Prague, July 29 (CTK) – The civic and non-profit sector in the Czech Republic has finished third out of 29 countries from Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia in the annual assessment of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Marek Sedivy told reporters Wednesday.
Only Estonia and Poland were assessed better, Sedivy, president of the Czech Association of Public Beneficial Organisations (AVPO), said.
Statistical data show that the Czech non-profit sector has been rising in the past few years and in some parameters it has returned to the level before the economic crisis starting in 2008.
The USAID assessment compares, for instance, the stability of non-profit sector and the legislation level.
The AVPO is a partner organisation of USAID in the Czech Republic for this assessment.
The overall result of the non-profit sector in 2014 remains the same as in the previous two years, but its organisational structure has improved.
“People and non-profit organisations participate more in public life. Three elections held last year helped a lot, along with the activities of young people communicating on social networks,” said Sedivy.
He added that on the basis of his personal experience from abroad, he supposed that the Czech non-profit sector was working very well.
On the contrary, its situation in the neighbouring Slovakia and Hungary has worsened, he added.
Non-state non-profit organisations gained 12.7 billion crowns from public resources in 2013, which is one billion more than in 2012. The data for 2014 are not available yet.
Subsidies for sports have long been rising, while those for environmental protection and health care have been dropping, said Zuzana Prouzova, from the Centre for Non-profit Sector Research of Brno’s Masaryk University.
In 2012, non-profit organisations received 11.2 billion crowns from individual donors, about a half of which was provided in the form of voluntary work. Firms donated some 4.3 billion crowns, which is more than before the crisis, Prouzova said.
According to preliminary data for 2013 and 2014, the non-profit sector has been rising its situation has improved.
