The Civic Resource Centre (CRC) team continues to organise visits of the Mobile Resource Center and maintain close contact with local organisations across the country. On 18th April 2024, the CRC informed the representatives of the civil society organisations (CSOs) and the local self-government from Karbinci about the opportunities and services it offers, such as the Help desk tool, the free use of the premises in Shtip, Gostivar and Skopje for organising events, sharing information and resource materials relevant to organisations, capacity building, networking, etc. Attendees showed particular interest in fundraising opportunities and the monthly funding overview that the Civic Resource Centre regularly prepares and shares with CSOs.
The representatives from the municipal administration informed that in their annual budget they have budget line for transfers to CSOs. However, they do not publish an open call for funding CSOs, but the funds are approved at the request of the organisations, according to the amount of the available municipal budget. For example, for 2023, 200,000 MKD were planned for CSOs, however, not all funds were distributed to CSOs. In addition, they emphasized that they are open to cooperation with CSOs, which consists mainly of CSOs’ inclusion in forums, signing memoranda for different types of cooperation, as well as providing other types of support requested by the organisations.
The challenges faced by CSOs and citizens in general, especially the youth, were also discussed during this visit. Although Karbinci is a municipality where the number of residents is relatively stable and there are several CSOs, several sports clubs, the opportunities for young people are still very limited. The attendees emphasized that the municipality does not have a Strategy for cooperation with civil society organisations, nor a person appointed to work on cooperation and communication with the civil society. The municipality has appointed a youth officer, but there is no Youth Centre and Local Youth Council. The general conclusion was that it is necessary to strengthen the efforts of all stakeholders to improve the situation and invest in the capacities of young people. Thus, the attendees emphasised that their plans, after the elections, are to initiate the establishment of a Local Youth Council for this municipality.
The visit of the Mobile Resource Centre was organised under the project “EU Support of the Civil Society Resource Centre – Phase 2”, financed by the European Union, and implemented by the National Civil Society Development Foundation – Civic Resource Center, the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, Media Plus, Shtip and Association for Democratic Initiatives – ADI, Gostivar.
