This Guide provides information for grant beneficiaries of EU funds in the Western Balkans and Türkiye on how to exempt them from paying VAT. The document includes information about the procedures for registering for VAT exemption and obtaining VAT exemptions (or refunds) when making purchases. This guide has been prepared by the EU TACSO 3 team as a ready reference to VAT exemption and VAT refund requirements for civil society organisations funded by the European Union in the Western Balkans and Türkiye. It is aimed primarily at civil society organisations in the region that are recipients of EU grant funds, either country-level or regional. The guide is compiled from available documentation and guidance and will be updated regularly if there are changes.
View moreA comprehensive report from the Workshop on Assessment of Proposals for FSTP Implementers from the Western Balkans and Türkiye provides details from the workshop, including Q&As, case studies, some key issues raised by participants and expert's responses and recommendations provided.
View moreMany questions are often repeated among those interested in becoming FSTP implementors and those already implementing projects with included FSTP components. The European Commission combined those most repeated questions into one guiding document and published the frequently asked questions on FSTP.
View moreThis training was organised by the EU TACSO 3 capacity-building team to develop further and build the capacities for monitoring FSTP grant contracts based on practical examples, case studies, and peer-to-peer learning. The key topics of the training related to phases of the monitoring process, site visits as monitoring tools, issues and challenges and interpretation of data collection and reporting.
View moreA gender mainstreaming training programme for FSTP implementers was organised with the purpose to support new FSTP providers who have received regional CSF grants.
View morePresentations cover topics like FSTP, sub-granting procedures, human rights mechanism strengthening, Roma inclusion, organisational sustainability, etc.
View moreThe brochure presents a collection of good practices on FSTP - various existing approaches, experiences and lessons learned from the field. It is structured around three main topics: Call and Selection Procedures, Capacity Development, and Monitoring and Reporting to EU/Communication Results. The brochure is intended for civil society partners, potential future applicants, implementers of EU support and DG NEAR staff in delegations and headquarters.
View moreThe webinar contributed to sharing knowledge and experiences regarding grant narrative and financial reporting. It also aimed to contribute to the capacity building of the CSOs in the Western Balkans and Turkey and to improve reporting skills and the quality of the reports.
View moreThe Needs Assessment Report focuses on each country’s specific information gathering and analysis of the institutional areas that need to be strengthened. The report also highlights the capabilities of the country’s CSOs. This assessment allows for each country to make a more tailored strategy to apply to better support the CSOs.
View moreIn the period from 19 to 22 July 2010, representatives from the Unit for Cooperation with NGOs realized a study visit to the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Republic of Croatia. The study visit aimed to familiarize the participants with the grant schemes management system intended for the CSOs, the activities of the institutions in the Republic of Croatia that implement the projects financed by EU funds (IPA program), and the introduction of a centralized and decentralized implementation system.
View moreThis report’s overall purpose is to provide a basis for refining TACSO’s programme support to both civil societies and government authorities of the IPA countries for establishing the full range of institutional arrangements necessary for the sustainable development of effective civil society. To this end, the report concludes by identifying priorities for strengthening the process in each country and by making specific recommendations to the TACSO project in general and TACSO country teams, in particular, to support the process in practical ways.
View moreA 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 organizations in the IPA countries, both at the regional and national levels. 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 organizational support and capacity-building actions for CSOs and civil society more generally.
View moreThe Albanian CSO sector is relatively underdeveloped. There are around 1600 registered CSOs, but roughly 450 of them are active (2011 surveys). Most active CSOs are located in Tirana which also has local offices and is active at the community level. In general, the membership base of associations is limited.
View moreThe guidelines are a form of instructions that are intended to ease the process of VAT exemption for newly awarded EU projects. The information within this set of guidelines is based on each country’s specific requirements in terms of VAT exemption for EU/IPA-funded projects.
View moreNeeds Assessment Report for CSOs in 2010 recognized the lack of transparency of CSOs. The report recommended further actions on improvement of CSOs' transparency. The main purpose of the publication “Annual Financial Reports of CSOs in Montenegro – 2010” is to contribute to the improvement of relations between civil society and external stakeholders.
View moreThis Needs Assessment methodology was designed to guide the assignment and represents a comprehensive set of activities and approaches that produced the key deliverables promptly, while also methodically reaching and engaging project teams in M&E functions and activities using experiential learning approaches aimed at strengthening their Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) capacity through the tailor-made training conducted by the Consultant.
