There is a need for greater mobilization of citizens

On 22 July 2015, in the Center for Development of Youth in the municipality of Gostivar, the fourth regional forum of Civica Mobilitas was held. Under the motto “Your space, your voice”, about ten representatives of civil society organizations, municipalities, as well as civic activists talked about the necessary changes in the Polog region.

“The most important issues treated by Civica Mobilitas are civic engagement and stimulation of cooperation in order to achieve influence”, Daniela Stojanova, Project Coordinator, stressed. According to Simon Forester, an international expert, the purpose is to challenge the participants to think about what they want to change, and to do it through mutual cooperation. “We want this space to be used more for sharing experiences of cooperation, we want to find out more about your experiences”, he added.

According to Sanela Shkrijel, from Women Enterprise Fund, a problem in the region is the mobilization of citizens for promotion of joint causes. “There is alienation between the citizens and civil society organizations”, she said. “In Polog, there are informal associations such as Eco Guerrilla, that mobilize a great number of citizens and receive support. But, it is not clear to me, why the citizens activate themselves more in informal associations rather than in civil society organizations. Where do we, civil society organizations, make mistakes, why don’t we have the same support as the citizens’ informal initiatives?” Shkrijel talked about the experience of the Fund, the cooperation with the business community which supports the women in entrepreneurship and economic strengthening.

Also, in Gostivar, they stressed the problem of partization and politization of citizens and civil society organizations. “Maybe the obstacle to mobilization is the politization and partization of citizens and civil society organizations”, Nesim Veliu, from Ecoproducts from Tetovo, said.

Slagana Josifovska, from the Association Women’s Forum from Tetovo, stressed that the prejudices also contributed to insufficient critical mass. “In Polog, the citizen’s perception for engagement for different purposes should be changed. The support for issues related to health is more likely that the one related to gender issues”, she added.

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.