UCIPR presented the Civil Society Organizations Sustainability Index (CSOSI) survey conducted by UCIPR in Ukraine in the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
The CSO Sustainability Index is an international survey conducted since 1998 in 71 countries of the world, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
In the course of the survey, a panel of experts assesses the sustainability of CSOs according to the following parameters: Legal Environment, Organizational Capacity, Financial Viability, Advocacy, Service Provision, Sectoral Infrastructure and Public Image. The scoring scale starts at 7 points, which is the worst indicator, and ends with 1, which stands for the best results; the score is divided by tenths.
According to the results of the assessment, in 2017, the Index for civil society organizations in Ukraine improved from 3.3. points up to 3.2 points.
Organizational Capacity and Sectoral Infrastructure showed some improvement. In the meantime, the Legal Environment indicator score deteriorated.
Volodymyr Sheyhus, an organizational development research expert, said that in recent years public and charitable organizations have significantly improved their understanding of the importance of organizational development, they have started working on improving their policies and procedures, developing strategic plans and organization management systems. This was greatly facilitated by the activities of donor organizations, in particular SIDA, USAID and the European Commission, which started allocating funds for the CSOs organizational development and elevating the sectoral transparency and accountability standards.
Concerning the deterioration of the legal environment, the survey expert Maksym Latsyba said that the introduction of e-declarations for anti-corruption activists and draft laws on excessive reporting of civic organizations registered by the President of Ukraine are the major challenges in this area.
At the same time, Maksym Latsyba noted that 2017 brought forth some improvements in other aspects of the legal environment for CSOs, in particular, terms and conditions of activities, financing and interaction with the state. However, these positive changes were not sufficient to outweigh the negative effects of e-declaration of anti-corruption activists, therefore, overall Index score has been reduced.
The survey leader Mariya Heletiy stated that the shrinkage of legal space for the civil society organizations in 2017 was characteristic for a number of countries in the region. Thus, CSO sustainability parameters declined in Azerbaijan, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Romania.
Full regional report is available at the link (English)
Ukraine report is available at the link (Ukrainian)