Intersectorial Policy

Prior to the Second Lebanon War in 2006, a team from the Israeli Center for Third Sector Research led by Professor Yitchak Gal-Noor, together with organizational leaders and professionals from the field, had already produced an exhaustive report re the Third Sector, namely its importance, the lack of clear policy and understanding by the government towards it, as well as the value to be gained by utilizing the nonprofit organizations, through an intersectorial approach. The authors contextualized their claims in that for decades the social or civil grew in size since the 1980s, but the government was yet to respond proportionately.

During the war, endless rockets rained on hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians in the northern areas, and while the government and military proved to be ill-prepared, slow and confused to manage the needs of all the people, it was the hundreds of nonprofits that spontaneously organized themselves, as if by an invisible hand, to provide assistance, including medical, logistical, food, volunteer manpower, social services, children and youth activities, finances, and more. This surprising occurrence boosted the perception of the Third Sector in the eyes of the public and the government, and was used by leaders of the Third Sector to advocate the established research and policy papers at hand. What was the role of the Third Sector in national emergency crisis?

The research notes the advantages and faults of the Third Sector, such as flexibility and adaptability, innovation and proximity to the field, the problems and the community, general autonomy, relative trust as nonprofit incentives, potential to mobilize exponential manpower through volunteers of the public, ethical apolitical ideologies, along with often complex opinions of those involved, sometimes institutionalization, pressure for donations and financial instability, narrow focus points, lack of professionalization, bureaucratic challenges.

In February 2008, the Prime Minister’s Office, issued decision number 3190, based on the research and policy recommendations above, to strengthen the relations between the public, business and social sectors, to cooperate for public interest, while preserving the essential autonomous nature of the nonprofit organizations, and a roundtable forum would be established to facilitate discussions between representatives and leaders from each of the three sectors. The decision recognizes the importance of the Third Sector, commits to regulating the relations between the sectors, including outsourcing public services, delegating to the Corporations Authority the task of improving accessibility and transparency of nonprofits to the public, ordering and reiterating tax benefits and protocol for nonprofits, correcting legislation, budgeting major funds to nonprofit organizations, investing in professional training programs, and more.

Since then, the Intersectorial Roundtable has convened many times and out of it policy papers and booklets have been made and new projects have been launched. Immediate fields are in education, environmental protection, and welfare. It can rightly be said that the research of Professors Benjamin Gidron and Yitschak Gal-Noor and others, made its mark and led to awareness on the part of the Israeli government, to see the Third Sector, and see how it is used in other countries, and build upon its capacity.

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