Estonian Civil Society Development Concept (EKAK):
Framework for Cooperation Between Third and Public Sector
Brief overview and some learning points

by Urmo Kübar
Executive Director
Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organisations (NENO,
www.ngo.ee
)

European Conference „How to foster civil dialogue i n Europe“
15 May 2008, Brussels

Long process allowed
widespread participation and
made EKAK ’our own’
document for the NGO
community
Although the consensus was
found between NGOs and
politicians, more attention
should have been paid for
involving ministries’ officials
into the process
Structure of EKAK: goals,
shared values and principles of
cooperation, ways of achieving
goals, and implementation
Process and content

Estonian Civil Society Concept (EKAK in Estonian as
an abbreviation from Eesti Kodanikuühiskonna
Arengukontseptsioon) was initiated by NENO in 1999 with financial support from UNDP. The document
was rewritten three times before EKAK was approved by Estonian Nonprofit Roundtable (an open forum
for all nonprofits in Estonia that was active from 2000-04) in 2001 and handed over to the Riigikogu
(Estonian Parliament). Long process allowed partici pation of hundreds of NGOs – the project managers
toured the country, met with NGOs at public roundta bles and drew up bulky charts of amendments and
proposals from people living in the remotest villag es –, and the feeling of ’ownership’ of NGO communi ty
over EKAK, thus making it a truly legitimate voice of the NGOs and not just a creation of one umbrella
organisation. Moreover, writing the document and la ter seeing it adopted by Riigikogu certainly gave the
Estonian NGO community a boost of self-esteem and s elf-recognition as a united force in society.

Parallel to the discussions within NGO community, t he political parties were involved in the process in its
development phase. Although it took more than a yea r before EKAK was adopted by the Riigikogu in
December 2002, the delay was caused more by confusi on which parliamentary commission should work
with it (finally it was done in joint operation of culture, social and constitutional commissions), no t by the
reluctance of politicians. Finally, EKAK was adopte d unanimously by all political parties represented in the
Riigikogu. However, looking back to the process, it can be said that the it should have involved also
ministries, because it was their mediocre awareness and interest in EKAK that later turned out to be the
weakest link of its implementation.
EKAK is the strategy document, that defines the mut ually complementing roles of public authorities and
civic initiative, principles of their cooperation a nd mechanisms and priorities for cooperation in sha ping
and implementing public policies and building up ci vil society in Estonia. Besides concrete goals and fields
of activities (e.g. improvement of the system of fi nancing citizens’ associations from public budget,
systematisation of the statistics about third secto r, development of the principles for public participation
in the policy-making and for outsourcing public ser vices to the nonprofit sector, etc) perhaps the mos t

Learning points Learning points Since the adoption in the
Parliament, NGOs can always
refer to this agreement in case
of problems with cooperation
between the sectors
Problems with
implementation: lack of
political interest; insufficient
financial and human
resources, and unclear role of
the implementation
Committee and its memebers
important underlying conception of this document is that both the public and the nonprofit sector are
equal partners in developing the society, and that nonprofit sector remains independent even if it rec eives
funding from public sector. Although it is likely t hat most of politicians at that time saw it just as a
declaration, the fact that it was adopted by the pa rliament has been very useful for NGO community as
since then it has been possible to refer to this do cument whenever there are problems with public and
nonprofit sectors’ cooperation.
In every two years (so far in 2005 and 2007) the pa rliamentary hearing takes place on EKAK
implementation. Implementation
A Joint Committee for EKAK implementation was estab lished in 2003 composed of representatives of each
ministry and NGOs from different fields. Among othe r things, the Committee was assigned to evaluate the
degree to which the parties have fulfilled the comm itments they undertook in the EKAK, as well as to
develop an activity plan for the years 2004-06. The re were three working groups established within the
Committee: one dealing with legislation and involve ment issues, second with sustainability of the
nonprofit sector, and third with civic education.
At the end of 2006, NENO conducted an audit for the Joint Committee that identified three main problems
in implementing EKAK: (1) lack of political interes t; (2) poor quality and implementation of activity plan
caused by insufficient financial and human resource s (the budget for the Committee was allocated from a
supplementary budget of approx. 130 000-190 000 Eu ros a year), and (3) unclear role and responsibilities
of both the Committee and its members, especially f rom the side of public sector (the ministries were
represented by officials who usually didn’t have th e power to make decisions in the name of their
ministry). Due to the lack of government funding th e NGOs represented in the Committee had to find the
resources often on their own if they wanted the wor k to get done (e.g. many activities were funded by
Baltic-American Partnership Programme). Furthermore , because of the limited resources the working

Members of the Joint
Committee had to be at the
same time responsible for
implementation and
evaluation
Formation of units clearly
responsible for EKAK
implementation in both the
public and the third sector
could speed up the
implementation process
groups within the Commitee had to fulfill two contradictory roles, being at the same time responsible for
implementation of the activity plan and evaluating the implementation. In the years following the
estabilishment of the Committee its membership incr eased to 30, which also slowed down the efficiency
of the work.
In order to solve these problems, NGOs recommended the revision of the principles and membership of
the Joint Committee and formation of implementation units in both the public sector and NGOs. During
the summer of 2007, the principles and membership o f the Committee were revised, and as a result the
new committee is smaller in number, but composed of higher level officials. It includes representatives of
10 umbrella organizations, business and trade union s, as well as chancellors (the highest state officials in
Estonia) of the ministries of Finance, Social Affai rs, Education, Culture, and Economic Affairs, and t he
deputy-chancellor of the Ministry of Interior. The Minister of Regional Affairs chairs the Committee. In
addition, a representative of the Estonian Parliame nt and two government foundations (Enterprise Eston ia
and Non-Estonians’ Integration Foundation) also sit on this Committee.

