Comprehensive Report on the Activity of the Agency for the Support of the Civil Society During the Year 2016
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COMPREHENSIVE REPORT ON THE ACTIVITY OF THE AGENCY FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY DURING THE YEAR 2016 Tirana, January 2017 Table of contents: CHAPTER I General Overview 2 CHAPTER II Enforcement of transparency law, information law, law on National Council of Civil Society 5 Statistical analisis of grants allocation according to the priority fileds distribution for Call for Proposal No. 9 7 Statistical analisis of grants allocation according territorial distribution for Call for Proposal No. 9 10 CHAPTER III Monitoring and evaluation of budget indicators for 2016 17 The "Civil Society Support Program" 19 The disbursement performance of financial grants 22 CHAPTER IV Main activities carried out by the ASCS during 2016 25 CHAPTER I AGENCY FOR THE SUPPORT OF CIVIL SOCIETY General Overview Agency for the Support of Civil Society Support of Civil Society is focused on the (ASCS) is a public bugetary institution, stimulation of the all inclusive and established by Law No. 10093 date participation to the democracy. 09.03.2009 “On the Organization and Functioning of the Agency for the This is reflected in the efforts to create an Support of Civil Society". environment that is favorable to the activities of civil society and to the ASCS is established for the purpose of capacity building of Non Profit assisting with Financial and Technical Organisations so that they can be Support to the Civil Society in the effective, accountable and independent country, being committed to promote, actors, through the formalization of support and defend the principles of transparent and non-discriminatory human dignity, freedom, equality, non- registration procedures, through the free discrimination, rule of law, respect of and independent activity as well as human rights, transparency and through the cooperation between citizens professionalism. etc. An active, strong and comprehensive civil Civil society, having appropriate society can play an important role into structures and mechanisms for the practical implementation of these cooperation with the ASCS and other principles. It is also an essential public institutions, as well as free, clear component of every functioning and accessible flow of information on democracy. matters of public interest, through consistent and structured mechanisms, By articulating the citizens’ issues, the enhances its autonomy, that of civil society organisations, as non- representation and accountability, thus governmental entities and non-profit strengthening the foundation of the structures where people are organised to organisations according to the highest follow common objectives and ideals, standards of internal governance, should be more and more active in the through the inclusion of democratic public affairs, as well as should be structures, the monitoring and evaluation envolved in such initiatives that promote process, the financial management, the the plurarism and participation to the transparency, information and mutual democracy. cooperation. In the framework of the empowerment policy of civil society, the Agency for the ANNUAL REPORT 2016 • Agency for the Support of Civil Society 2 BODIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE INSTITUTION Agency for the Support of Civil Society was established by Law no. 10093 date 09.03.2009 "On the Organization and Functioning of the Agency for the Support of Civil Society" and its mission is the promotion of sustainable development of civil society and the creation of favorable conditions for civil initiatives, in the good and to the interest of public. To fulfill this mission, the functional duty of the Agency for the Support of Civil Society is to provide financial and technical assistance to programs that promote and strengthen the sustainability of nonprofit organizations; inter-sectoral and international cooperation; civic initiatives; philanthropy; volunteerism of democratic institutions of civil society; as well as other programs that facilitate its mission fulfillment. Agency for the Support of Civil Society has as the object of its activity: . promotion of cooperation with NGOs, whose object of their work is supervision of anti-corruption fight; combating trafficking in human beings and the treatment of its victims; against domestic violence and violence against children; . encouragement of citizens in activities, their inclusion and participation in community development; . respect for human rights; . the creation and consolidation of the capacities of civil society; . development of inter-sectoral cooperation and cooperation between civil society organizations; . increase public influence and activities of civil society organizations in decision- making; . the