The organizations from the Pelagonia region were agreeing on joint ideas about civic activism and domestic violence protection

The eighth and the last for this year, regional forum of Civica Mobilitas was held on 15 October 2015 in the premises of NUUB “St. Clement Ohridski” in Bitola and it was organized for the organizations from the Pelagonia region.

The participants initiated the question of sustainability of the projects of civil society organizations. According to Simon Forester, an international expert of Civica Mobilitas, it is a challenge everywhere. “The lack of results and sustainability of projects is due to the dependence on foreign donors and their criteria”, Forester said, and added that as a result, many civil society organizations are not linked to the citizens for whose interests they were established, they distance themselves from the reality and the real needs. He referred to the need for cooperation, which is one of the goals of the forums. “The more the organizations cooperate among each other, the more results will come. Cooperation instead of competition is the key guideline. Cooperation means you share resources. In the eyes of beneficiaries, you are an example of solidarity. The cooperation enables you to develop together, by exchanging knowledge.”

The representatives of civil society organizations discussed about many topics. Dzala Bojkovska from the organization Semper stressed the need for sensitizing the professional working with domestic violence victims. “The violence against women is highly present”, Bojkovska said. “It is necessary to place the emphasis on recognizing domestic violence, and for that purpose, a greater cooperation with the state institutions is needed”. According to Tome Krstevski from Global, it is necessary to talk about crime and corruption, because they are an actual and big problem. “Dysfunctional institutions, corrupted judiciary, violated human rights, non-compliance with laws, lack of responsibility of the officials in power, no free media. No one wants to talk about it, and, in fact, that is the role of civil society”.

In the Youth Cultural Center – Bitola, they think how to involve the young people in their work. They think that the people are fed up with all political events and do not have trust. Meri Nashoku stressed the problem of emigration of young people and intellectual devastation. “It is the best quality people and the people who were actively involved that go to Skopje or out of Macedonia. Krusevo seriously faces this problem, it is most alarming there”, Nashoku said.

According to Ilija Baltovski from “It’s About Us” part of the problem lays in the civil society organizations. “We are not coordinated, and that is why it is difficult to raise our credibility. We do not achieve the goal for which we were established”, Baltovski said, and stressed the need for activity implementation capacity. “Our protest resulted in signing of Memorandum for cooperation with the local authorities. But, it has never been implemented”.

The participants talked about the urban solutions, citizens’ participation in decision making related to urban planning, and about the need for innovative solutions for some of the problems.

In the discussion about joint causes and actions, they focused on civic activism and domestic violence protection.
The forum was facilitated by Daniela Stojanova, National Project Coordinator of Civica Mobilitas.

Civica Mobilitas is a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), which is implemented by NIRAS from Denmark, Мacedonian Center for International Cooperation (МCIC) and the Swedish Institute for Public Administration (SIPU). Civica Mobilitas provides support to civil society organizations and other civil society actors. The implementation started in October 2014 and it will last until 2018.