News

After five years of grantmaking in the Western Balkans, midway to the 10-year timeframe established for the program in 2010, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund commissioned an independent assessment to evaluate impact, such as progress made in Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia, against the goals and indicators of the program framework.

The Fund has revised its Western Balkans grantmaking guidelines to reflect the results of a midterm impact assessment of its work and the program’s evolution since the guidelines were last revised in 2010.

A new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and the Kosovo Civil Society Consortium for Sustainable Development, finds that a constructing another coal-fired power plant in Kosovo would be the wrong direction for the country’s development.

In Podgorica, Montenegro, RBF President Stephen Heintz signed a memorandum of understanding with Prime Minister Milo Dukanovic, Mayor Slavoljub Stijepovic and Ajsa Hadzibegovic, program director of of Civic Alliance, in support of a Civil Society House in the capital city.

A recent report by Princeton University’s Innovations for Successful Societies highlights the collaboration among civil society leaders to make necessary changes to Kosovo’s judicial processes during its nascent independence.

The European Foundation Centre (EFC) has released a paper comparing and analyzing the current landscape for public-benefit foundations and nonprofits in six countries of the Western Balkans. The EFC’s European Center for Non-Profit Law published the report, contrasting the legal and monetary nuances of foundation work in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.

The fifth annual Forum on the Development of Philanthropy in the Western Balkans: Philanthropy for Green Ideas was held from July 24–27, 2014 in Llogara, Albania. Philanthropy for Green Ideas is a regional competition that encourages communities to generate business ideas, utilizing local resources and revitalizing traditions of production and community-based markets in an environmentally-friendly way.

In April, Partners Albania held a nationwide competition for civil society organizations, social enterprises, and small business ventures to pitch and develop innovative, sustainable business ideas. Fifteen groups competed during the two-day Green Ideas Competition.

Croatian President Ivo Josipović, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, and Montenegrin President Filip Vujanović have appointed personal envoys to RECOM, the regional commission working to identify and disclose facts about war crimes that occurred in the Balkans during the 1990s. They will work with RECOM's Regional Expert Group, to review its draft statute and move forward in the establishment of RECOM.

On December 5, 2012, Forum for Civic Initiatives (FIQ) celebrated the role of philanthropy in helping to develop Kosovo's nascent economy, during its fourth annual Fides Awards ceremony. The Fides Awards recognized five organizations and individuals, who have shown an extraordinary commitment to investing in Kosovo and its citizens through philanthropy.