REPORT – THE THIRD FORUM OF YUGOSLAV NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (ENG)

REPORT – THE THIRD FORUM OF YUGOSLAV NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

The Third Forum of Yugoslav Non-Governmental Organizations was organized in Belgrade, May 17-19, 2001 by two Organizers: the Centre for Democracy Foundation and the Centre for the Non-Profit Sector Development. The main message of the Third Forum was CHALLENGES OF THE PRESENT DAY.

The primary objective of the Third Forum was to refer to challenges that the non-governmental sector in Yugoslavia has been faced with after the democratic changes. During the past few years, the non-governmental sector was substantially committed to achieving democratic changes in the country, while during the last year, through launching numerous pre-elections campaigns by non-governmental organizations, it contributed to a great extent to winning the elections in order to non-violently overturn the authoritarian regime. Owing to exerting tremendous efforts in accomplishing that goal, the non-governmental sector has developed itself and become an important factor of the democratization and reforms in our society. Nowadays, non-governmental organizations carry out their activities in an utterly altered environment, while the program priorities and the methodology of the sector’s work have also been changed. The work of non-governmental organizations in the transition period often calls for the cooperation with public sector, but it also requires the attitude of being critical to the government. That is why this topic has been given a great attention to at the preceding Forum...