BCSDN has launched a new website dedicated to monitoring the enabling environment for civil society development in the Western Balkans and Turkey. The new website is based on the Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development (CSDev) which is a tool that has been developed for measuring the health of the legal, regulatory, and financial environment in which civil society organisations (CSOs) operate. It has been the collective effort of CSO experts and practitioners from the BCSDN network of members and partners.

The Center for Political Studies, one of the grantees of the Slovak and Balkan Public Policy Fund, on Thursday, 10th of April in Hotel Bosnia, Sarajevo, held a public presentation of their policy paper on “Strengthening the Capacity of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. At this occasion, the Policy Paper was presented to the relevant international and national organizations and public institutions such as NATO, OSCE, PILPG, the Ombudsmen, KULT, etc. The Study focuses on the effectiveness of enforcement and implementation of the Constitutional Court of B&H and identifies and analyzes the reasons for non-compliance. The Study provides recommendations and advocates for improving the implementation of the decisions of the Constitutional Court in B&H. The Policy Paper is available online in English and Bosnian language. For more information on the Slovak and Balkan Public Policy Fund please click here. 

On the 2nd of April, the first Serbian Country Monitoring Report of the enabling environment for civil society development was presented by BCSDN member and partner Civic Initiatives in the Belgrade Media Center to a group of around 50 representatives from CSOs, government, donors, and other stakeholders. The event featured the presentation of the methodology and goals of the report by Dejana Stevkovski, project coordinator, as well as the presentation of the 6 key findings and recommendations by Maja Stojanovic, Executive Director of Civic Initiative. 

On the 26th of March, the Croatian Country Monitoring Matrix Report outlining key findings and recommendation on the enabling environment for CSDev was presented in Zagreb in front of 28 participants. The presentation, led by BCSDN member CenzuraPlus and their Croatian in-country partner, pointed to the main problems such as the discrepancy between the number of registered organizations and those registered at the Ministry of Finance coupled with a stereotype presentation of public funds disbursed to CSOs. These issues has led to misconceptions by the public about the real status and size of civil society and the problems related to the lack of capacity of public administration to cooperate with civil society. This is especially true in the domain of efficient management of EU funds.