The Balkan Civil Society Development Network has the pleasure to inform you that after a successful application process within the Second Call for Proposals of the Visegrad Balkan Public Policy Fund, Young Researchers Programme, the evaluation of submitted applications is terminated and the successful candidate has been selected. The selection was conducted jointly by the following project partners: BCSDN, the Pontis Foundation (Slovakia), and the Association of Czech Non-governmental Organizations – DEMAS (Czech Republic), taking in consideration the quality of the research proposal and the applicant’s expertise, motivation, and expectations. The selected applicant for the Young Researches Programme is: Aleksandra…
Author: anja
On the 11th of December the European Parliament adopted a Resolution approving the next round of the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II). The EP’s Resolution made several amendments to the initial Commission proposal and focused primarily on further strengthening the proposed principles for a more flexible and tailored approach and a performance component with newly introduced performance rewards, increased donor coordination, and increased transparency and accountability in the delivery of assistance. The proposed financial envelope of EUR 14.11 billion has been lowered down to EUR 11.697 billion for the 2014-2020 period, while the proposed 3% allocation to cross-border cooperation…
On the 11th of December the European Parliament adopted a Resolution approving the next round of the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II). The EP’s Resolution made several amendments to the initial Commission proposal and focused primarily on further strengthening the proposed principles for a more flexible and tailored approach and a performance component with newly introduced performance rewards, increased donor coordination, and increased transparency and accountability in the delivery of assistance. The proposed financial envelope of EUR 14.11 billion has been lowered down to EUR 11.697 billion for the 2014-2020 period, while the proposed 3% allocation to cross-border cooperation…
As space at our current location has become a bit limited for our growing team the BCSDN Executive Office will be moving to a new address this week. We are very excited about this new chapter in the network’s story and hope you can share with us in this excitement. Fortunately only our physical address will change, so all our contact information (phone, fax, e-mails) will remain the same. In the future you can find us at this address: Metropolit Teodosij Gologanov 39/II-2 1000-Skopje Macedonia
A group of Albanian civil society groups working to support the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Albania announced at a December 5th Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) conference the creation of a new coalition to support open government. The Albanian CSO Coalition on OGP is committed to improve the OGP Albania Process by upholding the value of openness in governments’ engagement with citizens to improve services, manage public resources, promote innovation, and create safer communities. The coalition is open for organizations that share the same values. The announcement came at a one-day IDM conference held in Tirana that brought…
On the 16th of December Partners Albania streamed the second part of their National Conference “Social Partners – Time for Action”. The first day of the conference took place on the 13th of December. The conference aimed to establish the basis of an official dialogue with the new government for creating an enabling legal and practical environment towards the advancement of civil society as a social partner and an integral part of policy making and decision making processes in the country. The development of this dialogue as part of the conference will consisted of three components: On the 13th of…
On the 11th of December, CIVICUS in cooperation with One World Trust (UK) organized a brainstorming event in London on the future of CIVICUS’s work on the monitoring of developments in civil society’s operating space. The workshop attended by around 25 international non-profit experts and CSO practitioners, including Tanja Hafner Ademi, Executive Director of BCSDN (via Skype), discussed draft analyses of 9 global indexes, including the BCSDN Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for CSDev, to provide a basis for CIVICUS’s further work surrounding its State of Civil Society Report and Enabling Environment Index. The workshop looked at identifying possible goals,…
From the 18th of November, 2013 MCIC has been publishing regular weekly and monthly reviews of published draft-laws on the Unique Electronic National Registry of Regulations (ENER). This is part of its activities for monitoring the openness of law-making processes in Macedonia. The monitoring of ENER is conducted in the framework of the project “Government Mirror” that is part of the USAID Macedonia Anti-Corruption Program. The goal of the reviews is to inform and encourage citizens and civil society organizations to participate in the early phases of law-making processes. The weekly reviews will be published each Monday and will contain…
On 9th December, Tanja Hafner Ademi, Executive Director of BCSDN, delivered 1-day training for over 30 Serbian CSO joined in the SECO mechanism in Belgrade, Serbia. The training was commissioned by the Serbian Office for Cooperation with Civil Society and supported by the EU-TA project lead by SIPU. The training was opened by Ms. Ivana Cirkovic, Director of the Government Office and Ms. Ana Ilic, Assistant Director, Serbian European Integration Office. The training aimed at transcending the lessons-learned of the implemented support for civil society in Enlargement countries and Serbia under the IPA Civil Society Facility support in the period…
On the 5th of December, BCSDN’s Board held its 4th session in Skopje to discuss the network’s activities in 2013 and enter into the new Mid-term strategy 2015-2017 planning phase. This Board meeting was special as it mainly served to translate and upgrade internal governance practices into acts needed for a mature and growing network. The accountancy and reporting standards were adopted while the newly developed internal governance acts such as the Executive Office rulebook, Board Rules of procedure, and procedure for election of the Executive Director were discussed and will be adopted after finalization in early 2014. The draft…