More than 30 Organizations Participated in the Discussions on Grant Progress

In February, Civica Mobilitas team conducted monitoring of 34 CSOs, beneficiaries of 10 civic engagement grants that started to implement their activities in July 2024.

The purpose of the visits was to check how the project implementation was going, to collect information on the challenges that the organizations and their partner face, as well as to see the possibilities for improvement.

The grantees spoke about the current and planned activities that include sustainable organic waste management and obtaining practical knowledge about sustainable development, preparation of “Accessible Doctor” platform for the people with disabilities, establishing a regional body of gender promoters and a Gender Equality School in the Pelagonija region. In the Northeast region, there is on-going field education for rural women, their mobilization, budget literacy, how to become included in the labor market, etc. The organizations that focus on youth and education mentioned the digital tool “Economic Compass” which had been started in one of the previous Civica Mobilitas projects, and it was being upgraded now, as well as the Youth Network on Financial Literacy of the Southeast. Furthermore, there is a planned organization of two five-day camps for support of project teams led by young people, in order to develop their project ideas into implementable actions.

An important aspect of these visits was also to discuss the Political Economic Power Analysis (PEPA), which was presented at the Networking Meeting. Almost all organizations shared that they were inspired by it and the new knowledge from the analysis (with respect to stakeholders, spaces, resources and rules of the game). Using the analysis, they develop a joint network at project level, which would be the basis for future activities and fulfillment of the goals of the grants.

During the visits, the Civica Mobilitas team also spoke with the organizations about some of the good practices and innovations. They discussed the CSO Code, whether the signatories respect its regulations, and the reasons why some of them had not signed it yet. During the conversation, the team was interested in implementation of the rules set in The Climate, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction Integration Guidance (CEDRIG) and they offered their recommendations to the grantees to decrease the use of plastic bottles, use less paper at the event that they organize, etc.

Many of the grantees shared that Civica Mobilitas support had been significant for their development, especially in the capacity strengthening part. The workshops such as “God Sustainability Practices of CSOs” and “Islands of Integrity” were especially pointed out as crucial for the progress of the organizations.

During the visits, there were also discussions about the current situation with the cut of the USAID support and its impact on them, and also on the organizations in the sector in general. The support if a big factor for the sustainability as well, but also for implementing the initiatives. They agreed that the regional and thematic platforms for cooperation can be effective mechanisms, but only if there is a continuous support; otherwise, these platforms cannot survive.

The monitoring visits of grantees are a regular activity of Civica Mobilitas team, which take place at least once per year.