Belarusan NGOs remain highly unstable

Another annual Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index (CSOSI) was presented in Minsk.

Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index (CSOSI) was developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1997; Belarus joined the procedure of index’s calculation in 2000. The Index measures the sustainability of each country's CSO sector based on the CSOSI's seven dimensions: legal environment, organizational capacity, financial viability, advocacy, service provision, infrastructure, and public image. The CSOSI's local implementing partners in each country lead the process of organizing and convening a diverse and representative panel of CSO experts. Country panels discuss the seven dimensions for the year being assessed, and reach consensus on the scores corresponding to each dimension. With the information provided by the expert panel along with desk research, the CSO implementing partner then develops a narrative report.

The Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index (CSOSI) has been used since 1997 to assess the sustainability of the CSO sector. The Index has expanded considerably since its inception – it went from covering 18 countries in the Europe and Eurasia Region, to covering over 60 countries in different regions around the world. By using standard indicators and collecting data each year, the CSOSI enables users to track developments and identify trends in the CSO sector over time while allowing for cross-country and cross-region comparison. It is used by CSO advocates, development partners, and academics to assess international and regional trends in the civil society sector and to identify common obstacles impeding the sector's sustainability.

In 2014 expert team from the number of ecologic, women’s, social, human rights, and other Belarusan public organizations calculated CSOSI for Belarus – 5.7 scores. By USAID gradation Belarus is included into the region of Europe and Eurasia and has one of the worst scores in the region.

The best year for Belarus is 2003, when it’s index was 5.3 scores; while in 2007 and in 2008 our country reached bottom with 6 scores.

As Valery Zhurauski, the head of the International educational association “ACT”, USAID’s partner in making the Index notes, during the whole time of research Belarus has never stepped out of the situation of “weak sustainability”.

“We can compare our country with Bulgaria: we have a similar number of citizens, similar GDP per person, and similar Human Development Index. But if we compare the number of third-sector organizations, it is 40000 versus 2600 in Bulgaria and Belarus accordingly,” – said Zhurauski.

According to experts, the worst parameter of sustainability in Belarus’ Index is legal environment: “And that affects the development of the whole sector. Second negative indicator for Belarusan NGOs is financial sustainability, which has a lot in common with the legal terms of attraction of funds”.

The main legal barrier is the procedure of state registration. “They are very complicated and leave the possibility for rejecting the registration. The demand for obligatory presence of judicial address has a very negative influence on NGOs. The research demonstrates that more than a half of non-state organizations don’t even have paid personnel but act as voluntary organizations, - notes Valery Zhurauski. – At the same time Belarusan legislation obliges them to pay rent and have an office without any benefits. The state also has ban and criminal liability for work on behalf of the non-registered organizations. The appearance of some non-state organization before judicial registration seems logical: people should create something together in order to understand whether they need an organization at all. But since our state says to register first, it become s a serious barrier for new NGOs, especially in the regions”.

Besides, the expert notes, the state established significant restrictions for getting funding: “NGOs is, perhaps, the only legal form in Belarus that is prohibited to get profit from realization of some events and services. The state has seriously limited the possibility of attracting business’ sponsor help. Accordingly, business usually avoids sponsor relations with the majority of organizations but for absolutely neutral, such as health, problems of people with some health peculiarities and so on. There is an allowing principle of any international help. And all that limits the potential of organizations to attract resources and amount of the work that these organizations can produce”.

According to Valery Zhurauski, the tendencies of 2014 are most likely related to the finances and public image.

“2014 was the first year when state and social order started working. The state started financing NGOs for the first time by attracting them to the realization of social services. About 30 contracts for the general sum of 1.8 billion rubles (around $18 thousand) were signed. Not all the money reached addressees due to the novation of the procedure and numerous disagreements”, - the analyst said.

For comparison: in 2014 the state allocated about $4 million dollars for the BRYU (the Belarusan Republican Youth Union, which is the largest youth organization in Belarus and is supported by the Belarusan government – EuroBelarus).

“Crowdfunding, i.e. attraction of citizens’ money with the help of Internet-platforms started to be used. With the help of this method up to $20 thousand was collected for social projects last year; the sum is insignificant, but this trend, this idea is getting popular – not only in Belarus, but in the region in general”, - noted Valery Zhurauski.

As to the image, according to the research of the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS) over the last year the fame of the NGO grew from 30 to 52%, which is “related to the fact that NGOs improved work with their websites, started their active promotion via social networks and started providing more social services”. However, there was no such growth with indicators of trust towards NGOs.

“For the moment being the percentage of Belarusan citizens’ involvement into public activities is 17.5%, which is little. Naturally, it also has to do with the small amount of organizations in Belarus as such. For comparison: there are about 30 thousand of public organizations in Estonia with population of 1.5 million, whereas we have only 2600, - notes the analyst. – Thus, despite the big potential of the existing public organizations, the index demonstrates that no favorable conditions for their efficient and uninhibited work have been created”.