Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

Authors: Saso Klekovski, Aleksandar Krzalovski, Suncica Sazdovska, Gonce Jakovleska
Date: 2006
PDF:   trust-responsibility-for-societal-issues-and-charity-in-macedonia-2006.pdf

The Report “Trust, Responsibility for Societal Issues and Charity in Macedonia” is based on two separate public opinion surveys, addressing the issues of trust and charity. The questionnaires were prepared and processed by the Institute of Sociological, Political and Juridical Research, while the report was compiled by the Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation.

The need for exploring trust and charity in Macedonia had a purpose of checking the assumptions and providing arguments for future planning. These arguments will not be valid only for MCIC, or any other single organization, but for all stakeholders in the civil society sector in Macedonia.

In the past few years, the civil society sector in Macedonia has faced a changing context. In the past the development of civil society sector relied on foreign donations. Now, many donors left Macedonia, and the interest of those international organizations supporting the sector has shifted. Such change suggests serious debate over the future development of civil society sector.

Why did we choose trust and charity?

In general, the mission of the civil society organizations is to represent the interests of citizens. This relation between civil society sector and citizens should be based on trust. The trust of citizens will ensure greater influence of the civil society organizations in policy making and increased legitimacy in representation of their interests.

However, the trust was also surveyed to another end. Most of the organizations faced with the trend of declining foreign donations have made plans of replacing them with domestic ones. Having in mind the small grants from the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, the interest is being focused on business community and citizens. However, the relation of giving-receiving has been based on the trust of giver. The lack of trust jeopardizes the giving i.e. charity.

With this, the civil society sector puts amid expectations the business sector and citizens. Do citizens have similar perception over who is responsible for resolving societal issues?

This is why MCIC wanted to examine the degree of trust and charity of citizens.

The data and analyses presented in this report enable more realistic future planning. But, this is not all. We hope that this report will open discussions and debates on trust, responsibility for societal issues and charity in Macedonia.