TACSO Croatia Office is completing a series of kick-off events in four Croatian regions. The first one was held on February 16th in Primorsko-Goranska County, in the City of Rijeka. The second kick-off event took place on February 17th in Zagreb, where it gathered representatives of both service delivery and advocacy organizations. The third event took place on February 22, where TACSO and GOfCNGOs teams visited Osijek in Eastern Slavonia. On March 5th, the last in the series of kick-off events will be held in the coastal town of Split, in Dalmatia County. The kick-off events have been organised in cooperation with GOfCNGOs whose representatives provided participants with an overview of the current EU funding opportunities and presented the Implementation Guidelines for the recently adopted Code of Practice on Consultation of the Interested Public in the Procedures of Adopting Laws, Other Regulations and Acts.
Partnership will continue to be the main mode of operation for TACSO Croatia Office. On March 9, 2010, in cooperation with the Centre for Education, Research and Counselling (CESI), a conference on the occasion of the International Women's Day will be held in Zagreb. The speakers will include representatives of business associations, trade unions and governmental institutions. Within the main topics of overcoming gender inequality in the labour market, special attention will be given to employment possibilities for women within the non-profit sector. The conference will also serve as a forum to promote social entrepreneurship as a new opportunity for civil society organisations in Croatia. In April and May, two conferences on the Quality Assurance System for Non-profit Organisations will be held in cooperation with the Association for Civil Society Development SMART.
Project Team
Aida Bagic - Croatia Resident Advisor
Ms. Bagić holds a Bachelors degree in General Linguistics and Philosophy from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and a Master of Arts in Political Science degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA. She has more than 15 years of volunteer and professional experience in democratisation and civil society development, especially in the areas of promotion of freedom of association, advancing the rights of marginalised and vulnerable groups, gender issues and peaceful conflict resolution. Ms. Bagić has a proven record in the field of research and consulting, especially as an external evaluator, working for various governmental bodies, international institutions and non-governmental organisations, including Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past, Centre for Women’s Studies, Women’s Human Rights Group B.a.B.e, CARE International, UNIFEM, UNDP etc.
Except for Croatia, Ms. Bagić also worked as a consultant in other countries of Western Balkans (BiH, Serbia, Kosovo) and former Soviet Union (Uzbekistan, Georgia). As a recipient of the OSI International Policy Fellowship she conducted a research on international assistance to women’s organizations in post-Yugoslav countries. She also published on a variety of topics relevant for civil society development. In addition to manuals on conflict resolution and evaluation, she wrote on corporate social responsibility, gender dimension of voluntary work etc.
Irena Slunjski - Project Officer
Ms Irena Slunjski is a respected civil society expert with more than 10 years of experience in capacity building of civil society organisations including trade unions and NGOs dedicated to professional development of civil society organisations in Croatia. She has a proven track record in working with Croatian civil society organisations and over eight years of experience in the development of new tools for networking, partnership building and dialogue between civil society and the government. She has provided technical assistance to CSOs in the areas of regulatory legal frameworks, cooperation with stakeholders, CSO accountability, and participation in decision making, financial and organisational status, networking and partnership. Ms Slunjski has considerable experience in design, management and implementation of cross-sectoral programs addressing civil society organisations including Social Welfare Reform Project, CroNGO program, and EU funded programs. She was a member of the Review Committee and Managing Board for the Youth Exchange SEE Program, Allavida (UK) East Europe Program – covering the following countries: Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.