Citizens for Change #15

OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2022  

This is the last issue of “Citizens for Change” newsletter, the voice of Civica Mobilitas and the overall civic society. Let us be more specific, this is the last issue of this phase of Civica Mobilitas and in this format, in which we were presenting the activities and achievements of CSOs in the last four years.

As we promised, the focus of interest were the citizens as beneficiaries of the services provided by CSOs, but also as initiators and participants in the social changes. For them, we published 360 pieces of information in “Citizens for Change”. If we assess the activities and achievements based on the pieces published, we would say that they were most often related to civic engagement or activism, to which we have dedicated 133 texts. Immediately next to them are the texts related to civic participants, or 98 texts in total. The newsletter had its response to one of the most dramatic health crises, the Covid-19 pandemic. The activities of CSOs related to it were part of several newsletter issues, and one issue was fully dedicated to it.

Civica Mobilitas has been supporting CSOs and their development for 12 years already. The result of this are strengthened organizations, not only financially but also with respect to their knowhow and skills, their visibility and their battle of being asked and heard, being an essential part of the discussions and policy creation in the country. It was and it still is one of the most significant programmes for this support. In the three implementation stages, a total of 324 CSOs were allocated 463 grants, and only in the last phase there were 149 grants that brought 130 CSOs into the big family of grantees. However, Civica Mobilitas is not an exclusive community and the programme strives to reach all citizens and CSOs and share information and knowledge that are being created during its implementation. Therefore, we are open to all organizations, to all civic society stakeholders who will enable us to strengthen civic participant, improve the cooperation, build the relations with our constituent’s, make the environment in which we function better for work.

Civica Mobilitas “Citizens for Change” will continue in the new phase as well, which is to start on 1st April 2023. In it, the newsletter will transit to improved sustainability which would imply much bigger involvement of civic activists in the preparation of the texts. Civica Mobilitas team will be here to make this transition easier, and the newsletter will remain part of the mosaic that the Swiss Embassy uses to support the civic sector for 12 years already, not only financially, but also essentially and content-wise; this support has not only strengthened the sector, but it also made it louder and more visible. This is closure of a phase, but also a call for all colleagues to be part of “Citizens for Change” in the new phase.

Let us share information because it is worth only when it reaches the place where it is needed.

Have a pleasant reading!