CSOs and informal groups asked for greater involvement in the preparation and implementation of local policies during the Mobile Resource Center, organised on 25th February in Struga. It was organized in partnership with and in the premises of the Community Center of Struga Municipality.
The discussion included 10 participants who emphasized the need for sectoral and joint action in order to initiate changes at the local level.
Struga faces underdeveloped civil society with a small number of active organisations operating in that region. This results in an unused opportunity for preparation of cross-border cooperation projects despite the good location.
The Community Centre of Struga Municipality is a contact point for cooperation of the local government with CSOs and the citizens. Its operation is supported by the Municipality.
Annually, the municipality allocates funds for CSOs’ projects, but they were assessed as insufficient for the implementation of most of the activities. The CSOs’ representatives requested for the awarded grants to be transparently published on the municipality’s website. CSOs also expressed their distrust towards the donors and the allocation of funds per organisations.
Local CSOs are not sufficiently familiar with the Government’s commitment to support and cooperate with the civil society. Thus, it was recommended for institutions to be more proactive in informing about the Council for cooperation with and development of civil society and the Government Strategy for cooperation with and development of the civil society 2018-2020.
The Civil Society Resource Center is a project funded by the European Union and implemented by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) in partnership with the Association for Democratic Initiatives (ADI) from Gostivar and Media Plus from Shtip.
