ZAGREB, April 20, 2020 – Initiative For a Strong Civil Society on Monday called on the Croatian government to adopt measures to safeguard the work of civil society organisations in the wake of the coronavirus health crisis.
In its letter to the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs, the Ministry of Labour and the Pension System, the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds and the National Foundation for Civil Society Development, the Initiative underscored that government representatives so far had not addressed the issues of civil society organisations’ programmes and schedules.
They reiterated that it was the civil society organisations that had been most successful at drawing funding from EU funds and allocating it for contracted activities of public importance. They also underscored that numerous activities the organisations provided depended on those projects and programmes, as well as jobs of a great number of people.
According to data of the National Bureau of Statistics, about 18,000 persons work for civil society organisations.
The initiative underscored that is was vital that the government revised the decision to restrict the use of state budget funds earmarked for funding civil society organisations and that it should urgently publish the results of tenders by the European Social Fund and other funds that are in the process of evaluation, as well as proceed with planned calls for tenders.
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