As about implementation units, a positive developme nt has been the employment of additional two
officials within the Ministry of Interior, under Mi nister of Regional Affairs, who are responsible for civil
society development (from 2003-07 there was only on e official working with these issues). The ministry
plans to establish a department for civil society d evelopment that would act as the implementation uni t of
EKAK on behalf of public sector. Nevertheless, NGOs are also pushing for the formation of implementation
unit on behalf of nonprofit sector, financed by the state budget. Although the need for such an unit w as
also supported by the chair of civil society suppor t group in the Riigikogu, the negotiations are still ongoing
without any signs of success so far.
The problems with the lack of units responsible for the implementation of EKAK became clear in the
process of putting together the Civic Initiative Su pport Development Plan, known as KATA in Estonian.
KATA aims to replace the activity plan for implemen ting EKAK from 2007. Essentially it is a document that
brings together information about all the activitie s from the development plans of the various ministr ies

EKAK has allowed a strategic
approach for civil society
development (as opposed to
just doing random projects). As a result, Estonia has a
functioning civil society and a
sustainable nonprofit sector
that are connected with civil society. The main pro blem however is that KATA does not perceive civil s ociety
as a whole (as EKAK does) but as a sum of specific activities particular to one sector. Therefore its focus is not
on the cross-sectoral issues, e.g. sustainability o f NGOs. Further, NGO participation in the developme nt of
KATA is also limited, because of the fact that it r elies predominantly on the ministries’ development plans.
Outcomes
The above provides a rather critical view of the EK AK implementation, with perhaps too much emphasis o n
the flaws of the system. As the initiators and as o ne of the leaders of implementation processes on be half of
NGO sector, we felt it is important to share these learning points in order to help prevent the same m istakes
in the case of similar cooperation documents being launched in future in other countries. Doubtlessly, EKAK
has initiated important steps in the development of the civil society in Estonia. Strategic approach has
allowed both the public and nonprofit sector to rec ognise the value of a strong civil society. Based on that
strategy (i.e. to do the right things), several gui delines and processes have been developed to achiev e this
vision (i.e. to do things rightly). Most important among them have been:
agreement of several Codes of Good Practices of coo peration between public and nonprofit sector,
namely Code of Good Practice on Involvement, Code o f Good Practice on Public Service Delivery and
Code of Good Practice on Funding (in process).
launch of government’s participation portal
www.osale.ee
, that allows civil society groups and
individuals to post comments about the ongoing cons ultation processes, while the ministries can
provide the public with draft laws, background mate rials as well as post polls
appointment of officials in every ministry, whose d irect responsibilities include involving the public in
decision-making processes. These people will superv ise the implementation of the Code of Good
Practice on Involvement in their respective ministr ies, and help both government officials and
nonprofit organisations in the matters of involveme nt.
launch of Civil Society Fund, financed from state b udget, that supports the development of nonprofit
organisations and innovative programmes for civil s ociety development. Also the mechanisms of
public funding through ministries are currently und er review, in order to harmonize the system.

development plans for Voluntary Work and Civic Educ ation (latter is currently in process)
establishment of regional development centers in ev ery county, providing free, broad-based
consulting to NGOs and basic trainings at an afford able price.
amendments to the Law of Nonprofit Associations tha t will make the annual reports of NGOs
accessable in the public registry from 2010, thus m aking the sector more transparent and
accountable
amendments to the Law of Income Tax which, among ot her things, also specifies the public benefit
(charity) status of nonprofits for tax incentives
several research on civil society issues and traini ng programs for both public and nonprofit sector

Further reading in English
Full text of EKAK and its activity plans:
www.ngo.ee/1030

Estonian reports in USAID NGO Sustainability Index:
www.usaid.gov/locations/europe_eurasia/dem_gov/ngoi ndex/

Kertu Ruus „Change of mindset underway as Estonian parliament adopts agreement on civil society“:
www.policy.lv/index.php?id=102558&lang=en

Katerina Hadzi-Miceva „Legal and institutional mech anisms for government-NGO cooperation in Croatia, E stonia and Hungary“:
www.ngo.ee/orb.aw/class=file/action=preview/id=20327/Legal+and+Institutional+Mechanisms+for+Cooperation_KHM+Final.pdf

Report by Urmas Reinsalu, the chairman of Civil Soc iety Support Group in Riigikogu:
www.ngo.ee/20508

You can also join NENO’s free newsletter (published in every two months) to keep yourself posted with developments of Estonian civil society:
www.ngo.ee/index.aw/set_lang_id=2

Feel free to contact NENO:
Toompuiestee 17A, 10137 Tallinn, Estonia │
www.ngo.ee
│
info@ngo.ee