Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

Author: Emina Nuredinoska
Date: 2008
PDF:   progress-report-on-the-implementation-of-the-strategy-for-cooperation-of-the-government-with-the-civil-sector-2008.pdf

The Strategy for Cooperation of the Government with the Civil Society Sector is the basic document which regulates the cooperation between the Government and civil society organizations, and which, at the same time, foresees several measures relating to the sustainability of the civil society sector. At the end of 2008 MCIC has produced an analysis on the implementation of this document, in order to review the progress and provide recommendations to the responsible bodies for implementation and coordination of the Strategy. The Report describes and studies several main issues: assessment of the implementation of the activities (quantity and quality) during a period of 24 months, timeliness, positive outcome, bottlenecks and key failures.

Some of the conclusions presented in the Report are:

1) The Strategy for Cooperation of the Government with the Civil Society Sector is still being implemented. The strategy contains an action plan with foreseen measures, activities, deadlines and responsible institutions;

2) Realization of the activities is different In several areas there is significant progress, in part of them there is a certain level of progress but there is also status quo with reference to the set goals;

3)Key achievements in this period are: adoption of the Law on Volunteering in a strongly participative process; inclusion of the civil society organizations in the working groups for preparing laws and strategies of importance in their operations; changes to the Rules of Procedure of the Government according to which the draft laws should obligatorily be published on the web sites of the ministries; functioning of the citizens log as a tool for more simplified access of the citizens to the services provided by the state administration bodies.

4) Goals on which no progress has been registered are the following: no centrally established system for inclusion of civil society organizations in the processes of policy design, no improvement in the financing of the civil society organizations on behalf of the state; no measures for development of the civil society sector in the rural environments have been undertaken.

5) Programs and activities of several ministries and other state administration bodies which are related to the cooperation and development of the civil society sector have been harmonized with the goals and measures foreseen with the Strategy.

6) The organizational setting of the Unit for Cooperation with the Non-Governmental Organizations in the framework of the Secretariat General of the Government does not always allow for flexibility and required authority in the hierarchy of the Secretariat General of the Government for reaction and proactive attitude.

7) Most part of the implemented activities has been realized in situation in which financial support from outside has existed or when the activities were required to be harmonized with the European and other international standards or directly with the acquis communautaire  of the European Union.

Despite the efforts undertaken by the Unit for Cooperation with the Non-Governmental Organizations and the Secretariat General of the Government, in absence of allocated budget for realization of activities, the failure in the realization of the plan has been expected.

The lack of program budget for the Unit for Cooperation with the Non-Governmental Organizations additionally aggravates the process of implementation of the measures.