supporting sustainability of serbian ngos using slovak experience in csr

timeline: February 2007 – October 2008
donor: Slovak Aid (Bratislava – Belgrade Fund)
sectoral priorities: Civil society, social cohesion and regional development

Since many donors have recently withdrawn their financial help from Serbia, NGOs have been in a difficult situation related to their survival and sustainability, and the search for new or varied models of financing becomes an important issue for Serbia’s NGO sector. Simultaneously, many NGOs in Serbia lack a clear mission towards their community and do not have answers to the most challenging problems that Serbian society faces. The development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and cross-sector cooperation between NGOs and companies would bring multiple benefits in Serbia: create a positive climate for foreign investments, develop the local community, develop civil society, boost business ethics and transparency of business operations, as well as protect the environment and workers’ rights.

Corporate social responsibility is a key component of development, trade, investment, pensions, and other public policy fields.  It was initiated as a sign of goodwill between the business sector and society, though the importance of CSR has also been emphasized by the EU since 2001, when the European Council introduced a basic document called “Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility” as a contribution to the European Union’s strategic goal agreed in Lisbon in 2000: “to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.”

The main goal of this project will be to reinforce the Serbian NGOs as bricks of civil society over the long-term and, in a strategic way, utilizing Slovakia’s experience with CSR, as a new way of reaching out to and communicating with the business. The current situation in Serbia is characterized by a mutual lack of recognition and cooperation between NGO and business sectors and very simplified consideration of one by the other. However, on the basis of the Slovakia’s experience with its transition to democracy and a market economy, the strategic strengthening of the NGO sector and sustainable development of local communities in Serbia can be realized only by implementing new models of financing, namely through forming strategic and self-sustainable cooperation between NGO and business sectors.

The results of this project will be the following :
◊ the establishment of an umbrella NGO, facilitating relations between NGOs and businesses in Serbia
◊ the capacity of two employees of the partner NGO – Smart Kolektiv in training provisions towards 10 NGOs and businesses developed
◊ an effective informal network of 10 Serbian NGOs, understanding and disseminating concept of CSR created
◊ five seminars on benefits of CSR, particularly corporate social philanthropy organized for businesses in five cities in Serbia
◊ a marketplace of NGO activities organized with businesses and the general public in mind
◊ the initiation of up to five partnerships between NGOs and businesses

Through organizing several public events with press coverage, the project intends to attract attention of other civil society actors and companies in Serbia, and by showing successful examples of cross-sector partnerships within this project, tends to produce a domino effect and stimulate further partnerships and joint projects.

This project was drafted upon a long-term experience of the Pontis Foundation in Slovakia in capacity building of the NGO and business sector. Together with its main project partner SMART Kolektiv, Serbia, they are pioneer organizations in advancing the CSR concept in their respective countries