At the end of 2008, Polish government passed the Strategy for Supporting Civil Society development for 2009-2015. It is not known yet, however, whether this Resolution will have any practical implications, especially that the analogous strategy passed by the previous government in October 2007 was absolutely fruitless: it did not even have any financial base or indicators that would enable one to estimate the level of its realization.
The new Strategy encompasses years 2009-2015. It has as a legal framework two acts of law: Act on the Principles of Conducting Development Policy and Act on Public Benefit Activity and Volunteer Work. The Strategy by its assumptions is not a compendium of final solutions. It is a set of proposal that will be continuously developed and modified in cooperation with the partners this Strategy concerns (thus also nonprofit organizations). In its current form the Strategy is to show the general direction of the civil society development in Poland.
The Strategy starts with the simplified definitions of civil society. The first definition states that civil society is a space of activities of institutions, organizations, social groups and individuals, stretching among family, state and market, where people undertake a free debate on values constituting the common good and voluntarily cooperate with one another for the realization of common interests. According to the second definition quoted by the document civil society is a society of active citizens, mindful of common interests, society where political dependence is based on the principles of equality and social relations are based on trust and cooperation. The main aim of the Strategy is empowerment and increase f participation of citizens and their communities.
The Strategy lists its three main strategic goals:
- Achievement of optimal level of citizens’ participation in public life, which is considered as a basic condition of active participation of citizens in shaping public affairs;
- Quantitative and qualitative development of civil society institutions;
- Creation of mechanisms of the functioning of a good state – which is to signify the realization of the fundamental principles adopted by the Strategy: principles of subsidiarity, participation, partnership and civic dialogue in relations between public administration and citizens.
The goals are then transformed into priorities, showing the areas where activities for the civil society development are to be carried out. These are:
- Active and aware citizens, active local communities – this priority encompasses activities such as: civic education, activization of citizens in public affairs, activization of local communities in local partnerships and creation of local infrastructure for civic activities.
- Strong nonprofit organizations in a good state – this priority encompasses activities aiming at: strengthening of potential of the nonprofit sector as a partner of public administration, supporting development of the organizations’ infrastructure, increasing quality of management in modern public administration and promoting of civic dialogue as a medium of civic participation
- Development of nonprofit organizations for social integration – this priority encompasses activities such as: social exclusion prevention through strengthening families and local communities and activization of people in the risk of social exclusion, assuring access to services and providing help to groups at the highest risk of social exclusion, creation of mechanisms of complex social integration
- Development of social entrepreneurship – this priority implies the following kinds of activities: strengthening the role of the third sector as the employment provider (the employment rate in the nonprofit sector in Poland is one of the lowest in Europe), creation of mutuality forms in economy, development of Corporate Social Responsibility and innovative forms of social entrepreneurship.
All of the four priorities to a lesser or higher degree should translate into actions affecting the third sector. The realization of the Strategy is going to be funded from several sources: E.U. grants, Polish budget, local authorities funds and other (non – E.U.) foreign funds. The Strategy is to be realized by nonprofit organization and public administration of all levels. Coordination of the implementation of the Strategy is a responsibility of a minister appropriate for social affair issues, who every two years should present to the government the report on the realization of the Strategy. The Strategy should be up-dated every four years, following broad public consultation. The Document ends with the invitation for the debate on the operationalization of the Strategy.