development of social entrepreneurship and employment in the nonprofit sector; . increase the influence of civil society in the process of drafting and adoption of public policies . determination of the procedures applicable to the distribution of funds for the support of civil society. ANNUAL REPORT 2016 • Agency for the Support of Civil Society 3 LEGAL FRAMEWORK, STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF ASCS Legal framework on the functioning and organisation of work Agency for the Support of the Civil Society operates and supports its work based on a comprehensive legal package, as follows: a) Law no. 10093 date 09.03.2009 "On the Organization and Functioning of the Agency for the Support of the Civil Society". This Law, so far has not undergone any change. b) Decision no. 769 date 15.07.2009 of the Council of Ministers "On Approval of the Statute of the Agency for Support of Civil Society". c) Decision no. 789 date 16.11.2011 of the Council of Ministers "On an Amendment to the Decision no. 769 date 15.07.2009 of the Council of Ministers "On the Approval of the Statute of the Agency for the Support of Civil Society". d) Regulation of the Agency for the Support of Civil Society, endorsed the Decision of the Supervisory Board in its meeting on 20.09.2010. e) Regulation of the Agency for the Support of Civil Society, updated in accordance with changes and adjustments provided for, in Decision no. 789 dated 16.11.2011 of the Council of Ministers "On an amendment to the Decision no. 769 date 15.07.2009 of the Council of Ministers "On approval of the Statute of the Agency for the Support of Civil Society." These changes were approved by the Decision of the Supervisory Board in its meeting on 30.11.2011. f) Regulation "On the Procedures of Grants Funding to Civil Society" approved by the Supervisory Board Decision no. 1 date 08.07.2010. g) Regulation "On the Procedures of Grants Funding to Civil Society", as amended by the Decision of the Supervisory Board in its meeting on 10.03.2011. h) Decision no. 1 date 08.07.2010 of the Supervisory Board of the Agency for the Support of Civil Society, through which were adopted − Application Form. − Evaluation Criteria. − Contract Type i) Instruction no. 1 dated 29.12.2010 of the Executive Director of the Agency for the Support of Civil Society "On completion of financial and audit reports aiming projects monitoring funded by the Agency for the Support of Civil Society". j) Order no. 161 date 05.09.2013 of the Executive Director of the Agency for the Support of Civil Society "On the procedure for the administration of the written acts, applications / proposals, creation of files and the manner of their turnover inside ASCS". ANNUAL REPORT 2016 • Agency for the Support of Civil Society 4 CHAPTER II Enforcement of transparency law, information law, law on National Council of Civil Society Full Application of the Law on Public Consultation REALISED BY ASCS: In the framework of LAW No. 146/2014 “ON THE PUBLIC NOTIFICATION AND CONSULTATION” with the object as hereafter follows: 1. This law regulates the public notification and consultation process of the draft-laws, national and local strategic draft-documentations, as well as that of policies in the high interes of the public. 2. This law defines the procedural rules that must be followed to guarantee the public transparency and participation in the policy and decicion making processes of the public entities. 3. This law aims the encouragement of the transparency, the accountancy and the integrity of the public authorities. ASCS has undertaken the necessary measures for the application of this law throughout its activities, turning this public consultation proccess into a fundemental key element for certain issues and decisions of its strategic work. More specifically we mention: CONSULTATIVE MEETINGS TO DEVELOP A MED-TERM AND LONG-TERM STRATEGY as well as the priority areas to fullfill its mission (aiming a wider geographical coverage, respectively in Vlora, Pogradec, Kukes, Shkodra and Tirana). In this process, the Agency has involved various representatives of civil society, NGOs, civic initiatives, academic institutions, research centers, foundations, international partners, central and local authorities etc. These meetings were held to be an important instrument of dialogue and also to increase transparency between civil society and institutions. In order to facilitate the provision of their opinions, there were distributed short questionnaires prepared in advance, which they could also be found online on our website : www.amshc.gov.al Based also on the questionnaires filled by the representatives of the civil society in all our meetings as a whole, filled (and gethered by us) either manually or electronically to the address: [email protected]; or even from the discussion of the participants in our five meetings.