Civil Society for Government Accountability (CSGA)

The Civil Society for Government Accountability (CSGA) program in Serbia, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is led by ISC in partnership with a diverse coalition of Serbian civil society organizations representing Serbia’s most vulnerable populations, namely seven NGOs: Autonomous Women’s Centre, Amity, Civic Initiatives, Center for Independent Living Serbia, Roma Information Center, Association for Protection and Promotion of Mental Health in Children and Youth, and Group 484.

The project will directly support the political and social reform process in Serbia within the framework of EU integration. The EU has identified government accountability as a key reform area and local Serbian organizations and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Team have also made it a key priority for upcoming years.

The project will improve government accountability and economic stability among Serbia’s most vulnerable groups. Its indicators of success include:

1. Greater government accountability in addressing priority needs of citizens, especially vulnerable populations, through transparent and inclusive budget making processes;
2. Transparent and accountable budget allocations in relevant line ministries;
3. Transparent and accountable budget allocations in municipal governments;
4. CSOs acquire the skills and network to continue monitoring the budget making process and ensure the legislated budget calendar for Serbia is implemented according to law.

Furthermore, the project will increase civil society organizations' effectiveness to address the needs of their constituencies—Roma, refugees and internally displaced people, the elderly, disabled people, youth, women, and children—by working together to hold local and national governments accountable to the needs of vulnerable groups. Local and national governments will also be benefit from the project by learning responsible, transparent and accountable practices of budget making and allocation.

Project activities correspond to the legislated annual national and local budget calendars for Serbia and include: preliminary research and analysis of opportunities and barriers to budget monitoring at both the national and local levels; expert training in government budget monitoring and accountability for coalition members; structuring the coalition and monitoring its action plan; budget monitoring and government accountability campaigns at the ministerial level; formation of Local Budget Groups that will monitor spending and advocate for programmatic budgeting; training of Local Budget Groups on budget monitoring; budget monitoring and accountability campaigns at the municipal level; mobilization of citizens to participate more actively in budgeting and policy formation/debate; and public promotion of all project activities.