The number of registered civil society organisations is rising, but this index has nothing to do with the state of civil society and may even be misleading. The relatively high number of organisations neither translates into their efficiency nor their activity. Out of the 72,000 registered subjects, only 39.2 per cent has shown actual activity. These organisations admittedly intensify their activity in the period prior to elections, but this does not change the fundamental fact that the majority of citizens (53.3 per cent) do not trust CSOs.
READ ALSO: Civil Society and Its Enemies
Analysing the causes of the impasse in the non-governmental sector in Ukraine, Iryna Bekeshkina points out to three elementary factors: the low evaluation of the sector's actions by public opinion; solvency problems of organisations; and the so called “identity crisis”. It seems that the above-mentioned elements are nothing more than the symptoms of the crisis of non-governmental organisations in Ukraine, while the key word is trust. Moreover, the organisations frequently become part of a political game, being dragged into a number of the authorities' absurd and often harmful undertakings.
