The Mobile Resource Centre in Kavadarci was mainly focused on the open call for small advocacy action grants. The meeting was held on 27th September in partnership with the Council for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency – SPPMD.
Petre Mrkev, from SPPMD, spoke about the difficulties for organisations to provide funds for regular functioning. “Almost all of them are project-oriented and do not have professionally employed members, but their work is largely based on the volunteer engagement of active members. They often manage to provide funds for short activities that do not cover the cost for hiring staff. In recent years, this has been accompanied by decreasing interest in volunteering among the local population” explained Mrkev. In addition, he noted that the positive side is the cooperation with the new municipal leadership, above all with the mayor Mitko Jancev, who is much more open to cooperation and more transparent in supporting the ideas coming from the civic activists and associations.
During the meeting, the Civil Society Resource Centre team presented funding opportunities, and the participants were interested in the new capacity building programme for CSOs, which is due to start in October, as well as the premises of the CSRC available for CSOs free of charge.
The CSRC team also met with Nenad Jovanovic, a person engaged by the municipality for coordination and cooperation with CSOs. He pointed out the successful implementation of the Regional Program on Local Democracy in Western Balkans (RELOAD), funded by the European Union and implemented by UNDP, through which local organisations are funded.
According to him, the self-sustainability of organisations is the biggest problem, but also the fragmentation of society. The municipality provides office space for several active CSOs in Kavadarci, however, according to the local organisations, the criteria and conditions for allocation were not fully clear.