- Paula-Mariana BEUDEAN, Public Administration and Management Department, ”Babeș-Bolyai” University, Romania, beudean@fspac.ro
Paula Beudean has been working with the Department of Public Administration & Management, "Babeș-Bolay” University, as an NGO practitioner, delivering courses, at the graduate and undergraduate levels, on NGO Management, Fundraising in NGOs, Volunteering Marketing, Advocacy and Lobby for NGOs since 2008. Her research focuses on NGO Leadership, NGOs’ readiness for innovation and digital transformation, NGOs and business cooperation, NGOs and their involvement in education services, etc. Paula has 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector, working in Romania and abroad. Currently, she works with an NGO in Romania and another one in Norway, as a project manager, grant manager and facilitator/trainer. Her NGO expertise is in fundraising, CSR, PR, design thinking, storytelling, media literacy, entrepreneurship, financial education, community development, and child protection.- Mária Murray Svidroňová, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, maria.murraysvidronova@umb.sk
Murray Svidroňová is an Associate Professor of Public Economy and Services at the Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. Her pedagogical and research activities are focused on the economics and management of the third sector, public and private nonprofit organizations, civil society and CSOs. She is particularly interested in social innovation issues in the area of public service provision, e.g. through co-creation, community building, and civic activism. She is active in several international studies and research projects dealing with public service innovation and civic engagement. In cooperation with the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government for the Development of Civil Society, she participated in the preparation of legislative changes in the field of financing NGOs. She runs her own civic association. She was the chairperson of the Mayor's Council of Banská Bystrica for non-governmental organizations (2015 – 2019). She is a member of the Accreditation Commission of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic for Specialized Activities in the field of youth work. - Iga Jeziorska, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, iga.jeziorska@sin.org.pl
Jeziorska is a PhD student in the Doctoral School of Political Science at Corvinus University of Budapest. Her main research areas include non-governmental organisations and their involvement in policy-making and public service delivery, especially in the area of drug policy. She has been actively involved in the third sector since 2011. She is a member of the Board of Advisors and a coordinator of the international network Youth Organisations for Drug Action. Since July 2018 she has been serving as a Chair of the Working Group on EU Drug Strategy and Action Plan in the Civil Society Forum on Drugs - an advisory body to the European Commission.The working group is focused on the third sector, including civil society organisations, hereinafter referred to as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their participation in governance in the states and regions of Central-Eastern Europe (CEE). Our broad objective is to create a forum for the intellectual and practical exploration of the role that NGOs play – independently and in collaboration with government institutions – in defining, shaping and achieving the public good. We define NGOs broadly and we are especially interested in those whose mission is strongly related to the public interest and that work in areas such as governance, social and health services, education, public policy, citizen participation, human rights and environment protection. watchdog activities and/or humanitarian aid, from all sides of the political and social spectrum.
The main theme of the Working Group on NGOs for the 2023 conference is the role and performance of NGOs in governance in CEE countries and neighbouring regions with the focus on NGOs that help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public services delivery, and achieve high standards of reliability and accountability of public sector organisations, as well as NGOs assisting in developing new services aimed at openness, transparency and citizen participation.
While we welcome work on all aspects of these topics, we are especially interested in the following:
- How emerging digital technologies and social media are influencing the work of NGOs in civil society? What is the NGOs’ readiness for online service delivery and "working from home” strategies in the light of (post)COVID-19? How are NGOs involved in e-Government; are they potential partners to help the public sector with establishing this reform? Can NGOs help to overcome the challenges of implementing new technologies in the transformation of public administration?
- How have NGOs assumed the role in response to the (post)COVID-19 pandemic crisis? In what ways have they been able to respond differently from the public sector?
- Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, how are NGOs involved in helping refugees, dealing with migration, with consequences of the war, and how are they trying to get the central and/or local governments to be more involved in supporting the refugees and creating support and integration structures for the refugees? How has the war affected the funding of NGOs, are there any new funding schemes on the topics related to the war?
- Regardless of the current crises (COVID-19, Ukrainian war), what are the factors affecting the sustainability of NGOs in CEE countries, and how do these factors, such as financial support, funding sources (public/private) and donors’ profile from within and outside of the region, affect their sustainability? How do entities relying on government support differ in their initiatives and functioning from those supported independently of the state?
- What is the role of NGOs in governance and provision of public services at the national and local level in CEE countries, and how is this shaped by public attitudes, government policy, legislation, and financial support, especially in the light of the EU's new strategy on the social economy? What is the role of NGOs in the new ways of providing public services (e.g. co-creation, participatory budgeting, behavioural economy insights and nudges, etc.), especially in the times of public sector /public administration crisis?
- What are the examples of existing multi-sector models of governance in the region, in which NGOs, government, academia, businesses and other stakeholders are seeking to work together? What are the points of conflict? How do NGOs act as potential entry points into policy making? How do governments perceive and act upon the policy issues set for them by NGO operations?
- What is the role of civil liberties/watchdog NGOs in CEE countries? How do they deal with human trafficking, migration, human rights, democracy and resilience? What is the state of human rights/civil rights/watchdog NGOs in various countries in the region? Does their situation differ from service-delivery organisations? Do the activities of watchdog NGOs support the resilience of public sector organisations?
- What are the features of government-civil society relations? Is the phenomenon of shrinking space of civil society observable? How does it manifest itself?
We welcome abstracts from all scholars and professionals with an interest in the NGO sector and in multi-sector governance processes, including from practitioners working in the sector and we invite all to join us for the 31st NISPAcee Annual Conference in Belgrade (Serbia). We welcome papers with a theoretical, empirical, and/or analytical focus that relate to the abovementioned themes.
From participants of this working group full paper is required before the conference.
Deadline of full paper submission is 10/05/2023.
You can find manuscript guidelines on THIS LINK.