STRENGTHENING STRENGTHENING CIVIL SOCIETY CIVIL SOCIETY GLOBALLY GLOBALLY 2017 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION SUSTAINABILITY INDEX FOR CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AND EURASIA 21st EDITION - SEPTEMBER 2018 2017 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION SUSTAINABILITY INDEX FOR CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AND EURASIA 21st EDITION - SEPTEMBER 2018 Developed by: United States Agency for International Development Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance In Partnership With: FHI 360 International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) Acknowledgment: This publication was made possible through support provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-LA-17-00003. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those of the panelists and other project researchers and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or FHI 360. Cover Photo: Social Weekend’s Hackathon gathers 300 people to develop public benefit ideas (February 2017). The Hackathon was organized by Social Weekend - the largest contest of projects to attract motivated professionals from different fields to develop ideas useful to society. Photo Credit: USAID/Belarus TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................................ ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................................... 1 2017 CSO SUSTAINABILITY INDEX Albania ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Armenia .................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 Azerbaijan ................................................................................................................................................................................ 29 Belarus ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 38 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) ........................................................................................................................................ 47 Bulgaria ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 56 Croatia ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 64 Czech Republic ...................................................................................................................................................................... 72 Estonia ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 81 Georgia ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 89 Hungary .................................................................................................................................................................................... 96 Kosovo .................................................................................................................................................................................... 106 Latvia ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 114 Lithuania ................................................................................................................................................................................. 123 Macedonia ............................................................................................................................................................................. 133 Moldova ................................................................................................................................................................................. 142 Montenegro ......................................................................................................................................................................... 151 Poland ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 160 Romania ................................................................................................................................................................................. 170 Russia ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 179 Serbia ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 191 Slovakia ................................................................................................................................................................................... 201 Slovenia .................................................................................................................................................................................. 210 Ukraine ................................................................................................................................................................................... 219 ANNEX A: CSO SUSTAINABILITY INDEX METHODOLOGY .................................................................. 229 ANNEX B: STATISTICAL DATA ....................................................................................................................... 249 ANNEX C: REGIONAL MAP ............................................................................................................................ 252 The 2017 CSO Sustainability Index for Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia D The 2017 CSO Sustainability Index for Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia INTRODUCTION The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is pleased to present the twenty-first edition of the CSO Sustainability Index (CSOSI) for Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia, covering developments in 2017. In 2017, USAID reaffirmed its commitment to working with a diverse array of partners, including civil society, to advance the principles of self-reliance and locally-sustained development. The CSOSI provides a comprehensive assessment of the capacity of civil society to serve as both a short-term partner in implementing development solutions and a long-term actor in ensuring development outcomes are sustained. The CSOSI empowers local civil society to collectively assess not only the environment in which they are operating, but also their own capacities to advocate, operate sustainably and communicate with citizens. Allowing local civil society to self- identify their development challenges is the first step in promoting resiliency and long-term self-reliance. This year’s Index reports on the state of CSO sectors in twenty-four countries in the region, from the Baltics in the north to the Caucasus in the south, and the Visegrad countries in the west to Russia, which stretches east to the Pacific Ocean. It addresses both advances and setbacks in seven key components or “dimensions” of the sustainability of the civil society sector: legal environment, organizational capacity, financial viability, advocacy, service provision, sectoral infrastructure, and public image. The Index is intended to be a useful source of information for local CSOs, governments, donors, academics, and others who want to better understand and monitor key aspects of sustainability in the CSO sector. The Index’s methodology relies on CSO practitioners and researchers, who in each country form an expert panel to assess and rate these dimensions of CSO sustainability during the year. The panel agrees on a score for each dimension, which can range from 1 (most developed) to 7 (most challenged). The dimension scores are then averaged to produce an overall sustainability score for the CSO sector of a given country. A DC-based Editorial Committee composed of technical and regional experts reviews each panel’s scores and the corresponding narrative reports, with the aim of maintaining consistent approaches and standards so as to facilitate cross-country comparisons. Further details about the methodology used to calculate scores and produce narrative reports are provided in Annex A. The CSO Sustainability Index for Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia complements similar publications covering other regions: the