The recent Civic Space Hackathon, organized by BCSDN in Skopje, successfully united civic activists, tech experts, legal professionals, communicators, and web designers from across the Western Balkans to develop innovative solutions for a more resilient civil society. Addressing critical challenges like eroding public trust from smear campaigns and disinformation, and undermined independence due to restrictive funding, participants worked to “flip the script” by focusing on areas such as detecting and countering smear campaigns, building strategic communication resilience, fostering cross-border solidarity, creating tools for transparent public funding tracking, promoting public trust and grassroots philanthropy, and reimagining sustainable resource models. Teams, including Blink 42-21, BONEVET, In Time, Active Zone, and IPAK Center, dynamically collaborated with mentor support to refine initial concepts into tangible prototypes, showcasing the ingenuity and commitment within the Western Balkans’ civil society sector and laying crucial groundwork for a more transparent, robust, and impactful civic space in the region. The winner and the prize of € 3,500 went to Blink 42-21, as decided by the jury. Second place and € 2,000 were awarded to IPAC. Read more here.
Source: BCSDN
