The fifth regional forum of Civica Mobilitas was organized

On 22 September 2015, in the premises of the city library “Braka Miladinovci”, the fifth regional forum of Civica Mobilitas was organized. Under the motto “Your space, your voice”, about ten representatives of civil society organizations talked about the necessary changes in the Southeastern region.

The Civica Mobilitas team and the participants talked about the changes they wanted to make in the society, how to make the them sustainable, how to influence the behavior of the people in the local communities, and how to improve the cooperation among the civil society organizations.

According to Mitko Shorov from the Ecological Society “Planetum”, the great dependence on foreign donors is a problem. In his opinion, that is the change that needs to be made, to motivate the domestic organizations to help them, i.e. to donate to the civil society organizations. According to him, the possibilities for providing some relief to the domestic donors should be checked.

The organization “Izbor” is on a good path to become sustainable, according to Sokrat Mancev, their goal is to achieve self-sustainability by 2020. “We have been present in the sector for 19 years, and we are still funded by foreign donations”, Mancev said, and added that for them, the institutional grant from Civica Mobilitas represents great help, providing flexibility in the use of funds, and that is why it is a type of a pillar of security.

“The citizens are not familiar with the rights and obligations they have”, Ilija Bejkov from Polimat 13, from Bogranci thinks. “We should stimulate the civic activism; we should find the joint causes”. Ivanka Sokolova from the Women’s Action from Radovis initiated the issue of development of entrepreneurial spirit in women, gender and family issues. She stressed that it was necessary to have greater cooperation with the institutions at local level.

Nikola Pijanmanov from Cult-Tranzen from Strumica talked about the need for decentralization of culture at rural level, especially decentralization of the theater, in the three rural municipalities near Strumica. “We came across buildings of culture in the surroundings, whose capacities are not used at all. We came across local artists who are there”, he said. According to Pijamanov, it is not correct that 90 % of the cultural events happen in Skopje. “The artists are hibernating”, he said, and added that it is necessary that someone links the artists with the buildings of culture. “Due to politization and centralized thinking, it is necessary to encourage them, and to tell them that there is someone with them.”

Stigmatization was also discussed, i.e. recognition of some parts of the sector as affiliates of one or another side (most often a political party), without understanding what it is all about, and what the civil society organizations offer.

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.