With financial support of UNDP Office for Europe & CIS ECNL prepared Handbook on Non-state Social Service Delivery Models. The Handbook is based on good European practices in social contracting and includes case studies from Ukraine, Armenia and Kazakhstan.

The team also drew on a comprehensive review of current research and legislation relating to social contracting, with a focus on Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (ECIS). The Handbook focuses on service provision by civil society organizations (CSOs) with public- funding support, largely due to the fact that CSOs represent the main non-state service providers in the CIS region. Therefore, while the Handbook makes reference to all non-state providers in the introduction, it provides case studies and guidance primarily with regard to
non-profit, non-governmental organizations, referenced here as CSOs.
The Handbook asserts the obligation of the state to ensure the provision of social services as stipulated by international legal instruments, and underlines the primacy of the human rights based approach to service provision. While government responsibility and funding for services cannot be delegated, the operation of such services can be contracted out to nonstate providers. The mixed modalities of such service provision serve to improve access for people in need of social services by broadening the choices available to them.

The Handbook will assist the government officials and CSO practitioners in CIS countries and beyond with developing or improving legal framework for the involvement of non-state actors in social services delivery.

This Handbook is authored by Nilda Bullain and Luben Panov, experts of the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) with research support of Hanna Asipovich.