GREEN LEAP – CLIMATE ACTION PARTNERSHIP

The strategic goal of this new body of work is to empower civic actors to be able to assume and maintain a leadership role in shaping the debate on sustainable development policies. For substantially weak and so far, disorganized sector, we will provide assistance and support, so they can structure and strengthen their base and define meaningful advocacy positions. Furthermore, support will be extended to enhance their capacities so they could be able to contribute to improving the quality of climate action policies and practices relevant to socially deprived communities. Dominant narratives will be challenged to shift public awareness towards meaningful individual and collective behavioral change that will contribute towards effective climate action. 

2021 ACTIVITIES

• Mapping policy and legislation gaps, followed up by policy recommendations and advocacy activities;    
• Provide support to local civic actors and issue-based networks for effective advocacy capacity building;
• Conduct public education campaign to motivate citizens interest for accelerated climate action;
• Provide support to grassroots groups for engaging members of disadvantaged communities in creative activism campaigns.

HEALTH IN ALL POLICIES

The intention is to maintain health as high priority on the political agenda beyond the COVID-19 crisis by: 1) using intersectional approach to address social determinants that cause inequity and disparities in health outcomes among population groups and to demand equitable access to health services that are based on just and fair distribution of health resources; 2) monitoring and assessing policy impacts on health and health equity within and outside the health sector thus developing evidence to advocate for accountability and policy coherence that address health needs of the citizens; and 3) supporting cross-sectoral collaboration and engagement of various stakeholders (including policy experts, CSOs and community members) to ensure integration of health considerations into decision-making across sectors and policy areas. These interventions are expected to result in: acquired understanding of the ways individual and societal factors intersect and create health inequalities and further harm health; identified manner in which disproportional distribution of political and economic power shapes policies in sectors that are indispensable to achieve equality and wellbeing; developed and used credible body of evidence to jointly demand equity and fight societal and structural disorder.

2021 ACTIVITIES

• Conducting research activities to assess the impact of certain social determinants on the health of vulnerable groups, including (but not limited to): environment (external and internal), education, employment, poverty, etc., with participation of the affected communities;
• Campaigning activities to address unprecedented vulnerability of marginalized groups during COVID-19 crisis and urge government to prioritize these groups in national vaccination plan thus improving their health status as well as enabling socio-economic activity and overall livelihood;
• Activities to address the impact of the social determinates and initiate policy change for two determinants that have severe impact by documenting the impact of social determinants; establishing a group of relevant stakeholders (local and national) to address the social determinants negative impact; preparation of action plans and joint advocacy activities for integration of the proposed actions into existing strategies.

THIRD-PARTY PROJECTS

FOSM implements EU-funded project Access to Justice for the Most Marginalized. Project aims to enable human rights protection through legal empowerment and improved access to justice for the most marginalized groups (focus on Roma, People who use drugs, sex workers, children and families in social risks and other vulnerable communities) as well as by advanced evidence-based policies and practices consistent with human rights approaches that meet the needs of targeted marginalized communities. Duration: January 2020 – July 2021. Total budget: €210,524.

EDUCATION OF MINORITY AND SOCIALLY DEPRIVED STUDENTS

The intention is to address education inequalities that mostly affect remote schools with minority and economically and socially deprived students through: 1) provision of direct support to primary schools for improved teaching and learning; 2) policy advocacy and support for improved education and youth policies; and 3) supporting inclusion of Roma students into mainstream education. The efforts are expected to improve competences of teachers working in rural and remote schools and to bring attention on the effective teacher training policies at the highest policy level. The learning resources produced in minority languages will alleviate the unequal distribution of opportunities for minority students while the financial support to Roma students will contribute to reducing drop-out from school due to poverty. Moreover, we expect to make meaningful contributions to policy debates, resulting in systemic solutions that eliminate inequalities and ensure full participation and equal opportunities for all students.

2021 ACTIVITIES

• In order to mitigate a number of challenges that emerged from online teaching due to pandemic, as well as the implementation of the new Concept on primary education that requires fully equipped schools and well-trained teachers, FOSM will provide direct support to 20 primary schools. Support include: didactical and other teaching aid materials; teacher training intended to improve digital competences of teachers, Education for social justice, child-centered teaching methodologies; enrich digital resources for teaching and learning in minority languages; facilitate the Learning Communities of teachers and school principals, etc.;  
• Results of continuing monitoring of policies implementation and the effects on school practices will be presented at National Conference on challenges and perspectives of education in minority languages with participation of education and local self-government authorities, teachers, school principals and other stakeholders; Traditional Speech 4Teach event will be organized in order to promote motivation and excellence in teaching;  
• Findings from research on formal and non-formal educational opportunities among youth from urban and rural areas will inform our policy advocacy and activism for improved policies that will provide for more opportunities and better students standard; recently developed digital platform will provide for various trainings, creative and other activities for excluded or underserved youth.

THIRD-PARTY PROJECTS

• EU-funded Stay@School – Action for Inclusion of Roma in Primary Education project aims to enable equal access and to improve attendance and completion rate of Roma students whose families are social welfare beneficiaries. This year, 638Roma childrenreceived scholarships, while20 primary schools received training and teaching materials in order to transform the classrooms into a more inclusive and simulative learning environment. Duration: October 2019 – October 2022. Total budget: €1,225,528.

