First conference and TRIALOG workshop on development cooperation in Macedonia

The conference under the title "Development Cooperation in the EU Integration Process” was held in Skopje, Macedonia on 21st October, 2008. The conference was organized by TRIALOG in cooperation with 3 local civil society organisations (CSOs) - Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC), Macedonian Helsinki Committee (MHC) and Sigme7.

The aim of the public conference was to raise awareness on EU development policies and to assess the required steps and actions in order for Macedonia to be able to actively participate in this field as a future EU member state. The conference was addressed by Mr. Ivica Bocevski, Vice-Prime Minister in charge of EU Integration, from the Government of the Republic of Macedonia. In his keynote address Mr. Bocevski stressed: “The Government is open to inputs from CSOs on issues relating to development” and added that the relationship between the Government and CSOs is the key to fully utilizing development capacities in the country. The conference was attended by around 40 representatives of CSOs, ministries, universities, international organizations and media.

The second day featured a workshop for interested CSOs to discuss the current situation, needs and possibilities for their future engagement in development cooperation. In the workshop entitled "Macedonian CSOs' future role in EU Development Cooperation" the participants learned more about the activities of NGDO platforms in Europe as well as current possibilities for their concrete involvement on project-level (Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development programme). At the end, concrete steps were agreed among 19 CSO representatives for further steps such as exchange of information, identification of best practices and identification of further organizations interested in future cooperation, meetings, study visits, roundtables etc. on development issues, and in working towards a possible creation of a Macedonian NGDO platform.

For further information, please contact TRIALOG Capacity Building Officer, Petra Kreinecker, p.kreinecker@trialog.or.at or MCIC Project Officer, Tanja Hafner Ademi, thf@mcms.org.mk

Links:
MCIC website, http://www.mcms.org.mk/
MHC website, http://www.mhc.org.mk/

Information provided by Tanja Hafner Ademi, MCIC, thf@mcms.org.mk