- 21-07-2022 07:45
- Velizar Petrov
Business
Ideas Incubation and Support for the 3rd sector or Boosting cooperation between
the 3rd Sector and Public Administration
INSPIRING
NEW BUSINESS PATHS AND BUILDING COMPETENCES OF GROUPS AT RISK OF EXCLUSION
The
share of population at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019 peaked among
the EU Member States, at 32.8 % in Bulgaria, 25,3% in Spain, 20,6% in Ireland,
and 18,2% in Poland (almost 21% in the EU). At the same time the pressure on
public social systems and budgets Increased, creating a gap between decreasing income,
and increasing expenditure for basic social needs. It is thus crucial for local
governments and public administration to look for smart ways to address
emerging socio-economic issues and cooperating with the 3rd sector may just do
the wonders looked for.
The
Challenge
The
2008 financial crisis and the prolonging COVID crisis heavily impacted the
European non-profit sector causing work discontinuity and social obstacles. The
third sector organisations are now in a delicate position also in terms of
stable financing sources that would enable them to continue employment
especially for vulnerable groups.
While
NGOs are fighting for their organizational recovery and stable position in the
3rd sector, it often leads to bigger competition for the same public funds,
which are continuously decreasing. There are also difficulties in effective
interaction between civic organizations and administration, which does not know
the results of NGOs work or is unable to assess its specific contribution to
the community. It is important to note that many NGOs themselves fail, due to
lack of resources and/or knowledge, to present themselves clearly through their
results and contributions. Success in building partnerships of NGOs with local
authorities is also a result of personal characteristics and attitudes of the
parties, which is often difficult to achieve in the 3rd sector with the
resources those organizations have. Municipal administrations tend to limit the
range of NGOs they work with due to (dis)satisfaction with previous experience
or intent to simplify the procurements processes and selection criteria. At the
same time to a large extent, NGOs do not know the nature and dynamics of the
administration world, especially regarding the legal framework that defines its
responsibilities, competencies and public procurement rules.
The
Solution
Boosting
Entrepreneurship with the Public Administration among NGOs and Social Economy
Entities is the goal of the international partnership of 5 organizations from
Spain, Poland, Ireland, and Bulgaria. A Business Ideas Marketplace created
jointly with business and public administration, mentoring and workshops for
NGOs, will become the means to "drag out" potential for cooperation
between the 3rd sector and the public administration institutions.
"Our
aim is to create added value in the social sector, facilitate the generation of
economic viability tools for NGOs and improve their relationship with the world
of administrations, in the new context of public procurement." - says
Velizar Petrov, Executive director of RDA with BSC for SMEs.
DRAGGING
Project has an objective to help with the following 3 challenges:
• diversify the sources of income for
NGOs by improving their capacity to respond to the needs of the administration
and to achieve stable sources of income and by identifying new opportunities
for collaboration between the social and business worlds when providing
services to public administrations
• take advantage of new
legislations/public hiring opportunities
• generate job opportunities for people
at risk of exclusion.
The
marketplace of ideas will allow companies to identify and develop business
opportunities that respond to the shortcomings of their respective sector. An
online course accompanying the good practices platform will additionally
provide competencies and skills related to entrepreneurship and business
management and give support to the most vulnerable entrepreneurs in managing
their own micro companies.
To
find out more about the DRAGGING Project and to get involved in the activities
please follow the link draggingproject.eu or #draggingproject
The
DRAGGING Project is co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+
Grant Agreement: 2021-1-ES01-KA220-ADU-000028269
The
European Commission support for the production of this publication does not
constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the
authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be
made of the information contained therein.