The Croatian delegation visited Switzerland within the 2nd Swiss Contribution Civil Society Programme.
The representative of the Ministry of Regional Development and EU founds, GOfNGOs, as well as the associations members of the named programme Steering Committee visited Switzerland form 16 to 20 September 2024.
The study trip was organised in order to share knowledge and good practices on the Swiss civil society work and its cooperation with the public administration, as well.
Also, the study trip purpose was to getting knowing the work of the Swiss political system of direct democracy, the participative ways of making decisions in the developed system of local and regional self-administration (for example, there are 2.000 municipalities), the models of financing the civil society, certification and many other areas.
The Switzerland has developed civil society, as well as 1,8 million of volunteers, which is common mode of contribution into community social capital.
The Croatian delegation had the opportunity to meet with the representatives of associations coming from different areas of working. First was the Initiative for Inclusive
Switzerland Association - Initiative pour L’inclusion, an example of raising awareness on sustainable development goals, then
Platforme Agende 2030 Switherland and the city library of the city and canton Fribourg which has been actively participating in the programmes of migrants integration -
LivrEchange. This Library beside the impressive collection of books on 265 languages organises learning of French and German languages and detailed information are in the leaflet of the Library on Croatian language at the
link.
Especially interesting was the visit to the castle Burgdorf and its museum run by the association
Schloss Burgdorf. There the volunteer Brigitte Loosli, 70 years old pensioner, shared to the Delegation her experience of work with children that had visited castle, by arranging a permanent collection and a collection enlarged by citizens donations of Burgdorf and the surrounding area.
An example of good practice in quality label certification for non-profit organisations was provided to the Delegation by the
ZEWO Foundation, as well as on the volunteering role in Switzerland by the
BENEVOL, the umbrella organisation for voluntary organisations. Also, within the study visit, the Delegation had the opportunity to getting acquainted with on cooperation models of the City of Bern and the CSOs, as well as the supports to civic initiatives including participating, informing and mobilising of different social groups.
The study trip was organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds National Coordination Unit, Agency for Development and Cooperation from Switzerland and the Swiss Embassy Office for the Swiss Contribution as the base for Call preparation in relation to the new Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Programme, 2
nd Swiss Contribution, Civil Society Programme.
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