Timeframe: 01.03.2019 – 31.12.2019
Funded by: ifa / Zivik Federal Office of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany
Key actors in the project are: Civil society organizations from the 10 municipalities; Minorities (ethical, religious) and specific groups (women, first time voters); Media; Municipal officials; and representatives from political parties.
The municipalities where the activities are being implemented are: Prilep, Resen, Krusevo, Dolneni, Bitola, Kumanovo, Veles, Stip, Debar, Gevgelija
With this project we contributed to the empowering of the minorities and specific groups and to the promotion of participatory democracy.
We are providing SUPPORT to the mechanisms for institutional responsibility.
We are IMPROVING THE PARTICIPATION of the citizens, minorities and specific groups in the decision making, political independence and the democratic process.
With continued activities such as trainings, round tables, forums and other activities we STRENGHTENED the capacities of civil society organizations, minorities (ethnic, religious) and specific groups (women, first time voters, students) in 10 municipalities where the project activities are being implemented.
We CONTRIBUTED for development of the civic activism and we improved the cooperation between the media and the civil society organizations, the specific groups (women, first time voters, students) and the local politicians.
The results that are coming out of this project are:
– – Increased participation of CSOs, minorities and specific groups in the decision-making process of the local community and national levels.
– – The youth, minorities and specific groups are more capable to demand transparency, accountability and responsible governance.
– – Increased interest of the youth, minorities and specific groups for participating in the creation of the local politics.
– –Educated youth, women and representatives from the civil society organizations about the human rights and democracy.
In fact, with the realization of this project we are supporting the mechanisms for institutional responsibility and we are improving the participation of the citizens, minorities and specific groups in the governance, political independence and democratic process. With the project, we are contributing to the strengthening of the capacities of the civil society organizations, minorities (ethnic, religious) and specific groups (women, first time voters, students) in the creation of a political opinion for increasing the political participation, as well as strengthening the capacities of the media in order to contribute to the process of participatory democracy.
We assessed the capacities of the target groups in the direction of their knowledge of the documents for civic participation, their motivation to be included in the democratic processes and their perception for the objectiveness of the media reporting. Based on these assessments, the target groups participated in a process of building capacities for creation of their political opinion trough using relative information. In the implementation until now, the special focus of the project is the cooperation between the media, citizens, representatives of the local self-governments and local politicians.