Civic Impulse #2: Monthly Review of Grantee Activities
February 2025
In February, the organizations supported by Civica Mobilitas continued with their activities in various areas such as education, environment, digitalization and gender equality.
On 4th February, the World Day against Cancer, the Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women(ESE) appealed to the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Ministry for Health to increase the support for the preventive programmes for early detection and prevention of cancer. ESE work on promoting the screening for cervical cancer within the project “Promoted Health Rights of Girls, Women and Vulnerable Groups”. They demand urgent increase of the screening funds for minimum of 35 million denars per year.
Regarding the education reforms and Bologna Process, the Balkan Institute for Regional Cooperation (BIRS) had two interviews within the project “Advocacy for Inclusive Development” with Petar Atanasov, former Deputy Minister of Education and Science and Veli Kreci, full-time professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Executive Director of “Max van der Stoel” Institute. Atanasov asked for urgent reforms in the education and science, while according to Veli Kreci, RSM has to follow the European Educational Standards and approximate its educational policies so that it does not fall behind in the global processes of education and science.
In the meantime, the Forum for Reasonable Policies and its partner organizations have prepared a study on the legislation related to education with proposals for policy changes and recommendations. The conclusions of this study have underlined the challenges in topics such as: intersectoral cooperation, mobility, recognition of qualifications, mass emigration of highly qualified people, but also their return to the country.
Almost 30% of the young people do not record and follow their expenses at monthly level. On the scale from 1 to 5, they assess their financial literacy with 3.4. This was shown in the research prepared by Promo Idea, Crown and Novus, which is part of the project “Youth Network on Financial Literacy in the South-East”. The results show that the young people have an increased needs to also obtain skills and knowledge on finances.
The measuring of openness of all 81 municipalities via the Openness Index implemented by Metamorphosis Foundation and the Rural Coalition has started. In January and February, the organizations also started with an on-line mentorship support in nine municipalities, where they implement or plan to implement the digital tool mCommunity. The first municipalities that were given this possibility are the municipalities of: Kochani, Kriva Palanka, Valandovo, Aerodrom, Demir Hisar, Gostivar, Negotino, Struga and Shtip. The final goal of this activity are trained public servants who will be able to independently work on consistent promotion of the openness of their municipalities.
The grantees dedicated to gender equality and social inclusion have also shared important information. The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights published an infographic of the conducted monitoring of the work of the Commission for Protection and Prevention from Discrimination, focusing on discrimination of women from marginalized communities. From 1st July to 20th September 2024, there were 107 appeals submitted, 42 of which are by women. Out of these, the Commission has determined that there was discrimination in 4 cases. The monitoring is part of the project “Equality Now – Empowering the Marginalized Communities for Social Inclusion and Non-Discrimination’, implemented by HCHR, in partnership with HOPS and Coalition Margins.
In order to detect the problems that people with disabilities and their families face in the medical and institutionalizing facilities, the Association of People with Cerebral Palsy and Other Disabilities – Veles, in partnership with Poraka Negotino and Eco-Life from Kavadarci started a research via an anonymous survey for public opinion research. The questionnaire is still open for completion, and your answers will help in getting an insight about the situation these people face. The research is part of the project “Facing Challenges and Stigmatization”.
The Centre for Climate Changes with eight more partners continued with workshops for capacity building on better implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, this time in Ohrid. The citizens of the municipalities from the Southwest region spoke about the problems that hinder the implementation of the Green Agenda. The latest regional workshop with the participation of the municipalities and civic sector from the Polog region took place on 25th February in Tetovo. There was an educational visit to Belchishko Marshes by Ecotourism Ohrid, intended for the students of OSU “St. Clement of Ohrid” – Ohrid and RCSPP “Vancho Pitosheski” – Ohrid. The goal of the visit to Belchishko Marshes and the visitors’ centre, was to raise the awareness about the meaning of the marshes’ ecosystems and biological diversity of our surroundings.
There was another interactive workshop, this time with 20 students from OOU “Krume Kepeski” with the project ”Civic Activism for Circular Economy in Organic Waste Management” implemented by the Environment Resource Centre (REC), Eco Logic and Florozon. This initiative, supported by the Swiss Government via Civica Mobilitas enabled the young people to become acquainted with bio-waste management and its transformation into useful products.
In the end, the CSO Code was signed by another signatory in February. On 18th February, ”Loud Textile Worker” joined the CSO Code, prepared by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC), whose aim is to strengthen the self-regulation system and contribute to bigger professionality and accountability.
