Home Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs The Council for the Development of Civil Society Publications Documents EU Programmes Contact English Croatian

About the Council

The Council for Civil Society Development is an advisory body to the Government of the Republic of Croatia acting towards developing cooperation between the Government with the civil society organisations in Croatia in the implementation of the National Strategy for Creating an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development; the development of philanthropy, social capital, partnership relations and cross sector cooperation.

Tasks of the Council for Civil Society Development:
  • participation in constant monitoring and analysis of public policies referring to or affecting civil society development in Croatia and cross sector cooperation
  • participation in expressing opinions to the Government on legislation drafts affecting the development of civil society in the Republic of Croatia as well as participation in the organisation of an apt way to include and engage civil society organisations in discussions about regulations, strategies and programmes affecting the development and functioning of civil society and cooperation with the public and private sector on the national and European level.
  • cooperation in planning priorities for the national programmes for public funding of programmes and projects of civil society organisations along with the analysis of yearly reports of the ministries and offices of the Government of the Republic of Croatia about projects and programmes financed 
  • participation in programming and setting priorities for the use of pre accession programmes and funds of the EU, open for Croatia, based on an efficient system of consultation with the civil society organisations
  • implementing tasks which fulfil the basic scope of the existence of the Council and are stated in the main objectives of the National Strategy for Creating an enabling Environment for the Development of Civil Society.

Public administration bodies and government offices are obliged to submit accurate information about their decisions on financing associations and other civil society organisations in the Republic of Croatia for the last completed fiscal year. This is done through the Office for Cooperation with NGOs. The Council can establish and appoint permanent and temporary working groups in the course of implementing its tasks. The Council reports to the Government about its work once every year.  

The Council has 27 members out of which 12 representatives of relevant state administrative bodies and the Croatian Government offices, 12 representatives of non-governmental, non-profit organizations and 3 representatives of civil society from foundations, trade unions and employers’ associations. The Council has a president, elected by the Council members representing civil society from their own ranks while the vice-president is elected by the members of the Council representing the state institutions. The president and the members of the Council are elected for a mandate of 3 years and can be re-elected.
 
The functioning of the Council is based on the Decision on the Establishment of the Council for Civil society Development, adopted in 2009 and it regulates its work through its rules of procedure. The logistic and administrative work for the Council is done by the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Croatian government.


Decision on the establishment of the Council for the Development of Civil Society:
Official Gazette no. 140/2009

Rules of Procedure of the Council for the Development of Civil Society

Public administration bodies
National foundation
Croatian companies’ donations
EU Tenders
Other donors