When big meets small

Last October, a conference on “Civil society, E.U. funds and the partnership” was organized in Poland to point out the importance of the partnership between NGOs and the Public Administration, in particular in the effective implementation of EU funding. Our Agnieszka Rymsza reported from Poland.

“Who pays the piper, calls the tune”. So goes the proverb. And so seems to be the general situation nowadays in Poland, with regards to the partnerships between third sector organizations and the public administration, where the latter still owns the funding to be distributed. Yet, time could lead to some changes.

These were some of the main outcomes of the conference „Civil society, E.U. funds and the partnership”, held last October 28th, 2009 in the Polish Senate.

The conference was organized by the Parliamentary Group for Cooperation with Nongovernmental Organizations, Institute of Public Affairs and National Federation of Nongovernmental Organizations. Among the conference participants there were: members of the Parliament, representatives of public administration, members of committees monitoring the implementation of the E.U. funds and activists from nonprofit organizations.

The conference consisted of several presentations and discussions. Out of various themes discussed at the conference the discussion on the role or importance of the partnership in effective implementation of the E.U. funding and the partnership itself deserves particular attention.

The discussed partnerships were mostly partnerships between public administration and nonprofit organizations.

Two types of partnership were distinguished. The first one was the ‘project partnership’: partnership created for the purpose of the realization of particular projects (or maybe rather receiving funding for the realization of certain projects). Such partnerships are created when certain funding programs require or give additional points to projects that are to be conducted in partnerships. The conviction behind necessitating or encouraging such partnerships is that all, even those ‘forced’ partnerships bring synergy effect and added value – and – will eventually transform into real – organic partnerships, partnerships of relations between equal partners that want to act together for public good.

Therefore, the main idea of the discussions was that the existence of such public-nongovernmental organic partnerships is essential for the effective implementation of the E.U. funding in Poland. Nonprofit organizations should be partners and active actors in several dimensions of the implementation of the E.U. structural funds:

1. in the development of rules and themes and priorities of contest programs to distribute the E.U. funds,
2. in the realization of the projects – to report on existing problems,
3. in the promotion of the opportunities lying in the E.U. funds,
4. and, most importantly, they should participate in efforts to coordinate E.U. programs and funding with Polish national policies. 

Unfortunately, the Polish experience so far has shown several problems with the functioning of this idea or ideal. Above all, most organizations complain that they either have no opportunity to express their opinions or their opinions are not taken into account.

On the local level, as they say, most local governments treat them as petitioners or applicants, not partners (who has the money has the power).

On the central level, there are some public-nonprofit consultation groups where the voices of nonprofit sector representatives are heard and sometimes taken into account, but in those groups, mostly representatives of big, infrastructural, Warsaw-based organizations participate, and the interests of small organizations from small towns are not represented.

Without close partnership between government(s) and nonprofit organizations from all levels and of all types there will continue to be discrepancies between Polish government policies and E.U. funding programs on the one hand and priorities and the real needs of Polish citizens on the grass-root level, on the other.

As a result, not real needs of citizens will influence policies and E.U. programs but E.U. programs will ‘artificially’ create needs.

Yet, there is some hope that the quality of public-nonprofit partnership will improve with time. One has to remember that the partnership between public and nonprofit sectors was – in a way – forced by some legal regulations and rules of various funding programs, and it will take time before the two sectors will learn about one another’s perspectives, problems and ways of conduct.

Also, many young people who want to have a broad array of experiences often change jobs and switch between the work in the nonprofit sector and the public sector. This gives hope that the sectors – through their employees – will understand one another better. 

For more information on the conference, visit the Polish Senate website: http://www.senat.gov.pl/k7/agenda/seminar/091028.htm (in Polish only).