During the assembly, G. Šavelė was elected to the ECF Board of Directors for a three-year term. This marks a significant step in representing Lithuanian civil society at the international level. Congratulations to Gaja, and we wish her meaningful and productive work!

In addition to the board elections, the assembly approved the annual report, covering a crucial period in European and global contexts; adopted updated ECF statutes, better reflecting the network’s mission and operational principles and welcomed eight new member organizations from Croatia, Bulgaria, Albania, Spain, Czechia, the United Kingdom, and Italy.

The event also featured the international conference “Strengthening Democracy and the Rule of Law in Europe in the Face of Polycrises”, focusing on civil society’s role in upholding democratic values and the rule of law in times of overlapping crises.

Participation in this event was part of the project “Strategic Advocacy and Inclusion: Strengthening National Umbrella NGOs”, funded by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour of Lithuania.

The strategy will look at what civil society actors need and the challenges they face. It will also show what measures are already in place to support and protect them, and it will highlight their important role in all areas of EU policy.

Consultation is open until 5 September.

Learn more and have your say here.

At the national level, an NGO transparency and accountability standard will be developed and implemented, which is expected to be adopted by at least 200 organizations. The project will also include regional and national cooperation, consultations, training, and workshops with NGOs, municipal, and national institution representatives.

One of the important aspects of the project is cooperation with the Swiss organization “Foundation Zewo” to transfer best practices to the Lithuanian context. Municipal NGO councils will be strengthened, their involvement in decision-making will be increased, research will be conducted and a pilot application of citizens’ assembly mechanism will be implemented in two municipalities.

The project will be complemented by an information campaign “Voice of NGOs” promoting transparency, best practices and public trust in the NGO sector.

Project implementation period: 2025 March – 2028 December

Total project budget: €2,356,495.51

Learn more about the project here.

Project “Strengthening the Role of NGOs and Enhancing Their Transparency” is funded for 2024-2029. Funded by the Swiss Confederation and Lithuanian Republic Cooperation Programme ‘Civil Society Engagement’ and co-financing funds”

We invite NGOs whose project funding for the period 2024–2025 has been suspended or terminated to fill out a short survey. You can find the survey here.

Based on the results, we will be able to propose appropriate solutions to the Parliament and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania so NGOs can continue their activities.

The information collected will be used anonymously – the name of the organisation will not be published.

Once the law enters into force, NGOs and media outlets that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad will have to register as “agents of foreign influence”.

Such decisions by the Georgian government, along with violence against peaceful demonstrators, are incompatible with European values and the principles of democracy.

The National NGO Coalition expresses its support for the people of Georgia in their fight for democracy and believes in the European future of the country’s civil society.

This year, the Coalition is participating in AGNA’s 90-Day Accountability Challenge. The goal of this initiative is to encourage national networks and their members to operate in alignment with the Global Standards for Civil Society Organizations

For this year’s challenge, the Coalition team has chosen to focus on the fifth commitment of the Global Standard, which calls on organizations to ensure meaningful and timely stakeholder engagement at all stages of their work.

The Coalition’s challenge is to ensure that the people it works with and for play a meaningful role in shaping the organization’s activities.

Our team’s task is to develop and implement a feedback mechanism that will help improve performance and enhance the overall impact of the Coalition’s activities.

The results of this project, along with those from associations in other countries, will be presented during the annual Global Accountability Week in October.

The project is being implemented from March to June 2022.

The project is funded with 4940.00 Eur.

We will invite participants to the project events in April. In the meantime, we encourage you to review and share the informational materials prepared last year:
A memo for NGOs on how to recognize disinformation threats and protect against them, and
9 tips on how to distinguish truth from falsehoods.

The materials are available in LT, EN, RU languages here: https://www.ngo.lt/atsparios-nvo/