Only 4% of State Funding in Civil Society Organizations’ Revenue for 2022

Revenue of Civil Society Organizations from the State for 2022

In 2022, the revenue of civil society organizations from the central budget amounted to 307,999,072 MKD. Of these funds, 213,882,847 MKD were awarded through public calls, while 94,116,225 MKD were allocated without a public call. Considering the total revenue of civil society organizations, state funding, i.e., funds from the central budget, accounts for just 4%. Compared to the previous year, the share of central state funding remains the same at around 5 million euros. By budget beneficiary, a significant decrease is noted in the funds allocated to the Agency for Youth and Sports, which received around 88 million MKD in 2021 but only 5.3 million MKD in 2022.

A new addition in 2022 is the funding allocated by the Ministry of Political System and Inter-Community Relations (14,528,000 MKD), an amount lower than the initially planned 20,000,000 MKD in the budget for that year. Notably, the Ministry of Justice allocated funds for the first time to seven civil society organizations through a public call. The total amount is 1,050,000 MKD, with each organization receiving 150,000 MKD.

Unfortunately, for the first time in more than 10 years, the General Secretariat of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia did not allocate funds through a public call in 2022, even though the program to support civil society organizations had been adopted through a participatory process. Last year, the General Secretariat allocated a total of 17,840,000 MKD without a public call, including 15 million MKD to the Red Cross of North Macedonia and 2.8 million MKD to six civil society organizations.

With the stagnation in the reform process for state funding of civil society organizations and the prolonged boycott of the Council for Cooperation between the Government and Civil Society, conditions are not being created to fulfill the Government’s obligation to gradually increase funds for civil society organizations. According to the Action Plan for implementing the Strategy for Cooperation and Development of the Civil Society Sector 2022-2024, the Government committed to increasing the share of state funding in civil society organizations’ revenues to 20% in 2022, 25% in 2023, and 30% in 2024.

Highest and Lowest Grants from Central State Funding for 2022

In 2022, the lowest grant awarded to a civil society organization from the central budget was 13,760 MKD, allocated by the Ministry of Culture. The highest grant was 12,180,000 MKD, awarded by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. These same amounts, from the same ministries, to the same organizations, were allocated in 2021 as well. Additionally, in 2022, a grant of 15 million MKD was awarded to the Red Cross of North Macedonia from budget line 463 – transfers to non-governmental organizations.

Planned Funds for Civil Society Organizations for 2023

In the 2023 Budget of the Republic of North Macedonia, 886,250,000 MKD is allocated under budget line 463 – transfers to non-governmental organizations. This amount excludes funds from the Ministry of Justice, as funds from budget line 463 are typically allocated to political parties, and excludes the Ministry of Culture, as no funds were planned in this line. It remains to be seen whether these funds will undergo adjustments with budget rebalancing scheduled for the fall and to what extent they will be realized as planned. Encouragingly, significantly more funds are planned for 2023 compared to previous years. However, the lack of political will to establish a structured system for state funding, similar to European Union countries, makes the process unpredictable and subject to ad-hoc changes throughout the year.

We Advocate for Reform in State Funding for Civil Society Organizations!