civil society organisations at the local level including the concrete examples as well as the implementation of the new regulation that prescribes criteria, measures and procedures of financing and contracting of projects and programs of public benefit carried out by associations at the local and regional level. In Dubrovnik, the Council for Civil Society was found as the advisory body whose main role is to encourage active involvement of NGOs into the public life of the City of Dubrovnik. As for the second good example, the City of Umag developed the procedures for financing the work of associations from its territory in line with the newly adopted Regulation even before the adoption of that special regulations that has proscribed detailed criteria for financing and contracting of programs and projects of public benefit. The Rule book proscribes criteria and procedures for financing and use of funds to civil society organisations whose programs or projects activities contribute to satisfying of public needs of the City of Umag. In Osijek, the Council for social services development has been established as the advisory body of that local self-government, whose main activities are focused on the establishment of the non-formal network of the civil society organisations for providing social services, involvement of citizens / volunteers in projects. Also, the Council works on analysis and preparing all stakeholders, social services providers in the City of Osijek and the Osijek Baranja County for their participation in the European Social Fund calls.
Having in mind the very high costs and more pronounced demands regarding transparency and accountability of spending taxpayers' money in this area, the Croatian Government adopted the Regulation on the criteria, standards and procedures for financing and contracting programs and projects of public benefit interest implemented by the associations. In the afternoon session, Mrs Vesna Lendić Kasalo, deputy director of the Government Office, presented the newly adopted Regulation which was also discussed among participants including its implementation on the local and regional level. This is particularly important in the context of the financial sustainability as one of the most important aspect of the sustainability of the work of associations, since the cooperation with NGOs in implementation of public policies is mostly manifested through variety of financial and non-financial support given by the state bodies to projects and programs of public benefit interest.
In the Conference the mobile application UdrugeInfo, created by the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs was presented by Mrs Stela Fišer Marković together with Mr Ratko Mutavdžić, representative of the Croatian Employers’ Association and Mr Igor Roginek from the Association Autonomous Centre and one of the CSOs representatives in the Council for the Civil Society Development. The Application was created with the view of increasing the visibility of the organisations in local community and strengthen citizens’ participation in the activities carried out by associations. It enables easy search of data on the activities and services of the registered associations. Through Application citizens will be able to search associations’ activities according to the place and time when they are held, or the information contained in the Associations’ Register and get in touch with the association which is of interest to them. The Application is now available for Android mobile phones and soon will be also for Apple phones which will be able to learn more on the Government Office web page
www.uzuvrh.hr. Also, the Application may be accessed via the website:
https://udrugeinfo.uzuvrh.hr/.
During the Conference, the participants were also informed on the program Europe for Citizens for the period from 2014 to 2020.
In total 150 persons participated at the Conference, the representatives of the CSOs, local and regional self-governments, state bodies and private sector.
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