View moreThe report presents an update of a similar report carried out in 2009, not a comprehensive new research. Information provided is based on the desktop research of relevant documentation, including legal and financial legislation, policy documents, previous civil society mappings and research, insight into the Registry of CSOs, input produced by the Local Advisory Group (LAG) members as well as inputs provided by representatives of 48 CSOs during the consultation sessions organized in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš in mid-September 2011. Additionally, the report includes preliminary data of the current baseline survey on the CSO sector in Serbia in the period of August – September 2011.
View moreThe IPA Region CSO Environment and Capacities: Update of the Regional Needs Assessment and Recommendations Report represents a compilation of individual country Needs Assessment Reports from the Western Balkan countries and Turkey. Even though there are differences and specificities in the CSO environment and capacities among the countries covered by the project Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations (TACSO) in the Western Balkans and Turkey, a substantive regional perspective or unification may still be observed in all aspects that include the legal framework governing the registration and operations of the CSOS, government – CSO relations, government funding for the CSOs, human resources, external relations and material and financial capacities.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries (EuropeAid/127427/C/SER/Multi/5 – additional services). The study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in Montenegro and the environment that it works in, including its strengths and weaknesses, its impacts to date and the challenges it faces to its further development.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries (EuropeAid/127427/C/SER/Multi/5 – additional services). The study aims to provide an update on the comprehensive assessment of civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina that was conducted in 2009. This updated study also contains new developments in the environment in which civil society operates. The study provides insight into the strengths and weaknesses of civil society, its impacts to date and the challenges it faces to its further development.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries (EuropeAid/127427/C/SER/Multi/5 – additional services). The revised needs assessment aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in Albania and the relevant working environment, including its strengths, weaknesses, and its impacts to date, as well as the challenges it faces in its further development.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries. The study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the environment that it works in, including its strengths and weaknesses, its impacts to date and the challenges it faces to its further development.
View moreThis study is one of eight country needs assessments of civil society capacities conducted as a preliminary activity within the EC-funded project Technical Assistance to Civil Society (TACSO) in IPA Countries. The study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in Turkey and the environment that it works in, including its strengths and weaknesses, its impacts to date and the challenges it faces to its further development.
View moreThe education cycle aimed to enhance project proposal writing skills of civil society organizations representatives located out of bigger centers to increase the capacity of rural CSOs in understanding administrative and evaluation criteria for the selection of applications and to increase the number of small and rural CSOs to be able to diversify their fundraising portfolio.
View moreTACSO BiH completed Second Educational Cycle on PCM/ Project Proposal Writing-towards domestic/local sources of funding based on using a logical frame approach (EU application procedure for mostly rural-based and less experienced civil society organizations from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
View moreWithin the scope of sharing experiences with civil society in the Western Balkans, TACSO supported a study visit to Croatia to examine the mechanisms for the participation of disadvantaged groups in the constitution-building process. The study visit was designed as a part of the project “The Disadvantaged as an actor in the Constitutional Process” which is planned to be executed with the collaboration of ÖZEV, Öz-Ge Der and Cappadocia Women and Youth Association to ensure the active participation of women, children and people with disabilities to the constitutional process and related laws/regulations/statutes on a common platform.
View moreThe basic purpose of the publication ‘Annual Financial Report of Organisations of Civil Society in Bosnia and Herzegovina – 2011’ is to present to the broad public the results of the equated survey that the Center for Civil Society Promotion (CPCD) has conducted among domestic non-government organizations (NGOs) with the basic purpose to collect relevant information on main sources, height and ways of spending of funds that NGOs have used to finance their regular statutory activities in 2011.
View moreRegional progress report on the results of the National Activity Plans agreed upon during the conference on “Cooperation between Local Self-Governmental Institutions and CSOs in the Western Balkans and Turkey”, held in Bečići in February 2013.
View moreFollowing the first Value Added Tax (VAT) Guidelines that were produced in June 2011, this VAT guideline is now updated to reflect the changes, if any, in each of the countries. The biggest change is seen in Albania, which in June 2011 was not included in the first set of Guidelines because at that time it was not possible to provide adequate guidelines on the VAT procedures in the country. Due to the joint efforts of the Albanian civil society, TACSO Albania and the European Union Delegation (EUD) in Albania, instructions were issued for VAT exemptions that target Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) funded through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA).
