2.10 Current debates and reforms
On this page
On this page
Forthcoming policy developments
On 6 June 2024, the government adopted The Civil Society Organisations Strategy. In addition, the Ministry of Justice published, for the first time, a report (in Finnish) on the operating conditions of civil society organisation. The aim of this report is to strengthen the knowledge of civil society organisations at the national level. In the future, these reports will be published alongside the Civil Society Organisation Strategies.
Ongoing debates
On 7 June 2024, The Finnish National Youth Council and Youth Sector published a statement (in Finnish), criticising the lack of inclusion of civil society organisations in the creation process of the newly adopted strategy. In addition, the statement called for more immediate, concrete and impactful measures to support civil society organisations.
The Citizen Forum, an umbrella organisation of more than 140 organisations and an important promoter of volunteer activities, has published an online statement (11.4.2024) signed by more than 260 third sector organisations from all over the country. The statement is titled as ‘Volunteering worth more than 3 billion is under the cuts’ (available in Finnish). As those organisations say, ‘the savings the government has planned related to the funding for third sector organisations put the organisations at risk of totally close down, and as consequence, along with it, the volunteer work that benefits the wellbeing of citizens and promotes democracy.