Evaluation of civil society development plan 2015-2020

The Institute of Baltic Studies (IBS) together with Tallinn University Civil Society Research and Development Centre and Turu-Uuringute AS is conducting an impact evaluation of the Civil Society Development Plan 2015-2020.

The impact evaluation is necessary to assess if the indicators in the Civil Society Development Plan 2015-2020 have been achieved and to obtain input for the Civil Society Development Program 2020-2030. The results of the evaluation will give an overview on current developments in Estonian civil society and the thorough analyses of the strategy will complement the impact evaluation. The results of the impact evaluation will be the basis for the policy recommendations of the next civil society development program 2021-2030.

The impact evaluation will help to assess how well the general purpose of the current Civil Society Development Plan (active non-governmental organisations and socially active people) and its sub-goals have been achieved and how its measures and activities have influenced the following aspects:

• Involvement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in policy-making;
• the impact of NGOs on preventing and solving societal problems and on improving people’s well-being;
• the working environment and operational capability of non-governmental organizations.

Civil society includes self-initiative in creating cooperation opportunities to protect the interests of citizens, discuss public matters and participate in decision processes; in addition to  the unions, networks and institutions that enable that.

 In December 2002, the Estonian Parliament adapted the Estonian Civil Society Development Concept, which is the basis for the strategic development of Estonian civil society. Following this, the Ministry of the Interior together with other public sector stakeholders and civil society organisations have been coordinating the sectoral national policies and developed civil society development plans.

The impact evaluation will consist of three parts:

1. To map the current situation in Estonian civil society a representative survey will be conducted with Estonian NGOs with the aim of identifying their activities and the factors that support or hinder their work. It will be already the fifth time that this survey is conducted and it will give valuable comparative information on Estonian civil society developments. Previous surveys were held in 1998, 2005, 2009 and in 2014.
2. Impact evaluation of the CSDP 2015-2020. Within the framework of the impact evaluation, an assessment of meeting the objectives set in the CSPD 2015-2020 will be compared to the situation in 2015. An analysis of the objectives of the development plan and if they are still topical and relevant will be conducted. Additionally, it will be studied whether the actions of the operational program have contributed to the objectives of the operational program.
3. Practical policy recommendation for the 2021-2030 Civil Society Program will be compiled based on the analyses made in the two previous phases of the study.

The Evaluation of the Civil Society Development Plan 2015-2020 is financed by the Government Office Strategy Unit. The study report will be published in May 2019.