Government-Funded Sustainable Development and Professionalisation of NGOs

Livija Rojc Štremfelj,Jana Žnidaršič,Miha Marič

doi:10.3390/su12187363

Livija Rojc Štremfelj, Jana Žnidaršič + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187363

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Sep 8, 2020
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Maribor, University of Ljubljana

Abstract

This paper addresses the first financial initiative of the Slovenian government for the professionalisation and development of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to promote sustainability in the third sector. The measure was the result of the Non-Governmental Organisations Act, adopted in 2018, and was followed by the Development strategy of non-governmental organisations and volunteering until 2023 (DSNGOV). The state’s contribution to an increased level of professionalisation was welcomed by NGOs because, compared to other EU28 states, which have an average employment rate of 4.18%, Slovenia is far behind, with only 0.82% of its active working population being employed in the NGO sector. In May 2018, the Ministry of Public Administration released invitations to fund projects for the development and professionalisation of NGOs and voluntary service, providing grants for 100 NGO jobs. The final project results were compiled in March 2020, and the findings were evaluated in 29 survey reports in April 2020. The research focused on the occupations for which employees were sought, legal forms of the applicant NGOs and recruitment methods. The results demonstrate that the state measure was successful, as 69% of the funded jobs were sustained. However, most of the retained jobs were filled by those who were previously employed in the NGO sector (84.6%), so the employment rate has barely risen.

Highlights

It is taken for granted that workers get paid for the work they have done
We focused on the data about the legal form, job titles and recruitment methods according to the two sets as foreseen by the tender specification
The results demonstrate that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) do not have the competence for planning and implementing the human resources that would be necessary to perform the tasks of volunteer training, mentoring, and coordination with full-time employees

Summary

Introduction

It is taken for granted that workers get paid for the work they have done. While this may be true for the public and corporate sector, it is not the case for the non-governmental sector, where volunteers make up most of the workforce. As is the case around the globe, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Slovenia have become visible players in the social and political scene. Despite being portrayed as professional organisations in the literature, data show that more than 90 per cent of Slovenian NGOs do not have employees [2]. Despite the Slovenian government’s ambition to increase the professional structure of NGOs, we should frankly say that the professionalisation of NGOs in Slovenia has been understudied.

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