On his first visit to Macedonia on 17th February, 2014 after taking office as Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Mr. Johannes Hahn held a meeting with group of civil society representatives, including Ms. Tanja Hafner Ademi representing BCSDN. The meeting focused on exchange of views on the country situation and particularly civil society views on how to overcome the deadlock on country’s accession process and the role of civil society. Ms. Hafner Ademi presented the work of BCSDN on the enabling environment, stressing the need for the Commission to ask for commitment to implementation of the Guidelines…
Author: anja
A very broad international group of Civil Society Organizations has published a critical response to a paper outlining elements of a Financing for Development (FfD) Agenda by the co-chairs of the preparatory process of the upcoming 3rd FfD Conference in Addis Ababa in July 2015. Overall, the document provides an outlook of the policy proposals necessary to ensure a successful outcome of the Conference. However, the activists are concerned that the Elements paper does not follow the outcomes of previous FfD conferences, which raises several problems in terms of whose interests will be heard and what issues will be debated.…
Center for development of non-governmental organizations (CRNVO) has published its Annual Report for 2014. In September 2014, CRNVO celebrated 15 years if work. CRNVO’s mission is to provide support for the development of active citizenship and civil society organizations, intersectorial collaboration and inclusion of citizens in the development of public policies. The report is available for download at this link.
On 11th February, the official letter demanding changes in the draft decision on the Council for Cooperation between the Government and the Civil Society was delivered to the General Secretary of the Government of Republic of Macedonia Mr. Kiril Bozinovski and the Unit for Cooperation with NGOs. The letter explicitly demands changes in the 2nd version of the daft decision (January 2015), or more concretely, a procedure where civil society organizations can elect their representatives in the Council directly and by public vote (as it stands in Art.8 of the 1th draft decision), and the president to be elected by…
In the course of December 2014 consultations were held with CSOs who actively contributed with comments and suggestions for improvement of the 1th draft Decision for Establishment of the Council for Cooperation between the Government and the Civil Society. In the last week of January 2015, the General Secretariat of the Government – Unit for Cooperation with NGOs and the TACSO Macedonian Office organized a second round of consultations on the 2th draft of the Decision. A considerable number of CSOs` proposals submitted during the 1st consultation round were accepted and integrated in the 2th draft Decision (e.g. Council will…
On 30th January, the Macedonian TACSO Office and the General Secretariat of the Government-Unit for Cooperation with NGOs organized a public workshop on the 2nd version of the draft Decision for the Establishment of a Council for Cooperation between the Government and Civil Society Sector. Ms. Suzana Nikodijevic-Filipovska, representative of the General Secretariat, presented the latest version of the decision with the emphasis on the main changes it underwent as a result of a 30-day call for consultation published on 20th November, 2014. Then, two working groups were created to discuss (1) competences and the composition of the Council and…
The last Council of Ministers decision regarding Added Value Tax (VAT) (in line with the VAT Law nr. 92/2014) introduced a series of important changes with regard to VAT for the economic activity of non-for-profits. The changes come as result of a long-standing effort over the years, and part of the platform the sector discussed and agreed with the government at the conference of December 2013. Improvement of the fiscal regime for the non-for-profits is part of what Partners Albania, with the support and participation of the Task Force for the enabling environment for civil society, has had in focus…
The TACSO Regional Office organized a regional meeting in Brussels, held on 22-23th of January, 2015, to coordinate two main processes: 1) the establishment and capacity building of the Resource Centers (RCs) in almost all beneficiary countries from the WB, except Albania, which will take over the technical assistance for civil society organizations, and 2) agreeing upon the optimal monitoring system for the EU Guidelines which would involve coordination with the BCSDN monitoring activities and possible streamlining of the Monitoring Matrix country reports with the EU Guidelines, since 4 RCs are BCSDN members. Therefore, the meeting brought together the representatives from…
UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association Maina Kiai has released his mandate’s first ever year-end report, which reviews the events of 2014 from the perspective of assembly and association rights. The report serves as both a first draft of history for the events of 2014 and a yearbook of his mandate’s activities. Kiai writes that 2014 will certainly be a year that we remember, either as a year of protests, year of the revolution or a year of shrinking space. The report notes that 2014 proved to be a year of monumental…
Months of effort and research invested by BCSDN and Queen Mary University of London are now available in a publication entitled “Donor strategies and practices for supporting civil society in the Western Balkans” – a report that depicts the trends and practices that donors active in the region apply in supporting civil society. The motive behind this research was to inspire EU and other donors to reflect the needs of local civil society actors in their approach, methodology and strategies and to contribute to sustainable civil society development. The publication provides an insight in the international donors’ relation towards civil…