President urged NGO representatives to share their views on main challenges caused by Coronavirus crisis and also thanked them for being active in addressing various social issues: ‘Non-governmental organisations are instrumental for democratic pluralism in Latvia. The fact that Council has been created and operates shows that Latvia considers non-governmental sector a national priority, an essential element of our democracy.’
Members of the Council emphasised that COVID-19 crisis has clearly shown that affected population groups are often forgotten behind the official statistics and suffer from insufficient government and public support. Groups affected by COVID-19 crisis and left without social assistance include youth, families with children, small enterprises and others. Children whose families cannot afford digital devices necessary for wholesome education and elders who lack digital skills are therefore having difficulties in terms of receiving specific social services. People with special needs are sometimes suffering from lack of information during the crisis.
President Levits echoed the opinion of Council members on the necessity to pay greater attention at the government and local level to the needs and voices of vulnerable groups of society. Egils Levits thanked all non-governmental organisations offering help their fellow citizens in need.
President and NGOs mentioned the limited participation of the civic society in decision-making process in the early stages of the current crisis and expressed hope that lessons will be learnt and in future NGOs will take greater part in decisions made at an outset of a crisis. Egils Levits agreed with opinion of the Council and said that ‘position of civic organisations must be equally represented in decision-making process – civic society must be represented in social dialogue alongside the employer and labour organisations’.
On building stronger civic participation in future, two concrete examples were mention: regional reform and programming of investments from European Union structural funds. NGOs need to be widely represented in these discussions and relevant decisions, because both areas are significant in the context of building sustainable society. NGOs should be viewed as a partner for solving environmental and other challenges and also a stakeholder whose opinion on long-term objectives also counts.
Participants exchanged views on ways of promoting volunteer work in Latvia. President of Latvia suggested that universities and businesses should also consider volunteer experience when selecting future students and employees.
President of Latvia Egils Levits will meet with Ivars Balodis, Chairman of the Board, Apeirons Organisation of people with disabilities and their friends, Inese Vaivare, Director of The Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation and coordinator of ‘Helping is easy’, Agnija Jansone, National Youth Council of Latvia and Head of Latvian scouts and guides, Āris Ādlers, President, Alliance for Cross-sectoral Sustainable Development, Jānis Rozītis, Director, World Wildlife Fund, Agnese Frīdenberga, Public policy think tank ‘Providus’, Uldis Dūmiņš, Civic Alliance-Latvia, Andris Gobiņš, Head of Zemgale NGO Centre and President of European Movement-Latvia, Kristīne Zonberga, Director of Civic Alliance-Latvia and former long-serving chairperson of the memorandum Council.
