37. How to establish a link between the citizens and civil society organizations

On 23 September 2015, in the House of Youth in Stip the regional forum of Civica Mobilitas was organized for the organizations and citizens from the Eastern region.

The representatives of civil society organizations complained that it was difficult for them to gain the citizens’ support for certain actions. According to them, the reason is the fear of the organizations or the political affiliation.

A greater part of the discussions was focused on the park called Green Square. According to the detailed urban plan, buildings should be built on the location of the park, and a big number of the citizens do not agree with it. Organized in the citizens’ action “Aman”, they are trying to prevent the realization of the detailed urban plan.

“We are trying to show the citizens that the problem is mutual, and that there is no place for politics”, Goran Trajkov from Aman said. According to him, each mentioning of politics dilutes the main topic. “The citizens should learn what the function of the community unions is”, he says, and adds that informing the citizens can influence the community unions to work on the requirements and to commit to the citizens’ interests. He added that they have the support of many civil society organizations, even though a greater part of them are passive.

According to Petrus Theunisz, the International Team Leader of Civica Mobilitas, more factors influence the work of civil society organizations and their actions. “the example with the park is excellent because of several things: it is about the issue of environment, it is about the human right to protect the place of living, and the like”, he said, and added that such small actions could contribute to increase the awareness of citizens, to encourage the citizens at micro level, and then the citizens would start to get interested in bigger problems and the ways in which they could help and change something.

The other issues that were discussed by the participants referred to migrations and the access to health care services of the citizens in smaller towns and rural municipalities, and especially of the marginalized groups.

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 (MCIC) 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 last year and it will last for four years.