The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), at the beginning of November, awarded direct funding grants to five Serbian organizations which will manage projects completely placed in their hands. According to the U.S. Ambassador to Serbia, Michael Kirby, and Director of USAID, Susan Fritz, the goal of switching to direct funding is to strengthen the capacity of organizations in Serbia, ensure more efficient use of USAID funds, and to show confidence in civil society organizations and government institutions. Five organizations received a total of more than a million dollars of direct finance. BCSDN member organization Civic Initiatives was among these.…
Author: anja
Under the Visegrad-Balkan Public Policy Fund – Young Researches Programme, the Pontis Foundation (Slovakia), the Association of Czech Non-governmental Organizations – DEMAS (Czech Republic), the Foundation for Development of Democratic Rights – Demnet (Hungary), the Balkan Civil Society Development Network – BCSDN (Macedonia), and the Kosovar Civil Sociey Foundation – KCSF (Kosovo) have announced the second Call for Proposals for researchers and organizations from Macedonia to participate in and undertake a project on the topic of: Improving media professionalism through practical experience. One selected researcher will be placed in Transitions (TOL), which is an international publishing and media development organization…
This year the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) celebrates 20 years since its establishment. Throughout the years, MCIC established credibility with its target groups, partners, donors, institutions and the public in general. MCIC managed to become one of the most actively involved organizations in the Macedonian civil society, with a clear vision and mission, with goals, and with activities that put citizens’ needs first, while accepting the biggest challenges in the society. MCIC owes its success to many factors. Out of them probably the most visible for the citizens are the achieved results. However, two important factors should be…
In a joint congress, held in Budva, Montenegro on 21-24 November, the European Movement International and the European Movement Montenegro have called for more action to be taken in the development of civil society in the candidate and potential candidate countries. Participants included Mr Milo Đukanović, Prime Minister of Montenegro and Mr Igor Lukšić, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European integration, as well as other representatives from Governments, parliaments and civil society organisations. The EU accession process requires the candidate and potential candidate countries to make significant reforms in various sectors from human rights to trade. A strong civil society…
On the 22nd of November, an informal meeting of representatives from State bodies responsible for cooperation with CSOs from Croatia, BiH, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey took place in Zagreb, Croatia. The event hosted by the Croatian Office and MoFA Center of Excellence, was part of the follow-up to similar meetings of State institutions in the region (Zadar, September 2012, Ankara, April 2013) with the aim to exchange information on recent developments in represented countries and draw-up a plan of activities 2014 for joint activities. The discussion was focused around EC/DG Enlargement draft Guidelines for support to civil society in…
BCSDN in cooperation with the European Center for Non-for-profit Law (ECNL) and its member EHO organized a regional workshop on State funding for CSOs on 13-14 November in Novi Sad, Serbia as part the EU and BTD funded “Balkan Civil Society Acquis” project. The workshop attended by 38 representatives of CSOs and relevant state institutions from 13 countries, was aimed to map existing frameworks for state financing in the Balkan countries, to exchange experiences and to share European tendencies and good practices. Moreover, the goal of the workshop was to identify key bottlenecks in Enlargement countries and steps to overcome,…
Technical and financial assistance to the EU enlargement countries, including Kosovo, is currently provided through the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) 2007 – 2013. This instrument will expire at the end of 2013. With a view to future accessions, the EU will continue to offer candidate countries and potential candidates’ technical and financial assistance to assist their transition reforms and develop sustainably. As a result the European Commission is in the process to propose a regulation, for the approval from the Council and the Parliament, for the second phase of Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance for years 2014 – 2020. For…
On the 6th of November, in cooperation with the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), BCSDN delivered the second training on Advocacy and Policy Paper Writing for selected grantees within the Slovak and Balkan Public Policy Fund (SBPPF). The training took place in Tirana and gathered 11 grantees from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. The main objective of this training was to provide guidance and to better prepare the grantees on how to write analytical policy papers and plan a good advocacy strategy. At the end of the training, the grants contracts were signed with the grantees. The outcome…
On 30 October, 2013 in Skopje Tanja Hafner Ademi, Executive Director of BCSDN participated in a closed door expert discussion with Mr. Richard Howitt, MEP and Rapporteur for Macedonia in the European Parliament. The discussion organized by FEB and KAS featured participation of over 30 representatives of CSOs working in different areas. The aim of the meeting was to inform Mr. Howitt of the activities of civil society and discuss concrete proposals for how Macedonia can progress in the EU integration process. Ms. Hafner Ademi focused her discussion on the IPA support for civil society and issues concerning the enabling…
On 30 October, 2013 the first training on Advocacy and Policy Paper Writing for selected grantees within the Slovak and Balkan Public Policy Fund took place at the EU Info Center in Skopje. The training brought together representatives of the 9 selected grantees-organizations from Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia with the aim to provide them with a good basis for their projects on advocacy and theories of public policy. Ms. Tanja Hafner Ademi, Executive Director of BCSDN and Ms. Andrea Cox, Programme Manager of the Pontis Foundation, had the role of trainers during the event. They presented the two organizations, the…