A comparative summary of the eight country CSO needs assessments.
This report’s overall purpose is to provide a basis for refining TACSO’s programme of capacity development support to civil society organisations in the IPA countries, both at the regional and national level. The report is also intended to equip local and international development agencies, as well as governments in the IPA countries, with the information necessary to instigate further appropriate and responsive organisational support and capacity building actions for CSOs and civil society more generally.
The aim of the report is to compare and contrast the level of capacity development of CSOs as a sector in the IPA countries:
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To provide a general assessment of the state of civil society in each of the eight IPA countries, appraising its potential to promote development and social change, and elucidating trends and common opportunities and obstacles;
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To gain an overall and comparative understanding of the strengths, weaknesses and capacity-building needs of CSOs in the IPA countries;
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To provide a set of general and country-specific recommendations concerning capacity development actions to enhance the organisational capacity and performance of CSOs throughout the IPA countries.
The report presents a comparative summary of the findings of national civil society needs assessments carried out by TACSO country teams as part of the TACSO programme’s inception in the eight prospective-member countries of the EU in the Western Balkans and South East Europe (including candidate countries Croatia, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/99, Montenegro and Serbia). The data for the report are drawn solely from these needs assessments, which in turn were based upon primary research conducted in each country by consultations with a wide range of civil society actors, as well with representatives from the government, donor organisations and other institutional bodies, backed up by comprehensive desk studies of all available, relevant information.
Concentrating on the general structure and characteristics of civil society as well as the organisational capacities of CSOs, this report is intended to complement the findings of TACSO’s earlier regional review of the national institutional environments in which civil society operates throughout the IPA region.