View moreThe main objective of the assessment was to identify the capacities of Croatian CSOs and their interest in IDC & HA. This assessment could assist the Department for IDC & HA of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MFEA) in improving the participation of CSOs in the creation and implementation of programs and with consultation processes concerning IDC & HA on the EU level.
View moreThe Focus Group Meeting on Right to Information that was organized jointly by TACSO Turkey and STGM on 14 January 2014 in Ankara brought together sixteen participants representing 12 CSOs/ civil initiatives. The specific purpose of the meeting was to create a platform that brings together CSOs who exercise their right to information more frequently to share their opinions and experience about the legislation arranging for the Right to Access to Information and corresponding practices.
View moreOver the past years, CSOs have been recognized as an indispensable part of the democratization process by public organizations and other actors. However, the definition of civil society and civil society organizations (CSO) is still absent from the relevant legislation and policy documents. One of the major obstacles to freedom of association in Turkey is that the legal framework only recognizes forms of association and foundation and no other forms of organized civil action are recognized as legal entities.
View moreThis report presents an update of the similar TACSO report carried out in 2011. The basis for the update also came from desktop research of relevant documentation, legal and financial legislation, policy documents, previous civil society mapping and recent online research (137 CSOs, networks and FPAs) as well as direct inputs provided by 51 representatives of CSOs, donor organizations, institutions and experts during the wide consultation process.
View moreThe vast majority of CSOs in Macedonia continue to be dependent on international donor funds. Collectively, foreign funding streams remain the single largest source of financial support for CSOs. The EU funds, principally through the Instrument for Pre‐accession Assistance (IPA), are now the main focus of interest for CSOs. Other larger civil society supporters are Swedish Development Cooperation (SDC) and USAID.
View moreThe amount of funds allocated to CSOs and the funds available to domestic institutions vary depending on the administrative level in question. The municipalities have always been the biggest donors, while the state level has the most limited funds for financial support to CSOs.
View moreThis Needs Assessment Report (NAR) treats Civil Society in Kosovo from the perspective of a competing sector in the region, to reach European standards. Though the distance is long, the aspirations are evident and the first steps have already been taken. Through elaborating on relations between Civil Society and Institutions, and Civil Society and its Constituencies, NAR intends to reveal and analyze the challenges of the CSOs in advancing their capacities and their role in the society and policymaking processes in the country, as well as in transparency and accountability of the institutions.
View moreFollowing the first Value Added Tax (VAT) Guidelines that were produced in June 2011, this VAT guideline is now updated to reflect the changes, if any, in each of the countries. Since the last updated version in 2013, this version now reflects the changes seen in both Kosovo and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In addition, this version does not include Croatia as was the case in the previous versions.
View moreThe Conference held in Tirana, Albania on 6-9 May 2014 to introduce the document “Guidelines for EU Support to Civil Society in Enlargement Countries 2014-2020” brought together EU institutions, government and CSO representatives from each country. At the conference, plans were made to set country targets for civil society development in each candidate country in the context of EU Guidelines and to monitor progress made towards these targets. TACSO Turkey organised a one-and-a-half day-long workshop on 17-18 December 2014 together with TÜSEV, STGM and Sivil Düşün EU Programme to have CSOs discuss the outcome framework. There were 50 participants in the workshop representing 39 civil society organizations.
View moreThe TACSO BiH office organised a training programme on Project Cycle Management implemented by TACSO by VESTA as a direct response to the needs assessment of civil society in BiH. According to the findings of the needs assessment of NGOs in BiH for the period 2013-2015, the work plan of TACSO BiH for 2015, and the systematization of the most common questions received by the TACSO BiH Help desk, it was found that a large number of organisations operating in smaller communities have very limited access to technical assistance, as well as a lack of knowledge and skills to successfully manage projects based on EU applications with a focus on the logical framework and budget.
View moreThe guidelines are a form of instructions that are intended to ease the process of VAT exemption for newly awarded EU projects located in the IPA countries. Following the first Value Added Tax (VAT) Guidelines that were produced in June 2011, this VAT guideline is now updated, since the last version in 2015, to reflect the minor changes for Kosovo and Serbia.
