CIVICUS Civil Society News
CIVICUS Civil Society Index publishes its Croatian Report
Sumitted by Priscilla Ryan, Civil Society Index Programme
The Civil Society Index Report for Croatia Civil society in Croatia-Gaining trust and establishing partnerships with the state and other stakeholders is now available for download on the CIVICUS website: www.civicus.org/new/CSI_country_reports.asp?c=FD8912.
The report was produced by the CIVICUS CSI and its country partner, Centre for Development of Non-Profit Organisations (CERANEO) (www.ceraneo.hr). This report is the fourth of about 50 individual country reports that will become available in the coming months.
The report provides interesting findings on and recommendations for civil society in Croatia. The CSI accesses civil society according to four dimensions: structure, impact, environment and values. Civil society in Croatia was seen as rather well balanced and of medium size. The structure and impact dimensions are slightly less developed and consequently include a larger number of weaknesses than the environment and values dimensions. With regard to civil society’s structure, the lack of widespread and active membership in CSOs and the low levels of civic engagement are still key concerns. The low levels of trust, among CSOs and citizens in general, were also identified as a key concern. This is intensified with the generally negative coverage of civil society by the media, which often focuses on scandals. CSOs were found to be concentrated in urban areas, however, a range of newly emerging corporate social responsibility initiatives are likely to provide substantial impetus for the development of civil society at the local level, even if these initiatives are often viewed as driven by companies’ public relations goals. Another positive finding is that CSOs appear to be more proactive and attentive than the state in meeting the needs of marginalized groups. Among the main recommendations were: the need for increased public trust in CSOs, increased networking and professionalism of CSOs, the need for new means of financial support and increased cooperation and communication between the state, the corporate sector and the civil society sector.
The CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI) project is sharing reports on the state of civil society in specific countries around the world, which are currently implementing the CSI. As individual country reports are published you will be able to download the most recent executive summaries and full reports on the CIVICUS website ( www.civicus.org/new/CSI_country_reports.asp?c=FD8912).
Country reports will be updated regularly, so please come back to see what new reports have become available.
To receive the CSI’s Quarterly E-Newsletter, please send an email with the word “subscribe” in the subject to: csinews@civicus.org.
To download the full CSI report for Croatia in PDF [424 KB] please follow this link www.civicus.org/new/CSI_country_reports.asp?c=FD8912.
