중동부유럽

Civil engagement is a form of social capital that is widely considered to be one of the key drivers of democracy and good governance. In times of crisis, social cohesion is what keeps people from leaving disaster-struck region, allows for easy mobilization of groups, and can provide informal insurance where normal resource providers are not available. This assessment looks at the capacity of the Civil society organizations (CSO) in Romanian municipalities. Due to the large-scale involvement of the Romanian CSO in the response to the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it is set in the context of CSO crisis response and analyses their contribution to mitigating the consequences of the healthcare and social crisis caused by the pandemic in Romania. The main themes that emerge from this analysis are the collaboration between CSO and other actors, its results, and lessons learned for the future of CSO in the context of their contribution to the sustainable development of the country. The assessment is based on the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data characterizing CSO performance over the past few years, including existing studies, descriptive statistics from official databases as well as the 2020 World Bank CSO survey and a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of the public sector both central and local government, donors and CSO representatives. This rapid assessment will inform the on-going program of the World Bank Group in Romania, and the preparation of the next Performance and Learning Review of the Country Partnership Framework FY2019-2023.