View moreTACSO BIH in cooperation with TACSOby VESTA in the period October – December 2015, realised serial of one-day training/consultations for a total of 26 CSOs in the area of „Organizational development with a focus on accountability and transparency”. The purpose of the capacity-building intervention was to strengthen the organizational development of each particular participating CSO, to ensure sharing of joint experience in mastering and understanding concepts, gaining practical skills in developing training outputs applicable to their organizational model of the work.
View moreThe study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in Serbia and the environment that it works in, including its strengths and weaknesses, its impacts to date and the challenges it faces to its further development. The study is based upon a combination of desk research embracing all relevant documentation, including legal and financial legislation applicable to civil society, previous civil society analyses and evaluations, policy documents and country–specific academic literature, in-depth interviews, a survey of the general population and TACSO survey of CSOs.
View moreThe creation of partnerships and strengthening the networking of civil society organizations is one of the priorities of the TACSO project. Therefore, in the period July 2015 – February 2016, the Macedonian TACSO office and the resource center in Macedonia, TACSO by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) conducted a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the Macedonian networks which should serve as a basis for the next steps for capacity building for networking and partnership.
View moreThis Needs Assessment Report (NAR) treats civil society in Kosovo from the perspective of a key element in building a democratic state and an important contributor to Kosovo’s aspirations of becoming a member of the European Union. Despite Kosovo is still at the initial stages of this process, Kosovar civil society seeks to reach the best European standards not only in its internal governance but also in its relations with public institutions. Through elaborating on relations between civil society and public institutions, its constituencies and the general public, NAR intends to reveal and analyze the challenges of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in advancing their capacities and their role in society and policymaking processes in the country, as well as in transparency and accountability of the institutions.
View moreThe report aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the civil society in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the environment that the civil society works in, including its strengths and weaknesses and the challenges it faces in its further development. The report is based upon a combination of desk research embracing all relevant documentation, including legal and financial legislation applicable to civil society, situation analyses, policy documents and the Monitoring Matrix Report for Civil Society Development 2015 for Macedonia.
View moreThis analysis aims to review the needs assessment conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in 2014 and to update it according to TACSO 2 methodology used for Need Assessment Report (NAR). Information provided is based on the desk research of relevant documentation including the most recent studies and analysis of different aspects of the environment civil society organizations (CSOs) operate in (such as TACSO IPOSOS Civil Society Report, 2016), legislative changes, policy documents, conference reports etc. In this way, all mentioned stakeholders, primarily CSOs contributed to the report through their active involvement in other country-wide processes by providing inputs, identifying the needs and presenting the statements on a general overview of the state of civil society in BiH, as well as prospects for possible improvements.
View moreThis analysis aims to review the needs assessment conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in 2014 and to update it according to TACSO 2 methodology used for Need Assessment Report (NAR). Information provided is based on the desk research of relevant documentation including the most recent studies and analysis of different aspects of the environment civil society organizations (CSOs) operate in (such as TACSO IPOSOS Civil Society Report, 2016), legislative changes, policy documents, conference reports etc. In this way, all mentioned stakeholders, primarily CSOs contributed to the report through their active involvement in other country-wide processes by providing inputs, identifying the needs and presenting the statements on a general overview of the state of civil society in BiH, as well as prospects for possible improvements.
View moreThe revised needs assessment aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of civil society in Albania and the relevant working environment, including its strengths, weaknesses, and its impacts to date, as well as the challenges it faces in its further development. The report is based upon a combination of desk research embracing all relevant documentation, including legal and financial legislation applicable to civil society, previous and/or other civil society mappings and assessments, situation analyses, policy documents and country-specific academic literature as well as the most recent studies and analysis of different aspects of the environment civil society organizations (CSOs) operate in (such as TACSO IPSOS Civil Society Report, 2016).
View moreThis report has been commissioned by the Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations (TACSO) Project, to update the initial Report on Regional CSO Networks in the IPA countries (2011; 2012). This update is expanding on those initial findings and examines the current capacities of regional CSO networks, their formation process, accountability, added value for their members, networks’ contributions to new social values and their sustainability prospects.
View morePresentation applied in the online training on project proposal/concept note development for EU-funded grants for CSOs in the WBT.
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