FOSM continues to administer the scholarships support to Roma university students through REF-funded RMUSP and RHSP project.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

This concept was established to encourage and support direct participation of civil society ininter-sectoral policy design and oversight, for the purpose of limiting corruption effects on attainment of social justice and improving human rights protection. Specific objectives pursued under this concept include: 1) to improve understanding of the interplay between social justice, corruption and deficiencies in the rule of law; 2) to support civil society thematic networks to engage in innovative inter-sectoral collaborations and to advocate for changes to public polices in line with the inter-sectoral approach; and 3) to conduct evidence-based monitoring of social justice policies, such as health, education and environmental protection, that are exposed at higher risks of corruption and cause significant harm to rights of marginalized communities. Our efforts are expected to contribute to: more inclusive policy dialogue where interlinks between social justice, corruption and deficiencies in the rule of law are addressed; strengthened thematic networks on anticorruption and antidiscrimination through innovative inter-sectoral collaborations; and increased effectiveness and advocacy power of civil society in sectoral dialogue with policy makers.

• ACTIVITIES
• Support for three thematic networks will be provided to: 1) conduct novel research to better explain policy interrelations between social justice, corruption and deficiencies in the rule of law; 2) participate in structural dialogue and inter-sectoral policy design; 3) conduct evidence-based oversight on policies and practices where social justice (education, health or environment protection), anticorruption and rule of law intersect; 4) engage in inter-sectoral collaborations with new partners, and to jointly advocate for revision of policies, using an inter-sectoral lens.
• Media content will be produced to increase the amount of easily reachable and understandable information related to the inter-sectoral policies.
• FOSM will provide technical support to partners to implement new approaches in anticorruption narratives.

THIRD-PARTY PROJECTS

• FOSM is implementing the multi-annual project CSO Dialogue – Platform for Structural Participation in EU Integrations, funded by EU. The project aims to: facilitate meaningful and structured participation of civil society in formal consultation mechanisms; provide a central point of information on consultative processes; increase civil society’s impact on key sectors and reform policies related to the EU accession process, by means of evidence-based monitoring; and increase public knowledge and awareness of sectoral participation and policies. Duration: April 2019 – April 2022. Total budget: €640,439.
• FOSM is implementing the project Strengthened Integrity Systems for Combating Corruption at the Local Level, funded by USAID. The project aims to contribute to promotion of good governance on local level by strengthening resilience of local governments to corruption and increasing civic involvement in the fight against corruption, through access to free legal aid for cases of corruption and a public campaign that uses new approaches to anticorruption narratives. Duration: March 2020 – March 2021. Total budget: $123,867.

FOSM together with Center for Civil Communications and Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women implements the project Co-creation Support for the 2021-2023 OGP National Action Plan,funded by Open Government Partnership Secretariat and The World Bank. The project aims to strengthen the co-creation process to secure more ambitious commitments in the North Macedonia’s 2021 OGP Action Plan, through improving the design and ambition of the Action Plan; enhancing the quality of engagement and dialogue for co-creation; strengthening the process for deliberation and prioritization of commitments; sustained engagement and improved monitoring of the adopted Action Plan; and increasing collaboration and coordination among government and civil society. Duration: July 2020 – November 2021. Total budget: $60,000. 

2021 REGIONAL COOPERATION

• 2021 is the last year of the implementation of the anticorruption initiative Regional Creative Hubs: Tapping into the Power of Arts and Culture to Embolden Citizen Action Against Corruption. The initiative has been implemented by the NFs in the Western Balkans (FOS Macedonia, FOS Serbia, FOS Albania and FOS B&H) and OSIWA, with support from the OSF Culture & Art Program, the Economic Justice Program, and the Strategy Unit Lab. It creates virtual platform for artists, activists, and journalists to learn how and why to engage creatively on anticorruption issues, build cross-sectoral relationships, and better understand the role of creative action in influencing the public’s perception of corruption. Activities this year include: tailored-made online mentorship and training; implementation of creative campaigns grants; global forum on creative activism and anticorruption and book and video production.
• FOSM provides support to grassroots and think-tank organizations through the regional project Responding to the Socio-Economic Effects of COVID-19 by Supporting Vulnerable Groups, Low-Wage, Informal and Gig Workers. The project aims to: contribute to a better understanding of the effects on vulnerable groups, caused by the government policies adopted due to COVID19; advocate for long-term measures that mitigate the negative socio-economic consequences over vulnerable groups as low-wage, informal and gig workers; and to develop a regional CSO network to exchange knowledge and foster cooperation. 
• In collaboration with ESP and the NFs in Albania, Kosovo and Serbia, FOSM implements the climate justice principles driven social impact investment project Schools Community Self-governance for Climate, Disaster and Social Resilience. The aim of this investment is to enhance school-community ecosystem’s capacity to be socially, economically and environmentally more resilient during disruptions and disasters. It is expected that by the end of the year around 50 schools in four countries will be equipped with rooftop photovoltaics.