Форуми во заедницата - Networking meeting in Ohrid

Networking meeting in Ohrid

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Some 80 people that were involved in the “Community Forums” program (which includes representatives from the local and central government, from Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC), from implementing organizations and ZELS attended the networking meeting which took place on 26 and 27 November in Ohrid. “I would like to hear your experiences – I am curious to learn more about the situation in the municipalities in Macedonia and on the implementation of the Program. Your suggestions and comments, positive experiences and criticisms are very important for us so that we can build on the relevant experiences”, said Romana Tedeski, program manager for Macedonia from SDC.
The topics discussed on the meeting were the experiences and achievements of the Program so far, the future of the Forums, presentation of the opportunities for involvement of the citizens through the budget of the municipality, the civil involvement and the inter-municipal cooperation, the participative decision making and access to the EU, including the experiences from the Community Forums in Bulgaria.
The meeting had presence by local and international experts (Macedonia, Croatia, Bulgaria), mayors of the Macedonian municipalities that participated in the Programs, representative of national and international organizations i.e. Program Board members (UNDP and the Ministry of Local Self-government), NGOs (Center for Research and Policy Making – CRPM), ZELS and others.
“The intention is to increase the political transparency and the good governance and to speed up the budget policy reforms” said Marija Risteska from CRPM in her presentation on the civil involvement in the budget policies of the municipalities.
She was presenting about the budget transparency i.e. the manners in which the budget can be made even more simple so that the citizens can understand it.
The civil involvement and the inter-municipal cooperation was the topic presented by Mihaela Stojkoska from UNDP, member of the Program Board.
She elaborated the approach used towards the civil forums when it comes to the inter-municipal cooperation. There should be a process of additional management of the specific relations in inter-municipal concept. “The funds are more and more awarded to municipalities that cooperate between themselves”, said Stojkoska.

The ZELS representative, Ardita Dema was talking about the process of institutionalization of the Forum as a new decision making instrument in the municipalities.
“The Forum is emerging as a new form of participation and development of projects that are in the interest of the community”, said Dema, adding that a total of 29 municipalities have adopted (and 26 additional municipalities are planning to adopt) the Decision on Changes and Amendments to the Statute of the local self-government units that will introduce the forum as a manner of civil participation, including the Regulation for organization and scheduling of the community forums in the local self-government units.
The Bulgarian consultant Dotcho Mihajlov presented the similarities and differences of the Forums in Bulgaria and Macedonia, the content of the program, the program management, sustainability. He also presented the Leader Forum which is a current Forum in Bulgaria.
The participative decision making process and the EU accession were topics presented by the Croatian consultant Andrijana Parich. Inter alia, she was presenting on the manners of applying for the IPA funds which give preference to the partnerships.
“Practice continuously the decision making process with the citizens because you’ll need it, one way or the other. You should know what are their needs so that you can have a benefit”, said Parich.
There was also presentation by the state advisor for communication in the Ministry of Local Self-government Eli Chakar, member of the Program Board. She elaborated the civil involvement as a prerequisite for good governance/ management on local level, including the legal mechanisms for civil involvement.
“However, the practice shows that very few mechanisms are actually used the reasons being the political culture, the lack of trust of the citizens in the institutions and vice versa since the citizens in Macedonia lack the political culture”, said Chakar.
The Community Forums program, in its second phase, was implemented in 22 municipalities in the last three years. In three municipalities there were two types of forums.
The Program is financed by the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC) with a total budget of 4.991.000 Swiss in the period October 2007 – December 2010.