Description
There currently are no quality standards in Lithuania that would allow distinguishing independent and active NGOs working with human rights and social development issues in the country. Furthermore, there are no NGOs accountability and quality standards resulting in lack of public information about these organizations. The objective of this project is to contribute to a better NGO environment in Lithuania by developing standards and a set of criteria allowing to classify Lithuanian NGOs working with human rights and social development issues in the country and to better disclose the nature and types of their activities, areas of support and challenges. The outcome of this pre-defined project as defined in the call for proposals is the increased knowledge of national and international donors about capabilities, capacities, areas of expertise and challenges of the NGOs involved in human rights and social development in Lithuania. Additional indirect outcomes include increased accountability in the NGO sector and better visibility of this sector in the country. The target groups of this project are international and national donors, regional and national NGOs. Beneficiaries partly include the society at large and the public sector organizations working in the area of NGO policy.
Summary of project results
When NGO Programme Lithuania was started there were no quality standards in the sector that would allow distinguishing independent and active NGOs working with human rights and social development issues in the country. Furthermore, there were no NGOs accountability and quality standards resulting in lack of public information about these organizations what consequently increased distrust and indifference towards NGOs among citizens (especially those living outside major cities). The objective of this project was to contribute to a better NGO environment in Lithuania by developing standards and a set of criteria allowing to classify Lithuanian NGOs to better disclose the nature and types of their activities, areas of support and challenges. The outcome of this pre-defined project as defined in the call documents was “The knowledge of national and international donors about capabilities, capacities, areas of expertise and challenges of the NGOs involved in human rights and social development in Lithuania has increased”. Additional outcomes include increased accountability in the NGO sector and better visibility of this sector in the country. As a result, TI Lithuania created a first NGO register of this kind which allows visitors to search for any organization registered in Lithuania and better understand its activities and capacities. There are more than 2000 NGOs registered along with additional more than 500 organizations that do not satisfy NGO criteria. During the first week after the launch more than 1400 unique visitors came to the website
www.nvoatlasas.lt and looked for at least 3 organizations at a time. It can be stated that this project has contributed significantly to the increase of openness of NGOs and better understanding how does the NGO sector look like, what are the main activities, target groups and beneficiaries of NGOs. The web-based tool also helped people looking for volunteering opportunities to find an organization that best suites one’s criteria. The target groups of this project were international and national donors, regional and national NGOs. Beneficiaries partly include the society at large and the public sector organizations working in the area of NGO policy. The feedback received after the launch indicates the potential for further developments, improvements and additional features of the platform that could enhance the benefits for the users as well as attract more of them who haven’t used it so far.
Summary of bilateral results