PartnersGlobal Builds Civil Society Resiliency in Serbia

Washington, DC — PartnersGlobal signed a new cooperative agreement with the United States Agency for International Development to strengthen civil society resiliency in Serbia. Civil society creates channels of communication and cooperation between government officials, business professionals, and nonprofit organizations to overcome collective challenges and improve the lives of people of Serbia. It is the vehicle to elevate citizens’ voices and needs, and mobilize for change.

The five-year Civil Society Resilience Activity, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and implemented by PartnersGlobal, seeks to contribute to a more inclusive and pluralistic Serbian society. The project helps civil society to remain resilient in the face of closing civic space and perform its function as an effective watchdog, advocate, and monitor by:

1. Equipping civil society with new knowledge, skills, and tools to fundraise, connect with different stakeholders, and communicate in complex operating environments;
2. Building constructive dialogue between government and citizens;
3. Bridging the gap between citizens and civil society through awareness raising, storytelling, and outreach; and
4. Enabling the (re)emergence of civil society-government dialogue by improving existing civil society organizations’ participation mechanisms.

Building on two years of successful resiliency programming in Serbia under the INSPIRES project, this program will address the fragmentation of the sector through a cultivated blend of resiliency interventions that reach civic actors at the individual, organizational and sectoral levels. Targeting all three of these levels embodies the pillars of our ResiliencyPlus approach.

Project partners include the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), DT Institute, European Center for Not-for-profit Law (ECNL), Civic Initiatives, and Partners Serbia, all of which will provide strategic advice, legal, research, and technical assistance to dozens of civil society organizations and initiatives throughout Serbia. 

“This project reflects our commitment to ensure locally driven responses to complex challenges impeding civic engagement.” says Roselie Vasquez Yetter, Co-Executive Director at PartnersGlobal.  “With a combined three decades of Serbian civil society leadership across our consortium partners, we will collectively support civil society organizations’ resilience in the face of increasingly complex civic space challenges in Serbia.”

To learn more about the Civil Society Resilience Activity, please contact Program Manager Jessica Himelfarb directly at [email protected].