Prihvatanje ili neprihvatanje promena, uloga civilnog društva i lokalnih samuoprava u reformskom procesu u Srbiji

Accepting or Not Accepting Change, the Role of the Civil Society and Local Self-Governments in the Reform Process in Serbia

27 April 2011, Igor Kostić

Many Citizens in South Serbia do not know what a civil society organisation is. Few know how CSOs operate, what they do, how they contribute. Even fewer are aware of their role.  Does the public in Serbia understand the role of civil society? Are representatives of local self-governments aware of the CSOs’ potentials? Are we in civil society aware of the power we have, what our greatest strengths are and where we can apply them? I myself have been trying to find answers to these questions for a long time. Maybe I have unknowingly answered them a long time ago. I have the feeling that my everyday grind is preventing me from asking myself the crucial question: what is the role of civil society in Serbia?

In the past twelve years I have been doing this job, I’ve had many opportunities to travel across Serbia, from Preševo to Subotica, from Negotin to Prijepolje, to meet people working in the local administration, in institutions active in their local communities, but also with the local civil society activists. During my work, I have come to know all segments of Serbia’s society, some to a much greater extent through personal contact and conversations than by reading reports and analyses. One of the conclusions I cannot agree with but have to accept as reality is that the civil sector has over time simply tapered out. Civil society organisations have dwindled in numbers, all but disappeared. A large number of CSOs, and I am here referring to those headquartered outside the nation’s capital, have nearly vanished because of lack of information, the “odd system” of its dissemination, the procedures they had not prepared for, the rules they had not learned. A large segment of society in South Serbia has thus been sidelined. Some people, who had worked there for years, changing the people and their communities, have grown tired, given up. CSOs have advocated social activism and worked on it for years. But they themselves have over time begun to close up, turn to their projects. You could say they are now professional. Some would say they are profitable for some people, maybe political parties and individuals… One thing is absolutely true, we are less and less truly active and we are more and more just promoting activism. Something definitely has to change. Are we accepting change, are we willing to change, professionalise ourselves or work under the same rules? Do we need new people or new approaches, or both?! It seems to me that there are two arguments corroborating the inevitability of change: the first is that we transform ourselves in the same way, at the same pace as the society we are living in is: slowly and painfully. The other is more a round-up of the general atmosphere in the organisations, testifying to the burn-out, the exhaustion, the lack of readiness to change. The new rules of work “force” CSOs to professionalise themselves, not to be just groups rallying people who think alike and want to change something. We are slowly turning into professional services working for the good of the community, a specific target group, or we are working to achieve everything we have committed ourselves to. We are more and more partnering with the state in its fulfilment of its duties to the citizens, rather than criticising it, initiating change. Has such work alienated us from the Citizen? Well, I am sure it has. If one is to believe information in various surveys, and we cannot but agree with it, our work is different now, we focus on fewer citizens, but we implement much more specific programmes, definitely projects and activities the results of which we evaluate every day. We may have lost our primary role of being “voice of the people”, but we have “become” the service which had been missing, the service the state does not have, the service which acts easily and rapidly, which produces visible results. And the Citizens feel that. Those who have continued working for CSOs know that our output is of much greater quality than it used to be, no matter how tired of procedures and rules we are, no matter how much they limit scope for creative thinking.  

We have for years been hearing that, and indeed we ourselves have been promoting it, inter-sectoral cooperation, primarily between the public and civil sectors, is the key to success. The extent to which the sectors have linked up, “interfaced”, the extent to which this cooperation is recognised and accepted by the local institutions is an entirely different issue. The analyses and surveys, I have to refer again to them because I deal with them and work on them every day, demonstrate that we in CSOs are not recognised as partners in reform by the local communities, primarily by the municipal institutions. If we have the potential and the knowledge, as I said at the beginning of this text, why aren’t they recognised by the local institutions? Why aren’t we cooperating? Are we ourselves making mistakes? The percentage of CSOs in South Serbia implementing specific projects with local institutions is small. In my opinion, all partnerships are “forged” in the way against which we in CSOs have fought, with conclusions “why we should work together”, not in real action. Maybe our partnerships are mostly forged at the personal level “if my uncle works on your project, you will get my signature”?! How “infected” are we by this “acute virus of change” and can we beat it? Yes, we can, I am sure about that! We have to show the public, particularly the local communities we ourselves come from, that we truly believe in our work and the changes our work brings. We have to prove we are the ones with the capacities, above all human capacities, for change. We in the CSOs can spearhead change, be part of change. Only in that way will local institutions, and I am referring to municipal leaderships, accept us as equal partners, not as rivals. 

During my travels across Serbia, I have met wonderful people in small communities, people with praiseworthy ideas, who do amazing work. I asked myself at the beginning of this text why we working in CSOs are not well accepted by the Citizens. Maybe one of the answers is that we have never promoted the “little people” in the civil sector, have never given them the chance and opportunity to publicly show what they do and how they do it. Maybe we, who work in other parts of Serbia and not in the capital, have been pushed to the sidelines by the media or “prominent figures in the CSOs in the nation’s capital”. Maybe we who work in the local communities have not motivated the Citizens to join us and help us. The solution may lie in opening up to the local community, telling the Citizens about us, who we, people working for CSOs, are, what we do, our programmes and projects. What we do will then meet with a better response, the public will understand why we are active and the local institutions will invite us to cooperate. We will thus improve our admittedly not so great image in our local communities. We have to embrace change. If we are the initiators of change, let’s start by changing ourselves. Let’s open our doors and warmly welcome “ordinary Citizens”. Can we explain why we do what we do by using everyday language? It would cost us nothing, it can only help, “rally” new people, fresh views on the world, the institutions we want to reform. If we need new people and new knowledge, we can and we need to try and change ourselves. We need to meet the Citizens, find out who is where, who can do what, why we have to and need to work together. There is no doubt in my mind that these small projects and actions are sure to succeed, have measurable results. We need each other. The state needs us in CSOs and we in CSOs need the state. So let’s get down to work. Let’s embrace change, invite new people, give our Citizens’ new ideas a chance to come true. Only in this way is our future in the community of European states and people ensured. 

Igor Kostić
Civil society activist

The attitudes outlined in this article represent personal beliefs of the author and do not necessarily reflect viewpoints of the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme, or the European Union, the Government of Switzerland and the Government of Serbia.

Please be informed that the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme – EU PROGRES was completed on 31 March 2014. If you would like to learn about the activities and results of the European PROGRES, which is a continuation of development support of the European Union and Government of Switzerland to the South East and South West Serbia, please visit www.europeanprogres.org