Measure the civil society index in Bulgaria - FINISHED UP

published on 08 June 2009

 A project of the World Alliance for Citizen Participation CIVICUS
with Balkan Assist Association – a National Coordinating Organization for Bulgaria

Main Goal:
Enhance the strength and sustainability of civil society and strengthen its contribution to positive social change.

Sub Goals:
- Measure four different dimensions of the civil society: (1) its structure, (2) the external environment in which it exists and functions, (3) the value system established and supported in the field of civil society (4) the impact of the activities implemented by its representatives;

- Increase the knowledge and draw public attention to the status of civil society;

- Improve the possibilities of the civil society representatives through strengthening dialogue, collective knowledge and contacts.

Content and Encompass of the Project:
The Civil society index is an action research project implemented worldwide by NGOs or research institutes working in the area of citizen participation. During its first phase (2000 - 2001), the Index was applied in 14 countries – Ghana, South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, Pakistan, Belarus, Croatia, Estonia, Romania, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, Indonesia and the Wales. Based on the conclusions and the lessons learnt from the conduct of the pilot phase some of the aspects of the project conceptual framework have been changed. In the period 2003 – 2004 the Index, in its new design, will be applied in 25 new countries. One of the countries is Bulgaria and Balkan Assist Association is the national coordinator of the project implementation.
A National Index Team has been established which includes apart from Balkan Assist one researcher and one civil society expert.
The National team will conduct primary and secondary research in each of the 4 areas mentioned above. Further on, the findings will be presented to a “jury” of 12 prominent Bulgarian citizens - representatives of various parts of the civil society and the society as a whole. They will have to evaluate the findings giving a mark between 0 and 3 to each of the measures. The findings from the research and the evaluations will be presented and approved during a national workshop where strategies will be discussed for defining and eliminating the weaknesses found and some specific initiatives will be planned in that line. A final report will be displayed to the attention of Bulgarian and international public that includes the research findings, the evaluation of the individual measures and the decisions made at the national workshop.
Partners of association "Balkan Assist":
The project is implemented by Balkan Assist provided the methodological support of CIVICUS and in a partnership network with the coordinating agencies of the countries involved in the second phase of Measuring the Index – Argentina, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, The Check Republic, Egypt, Figgie, Gambia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Lebanon, Nigeria, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Slovenia, Uganda and Uruguay.