The main challenges faced by the associations from Vinica refer to the lack of educated staff for writing applications, as well as complex and extensive procedures for applying for small grants. This was pointed out by the CSOs’ representatives from Vinica during the Mobile Resource Center on February 28 in the premises of the Initiative of unemployed intellectuals (INI) from Vinica.
The limited resources and capacities are the main reason for many short-term projects that do not have a major impact on the community. In terms of local needs, priority is given to infrastructure projects. In order to increase the sustainability of such projects, greater cooperation with the municipalities is needed and initiation for joint application for the active calls.
The lack of staff is a problem for most organisations. Also, organisations consider the young people to be involved as volunteers, but they are not interested in getting involved in the civil society sector. At the moment, organisations are not thinking about developing programs for volunteers and solve this problem on ad hoc basis.
The Civil Society Resource Center team had a meeting with the representatives of the Municipality of Vinica and discussed about cooperation with the civil society sector. There is currently no Strategy for cooperation between the municipality and the associations, yet the municipality provides financial support for them.
The local self-government awards financial assistance to organisations annually through an open call. For 2019 it is planned that the municipality will allocate 500,000 denars for CSOs and 1,000,000 denars for sports clubs and associations. Nevertheless, there is no established methodology for allocating funds and monitoring the implementation.
Civil Society Resource Center is an EU-funded project implemented by Macedonian Center for International Cooperation in partnership with Media Plus from Shtip and Association for Democratic Initiatives from Gostivar
