The 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.
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