Event Details

Central Statistical Office of Poland (CSO)
Warsaw
Poland
27-28 October 2016

Event Description

The international seminar “Getting statistical visibility for the growing importance of the Third / Social Economy Sector. Achievements to date and new methodological tools for comparative Third Sector research across Europe” was attended by 66 people, including representatives of government, third sector organizations, academia, and statisticians Poland and 14 other European countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Spain, Latvia, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Hungary, Italy).

The plenary session was opened by the President of the CSO, Dr. Dominik Rozkrut and Deputy Minister Krzysztof Michałkiewicz – Secretary of State in the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy. They announced that the CSO and the Ministry are inaugurating a project Integrated System of Monitoring the Social Economy (in Poland). The project aims at combining data from all kinds of public databases and registers with results of organizational surveys carried out by official statistics to produce a set of indicators for monitoring development of Social Economy in Poland. To make the results internationally comparable the system will contain a satellite account on nonprofit institutions and other social economy entities following the definition of the Third/Social Economy Sector worked out within the Third Sector Impact Project.

The opening plenary lecture on the development of international research on non-profit institutions and then on the third/ social economy sector was delivered by Prof. Lester Salamon (Johns Hopkins University). The expanded concept of the third sector had been developed within the framework of the EU supported international research project Third Sector Impact. Results of this project in Poland showing the role of the third sector as well as barriers to its development were presented by Prof. Ewa Leś – head of this project in Poland.

Later on a presentation on the development of research on the third sector / social economy in Central Statistical Office of Poland was presented by Dr. Sławomir Nałęcz (CSO and Institute of Political Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences), Dr. Piotr Łysoń (director of Social Surveys and Living Condition Dep.in CSO) and Tomasz Sekuła (Head of the Social Economy Research Unit at the Statistical Office in Cracow). The presentation showed growing quality and scope of the statistical research on the third sector (coverage: associations and similar membership organizations, foundations, faith based charities, labor unions, political parties and volunteer work of the Polish society) naming also main factors of this development such as strategic, innovative and inclusive approach as well as a crucial role of working in partnership with statistical and other public institutions as well as third sector partners (Institute of Catholic Church Statistic, National Cooperative Council).

After the plenary session there was a workshop part of the seminar, which lasted for one and a half day. Among the participants were representatives of official statistics from Poland and 14 other countries, who under the guidance of Prof. Lester Salamon and Dr. S. Wojciech Sokolowski from Johns Hopkins University were discussing aims, assumptions and methods of implementing the forthcoming, extended edition of the UN Handbook on Non-Profit Institutions in the System of National Accounts in the context of experience in some countries where the satellite account on non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs) or the satellite account of non-profit institutions (NPI) had been implemented. The conclusions from the workshop will help the CSO of Poland in applying the new UN Handbook in compiling satellite account of the NPIs and then satellite account of third / social economy sector. The account is expected to be one of the elements of the Integrated System of Monitoring Social Economy (in Poland) allowing for the systematic measurement of the participation of the third sector in the national economy, as well as enabling comparisons with countries in which the account is produced.

The main organizer of the seminar was Social Surveys and and Living Conditions Dep. of the CSO of Poland with the participation of Dep. Of Social Economy and Public Benefit of the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy as well as the Polish team of the Third Sector Impact Project. The Organizing Committee consisted of: Dr. Sławomir Nałęcz (Central Statistical Office of Poland, Institute of Political Studies – Polish Academy of Sciences), Karolina Goś-Wójcicka (Head of Social Economy Research Unit at the Central Statistical Office of Poland) and Prof. Ewa Leś (University of Warsaw, Head of Polish team of the Third Sector Impact project)

The seminar was carried out within the project Integrated System Monitoring Sector Social Economy co-financed by the European Union under the Operational Program Knowledge Education Development 2014-2020.