Ured za udruge Vlade Republike Hrvatske
The Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs was founded by the Regulation on Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs in 1998 with the aim of performing expert work in the domain of the Croatian Government with regards to creating conditions for cooperation and partnership with non-governmental, non-profit sector, especially with associations in the Republic of Croatia.
The Office has a wide scope of activities, from cooperation in creating and proposing new legislative frameworks for the activity of non-governmental, non-profit sector in the Republic of Croatia, monitoring the implementation of the National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development and measures of the Operational Implementation Plan for the Strategy to forming a programme, standards and recommendations for financing the activities of civil society organizations from the state budget and other public funds, as well as pre-accession and structural funds of the European Union.
According to the effective Regulation on Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs, the task of the Office is to coordinate the work of ministries, central state offices, Croatian Government offices and state administrative organizations, as well as administrative bodies at local level in connection with monitoring and improving the cooperation with the non-governmental, non-profit sector in the Republic of Croatia.
The Office implements projects supporting civil society development funded from the European Union: it is a contact point for the Europe for Citizens programme, acts as a Project Implementation Unit for the first component of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, and is an Intermediate Body level one for the Human Resources Development Operational Programme.
Under the Code of Good Practice, Standards and Benchmarks for the Allocation of Funding for Programmes and Projects of NGOs adopted by the Parliament in February 2007, the Office works on improving the standards for financing organizations’ programmes from the state budget. The Office closely cooperates with the Council for Civil Society Development to which it, at the same time, offers technical, administrative, professional and financial support in its work.