Serbia: paid and voluntary work

Employment

 A survey by the NGO Policy Group of 821 Serbian NGOs in 2001 showed that in 2000 the third sector had poor employment potential, as well as relatively scarce financial resources. As many as 77.3 per cent of NGOs in 2001 did not retain a single employee; 16.9 per cent employed  one to five people; and 2.3 per cent employed eleven or more people. [2]

A 2005 report by Civic Initiative suggests that the sector has not grown. According to a 2005 survey of Serbian NGOs (main type of organization present in Serbia’s third sector) only 34 per cent of NGOs employed full time staff and 55 per cent had part-time staff. The survey also revealed that those organizations that did have full-time staff tended to older and to be located in or around the capital city of Belgrade. [6]

The survey also brought to light the staffing challenges that non profit organizations in Serbia face. Twenty-nine percent of participants in the survey stated that their organizations were short staffed. That same percent added that staff was often under qualified for the position they held and that there was a general lack of motivation amongst staff. [6]  

Volunteering

There are no available statistics on the number of people volunteering in Serbia. Miodrag Shrestha, Excutive Director of the Bulkan Community Initiative Fund (BCIF), says that volunteering is not structured like it is in many other Western countries but that there is a strong will on the part of Serbians to actively participate in civil society. He offers this year’s World Environment Day (June 5, 2010) to illustrate this. It was reported that over 200,000 people came out as part of a campaign to clean the streets. “You can find young people all over Serbia who are conscious and who want to do something,” he says. [1]