Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

The Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) is a network consisting of 14 civil society and ecumenical organizations from 10 countries from the Balkan (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia and Serbia). The main goal of the network is strengthening of the efforts aimed at coordination, cooperation and capacity building of the organizations members and other partners in South-East Europe (SEE). MCIC manages the program and Secretariat of the Network.

The objective of the project was to improve the cross-border and cross-sector cooperation and to strengthen the influence of the civil society organizations in the Balkan.

The target group were members of the BCSDN (ACSF, DA, MCIC, PF, WAD, NIT, EOS, EHO, AID-Rom, OAR, WAWY, CRNVO, CNVOS KCSF, VESTA), other relevant civil society organizations and the public.

The main activity in the project was management of the Secretariat of BCSDN. The management of the Secretariat foresaw the following tasks: coordination and daily management of the activities of the Network; project cycle management of joint projects; maintaining communication between the members and bodies in the Network; maintaining communication with other actors; collection and distribution of relevant information on the members through the web site www.balkancsd.net; enabling and promotion of cooperation with external actors; support to the BCSDN bodies and joint initiatives of the members (including annual meeting of the Steering Group); other tasks in agreement with the Steering Group of the Network. The tasks were defined on the basis of the management agreement for the BCSDN Secretariat, concluded between MCIC and the Steering Group, at the third meeting of the Group in Bucharest, Romania, on April 7th - 8th 2006.

The Secretariat was consisted of one full time employed person, i.e. coordinator and one head of department with ¼ working time. The funds which were intended for the functioning of the Secretariat were allocated for: salary, consultations, transport, communications, office costs, property and financial costs.

In the framework of this project, besides the daily management of the Secretariat (i.e. communication with members, management of internet site, information on events and opportunities for joint projects), additional activity was the organization of the 5th regular meeting of the Steering Group on April 1st in Ljubljana, Slovenia and the consecutive strategic workshop in Kotor, Montenegro on 12th and 13th September took place. The draft statute of the Network and the midterm strategic plan were the items on the agenda. In order to secure additional funding for realization of the strategic workshop, the members in cooperation with the Secretariat provided additional funds for its realization, through the OSI's East-East Program. The detailed reports and minutes from both events are available on the BCSDN internet page.

In the framework of the project cooperation with other interested organizations from the regions and networks was realized.  Among them were networks such as: Balkan Forum (a regional initiative for cooperation of actors in non-formal education); Working group of APRODEV for Eastern Europe, Caucas and Central Asia; Working group of CONCORD-TRIALOG for expansion (EPAN); ECAS (European Citizens’ Action Service); and the following organizations: Center for Promotion of Civil Society (Bosnia); Citizens’ Pact for SEE (Serbia), IDM (Albania), etc. Coordinator of the Network is an active member from the mentioned networks and at the same time Vice-President of the Working group of CONCORD-TRIALOG for expansion (EPAN).

Project Organization

MCIC was responsible for implementation of the project. The project encompassed activities which are part of the RBM program for 2008.

Reporting, monitoring and evaluation

The progress of this project was monitored through regular meetings of the project team composed of head of department and project officer, and this final report. Tanja Hafner Ademi, Project Officer, was responsible for the project as well as Aleksandar Krzalovski, Head of Department for Cross-Sector and International Programs.
Assessment of the quality and relevance of the project was made, through number of participants, active participation of participants, through report on every activity, i.e. event. A survey was conducted in August-September on the BCSDN internet site (together with the weekly news) wherein the beneficiaries stated satisfaction from the format and content of the page.

Follow-Up activities

On the basis of the satisfaction from the internet site, it will continue to offer updated information to the members, as well as resources and information on the activities of the Network. The planned follow-up activity – a strategic workshop, was already realized during the realization of the project. The activities which resulted from the workshop (completion of the statute and registration of the Network) are ongoing and will be finalized in spring 2009. At the meeting of the Steering Group and the workshop, it was confirmed that the Secretariat will continue to be managed by MCIC.

Извршно резиме од проектот.