Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

A total of 17 representatives of eight consortiums implementing projects financed by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) on November 9, 2022, discussed the main challenges of implementing the foreseen activities, the lessons learned for the processes of resocialization, rehabilitation, and reintegration (RRR) in general, the main influences, success stories and experiences with national institutions. All projects are aimed at supporting the returning foreign terrorist fighters (RFTF) and their families, but in a broader sense, they include communities as well as institutions that work on this issue.

One of the biggest challenges faced by organizations in the implementation of planned activities is inflation due to economic and energy crises. In addition, they also addressed institutional challenges. Armela Jaho from the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) in Albania spoke about activities in schools. According to her, with a decree from the Ministry of Education, civil society organizations can only implement activities that are part of the regular curriculum, and teachers are under pressure trying to insert additional programs for students. For the organization Counseling Line for Women and Girls from Albania, one of the problems is to maintain the continuity of the participation of children of the RFTF in the activities planned for them. Ejnxh Pepa from CLWG pointed out that part of their activities are also private sessions with children from returnee families where the dynamic cannot always be maintained due to various reasons. In order to motivate the users and increase their willingness to cooperate, they also provide other support in cooperation with the Child Protection Office.

Albana Izeti from Terre de Hommes from Albania highlighted the change in the hierarchy of the National Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism as the biggest challenge. Namely, until May 2022, this center was under the direct authority of the Prime Minister, but from that date onwards it is under the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. All these changes contributed to the prolongation of the adoption of the National Strategy, which is a combination of the fight against terrorism and the prevention of violent extremism.

The participants also referred to the challenges of working with the media. Kreshnik Gashi from BIRN Kosovo emphasized that they have good cooperation and support from the media, while Ejnxh Pepa from Counseling Line for Women and Girls highlighted the phenomenon of sensationalization of this topic and the challenges in creating content for social media such as Youtube.

Afrodita Musliu from Nexus-Civil Concept and Nazif Avdi from the Macedonian Association of Young Lawyers (MYLA) spoke about the process of preparing the new strategic documents of the National Committee for Countering Violent Extremism and Countering Terrorism, and Meral Musli Tajroska from Pleiades Organization shared their experiences of direct work with RFTFs and their families, building trust and support in exercising their rights.

The participants agreed that the work in the field, with the direct beneficiaries, caused changes in their initial plans, but they were necessary to meet the needs of those for whom the activities are intended. The exchange of experiences with colleagues from the region is an excellent opportunity to learn from each other and face challenges in implementation more easily.

The meeting of the Informal Regional Platform is part of the Path to Resilience and Reintegration of Vulnerable Families in the Community (RRP) program implemented by MCIC in partnership with NEXUS – Civil Concept, Initiative for European Perspective, Pleiades and Horizon Civitas, and financially supported by GCERF.