Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

The Law on Local Self-Government defines the “direct participation of citizens” as a single or collective inclusion of inhabitants of the municipality in the decision-making related to issues of local significance, in the various levels of decision-making processes (Article 2).

There is still practice of passive attitude in Macedonia, with reference to the citizens’ participation on local level. The citizens are withholding their suggestions when it comes to the deficiencies, insufficient number or low quality of public services, violation of constitutional rights. They rarely participate in the development and definition of public policies. Furthermore, it is not common for the public institutions to consult or include the citizens or civil society organizations in the policy design.

The public discussions on the conditions and needs of citizens on local level represent a basis for development and acknowledgement of the citizens' participation and a manner of practice of participatory and accountable good governance of the local self-government.

The general goal of the project is improved services for the citizens in the communities, by means of increased responsibility of the institutions, civil society organizations and citizens.

The objective of the project is establishment of participatory approaches in the communities.

The target group of the project are citizens from the municipalities of Resen and Bitola.

The target area encompasses the territory of the municipalities of Resen and Bitola.

The expected results of the project are: Developed skills and stances of the citizens and LSUs on the active participation of the citizens in the development of the community on local level, and implemented projects selected on the forum sessions.

The activities through which the above mentioned results will be implemented are the following: Organization of forum discussions, Training on project planning, Training on project formulation, Training on budget formulation, and Financing and monitoring of implementation of projects, selected on the forums.

The basic assumption for realization of the objectives in the framework of the project is transparent and accountable working of the local self-governments. Moreover, it is foreseen that the acquired knowledge and skills from the forum process will find practical application in the systems and procedures of the local self-governments and will be employed in best possible manner, related to improvement of the functioning of the local self-governments.

MCIC is responsible for the project management, and together with the municipalities of Resen and Bitola are responsible for its implementation.

For the purpose of attainment of the objectives of the project, possible risks are: lack of motivation of citizens to continuously participate at the forums, in large/significant numbers. Also, the unbalanced gender, ethnic and age participation may also pose risk of lack of inclusion of interested parties. The capacities of the local self-government and local partners, particularly in the process of realization of the selected projects at the forum sessions will represent a significant influential factor for successfulness, timeliness and quality of the project realization.

The time period of the project implementation is October 21st 2008 – April 30th 2010.

The financial plan of the project amounts to 16.365.474 MKD.

MCIC provides 10.965.474 MKD (direct costs), funds which are donation of SDC, Switzerland.

The remaining funds are own direct participation of: The Municipality of Resen in amount of 2.000.000 MKD, Municipality of Bitola in amount of 2.000.000 MKD, partners of the selected projects in the Municipality of Resen in amount of 800.000 MKD and the partners of the selected projects in the Municipality of Bitola in amount of 600.000 MKD.