NGO Days in Croatia 

Participation of Macedonian NGOs and Government Bodies 

"Hand in Hand" was the motto of the Fourth NGO Days in Croatia (Dani udruga 2003) that took place from 13 to 15 February this year in Zagreb. Guest at this years' manifestation were civic associations' representatives from Slovenia, Hungary and Macedonia.
Representatives from various association took part at the NGO Days, organized by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation: The First Children Embassy in the World "Medjashi", The Local Government Units' Association, The Open Society Institute Macedonia Foundation, The Catholic Relief Services - CRS, The Institute for Sustainable Communities, The Ministry of Justice, The Public Revenue Office and the MCIC. The three-day manifestation at the Zagreb Grand Fair Congress Hall was attended by 2000 people.  

Government support

This manifestation in Croatia was held under the patronage of NGO Department at the Croatian Government, established in 1998 on the Government Initiative. Since the state bodies cannot cover completely social sector, they decided that the NGOs could be their partners in alleviating or solving the problems in the country. Two hundred and seventeen organizations from Croatia whose projects or programmes have been financially supported by the NGO Department in 2002, took part at this manifestation. There are 22 150 NGOs registered in Croatia. However, only 2000 of them are active. At the manifestation, besides the exhibition and the education part, there were also forum activities, where relevant issues for the NGO sector, as well as the Croatian society in general, have been discussed. We would point to issues such as "Preparation of a strategy for the civil society development in Croatia", "Introduction in the European Integrations", as well as the CARDS projects' issues. The MCIC executive director, Mr. Sasho Klekovski talked about the Macedonian experiences on issues like "Organizing the civil society in the process of approaching the EU" and "Types of cooperation between the government and the NGO sector - Slovenian, Hungarian, Macedonian and Croatian experiences". 

Cooperation for success

Marija Boltek, programme activities and information councilor at the NGO Department, said that this year, as well as the previous year, 2.5 million Euros from the budget have been planned for support of the NGO. Programmes or projects financed are in the field of human rights, social policy, poverty alleviation, support to children and young people, democratization and development of the civil society, health, environment and cultural heritage protection. "The NGO Department announces a competition for programmes and projects. Civic associations give their projects and programmes to the corresponding ministries. There are special boards in every field that give their proposals to the Civil Society Development Council and then to the Government, which verifies the results. Throughout the year, the NGO Department evaluates and observes", said Marija Bolten. Now they are working on the transformation of the Department into a National Foundation for the Civil Society Development, and a law for foundations is being prepared in cooperation with the INCL. At the closing of this manifestation, recognitions for their merits were given to the media representatives for consistent coverage and informing the public on the civic associations' work in Croatia. We are hoping that this role of the country in the civil society development and the way of financing can be applied in our country as well, starting from the fact that the NGOs in Macedonia are depending to a large extent on foreign donations, and the local NGOs can be of great use in solving many problems that occur in our society. "Hand in hand" will be stronger and unified. Gramoz Shabani