Macedonia: First Steps towards Development Cooperation Platform

On 27th and 28th April, 8 Macedonian CSOs gathered in Skopje to discuss development cooperation, the role that Macedonia has today as a recipient country and the role that the country will have in near future as a giving country. The consultation was a possibility for CSOs to discuss civil society in the context of development cooperation and the necessity of development platforms. It was organized by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, the Macedonian Helsinki Committee, the Balkan Civil Society Development Network and it was supported by TRIALOG. The objectives were to introduce the understanding of EU and its role in international development as well as the development policies in place and to introduce the possibilities that exist for Macedonian CSOs already.

TRIALOG and its objectives, activities, the history of engagement and successes in the new member states were presented as well as EU policies concerning development cooperation. The highlight of the meeting were the tips and tricks shared by the Slovenian and Bulgarian representatives, Marjan Huc and Valery Padzharov about their concrete experiences. Both of them confirmed that building a platform takes a lot of time and commitment and starting early while still a candidate country is the best way to have institutions and CSOs that will be ready to address these issues once Macedonia will join the EU. The event served as a platform building initiation and there were two important outcomes: A Coordinative body and a Working Group were created for leading the process towards the creation of a national platform for development coordination.

Information provided by Ilina Nesik, BCSDN