Donors

Stay @ School: Action for Inclusion of Roma in Primary Education:

Objectives of the project:

• To enable equal access to education for Roma children, but also to motivate them to attend school on regular basis and pass their classes.
• To secure an inclusive learning environment that respects diversity and welcomes all children equally stimulating them to succeed.

Partner organisations Implementers: Foundation Open Society – Macedonia in partnership with the Foundation for Educational and Cultural Initiatives “Step by Step” and the association Centre for Educational Support “Dendo Vas”. Location: Republic of North Macedonia Duration: October 2019 – October 2022 Project Activities: Stipends:A total of 1545 stipends for 615 Roma pupils enrolled in the first, second and third grade will increase the number of Roma pupils in primary education by decreasing the financial burden related to school costs for the Roma families. The stipends are 400 Euros per annum per Roma pupil whose family receives social support. The renewal of the stipend depends on the regular attendance at school of the pupil as well as the level of success in passing from one grade to the other. Supporting the Roma Community: Securing 60 assistants in the municipality mostly populated with Roma who will collaborate closely with the Roma families and the schools thereby helping in the process of identifying the children who are outside of the educational system, their enrollment in school, regular attendance of classes and successful passing to the following grade. School Support: Providing grants to maximum 50 schools for implementing small projects that will inspire interaction and exchange of knowledge between pupils through games and joint participation in school activities, enabling transformation of the classroom into an inclusive environment attractive for learning and respecting diversities thereby encouraging the development of all children equally and implementing training for education and social justice for teachers and other professional school staff. Educational and Motivational Campaign: As part of the project, several educational activities and distribution of material are planned, including an educational media campaign that aims at informing and encouraging Roma families to enroll their children at school, their regular attendance at school and promoting the general benefits of education on the future quality of the life of the children. Key stakeholders and collaborators: The Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, local governments and schools. Budget: 1 363 516 Euros 1 225 528 Euros from the European Union 137,988 - co-financed by the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia

CSO_DIALOGUE – Platform for Structural Participation in EU integration:

Project goals:

• Enable meaningful and structured participation of civil society, which voices the citizens’ perspective, in order to influence key sector reforms in the EU accession process.
• To establish a platform that structures CSOs engagement in the public decision-making processes related to the EU accession process
• To strengthen the formal consultation mechanisms
• To increase the impact of civil society in the EU accession process

Time frame April 2019 – April 2022 Implementer: Foundation Open Society - Macedonia Partners: Eurothink, Reactor and Centar for Civic Communication Expected outcomes:

• Increased amount of accessible and meaningful information on national consultative processes
• Increased (capacities for) civic engagement in public decision making processes A formalized civil society networking mechanism
• Increased transparency of the Formal consultation mechanisms
• CSOs representatives in the consultation mechanisms are better informed of the needs of the citizens
• Increased capacities of CSOs representatives from the three consultative mechanisms for effective advocacy and strategic planning
• A formalized civil society networking mechanism
• Increased impact of civil society over sector policies

Project Budget: 640.439 Euro

Project: “Enhanced Integrity Systems on Local Level”

Project Objective:

To contribute to the enhancement of good governance at the local level by strengthening its resistance against corruption and conflict of interest by (1) introducing an integrity system in five municipalities; and (2) increasing civic engagement in the fight against corruption and conflict of interest, especially in relations to the vulnerable categories of citizens, by means of increasing the number of reported cases and enabling legal aid and information.

Partner organisations: ECHO Stip, Station Five Prilep, Choice Strumica, KSPS Skopje, Multi-Culture Tetovo.

Location : Municipalities: Ohrid, Prilep, Dojran, Karpos and Zelino

Expected Results:

• Adopted Integrity Plans by the five municipalities;
• Established Integrity Working Groups in the five municipalities;
• Secondary legislation regulating internal mechanisms for reporting corruption and conflict of interest cases adopted in the five municipalities;
• Public opinion poll conducted on how widespread corruption and conflict of interest is in the five municipalities;
• 5.000 citizens included in an educational campaign for recognizing and reporting corruption and conflict of interest in the five municipalities;
• Enabled legal aid to citizens in the five municipalities aiming at reporting corruption and conflict of interest in respective competent institutions.

Budget: 140.000 dollars

Supporting the Open Government Partnership Co-creation Process of the National Action Plan 2021-2023

Project objectives: The general objective of the project is strengthening the co-creation process of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) thereby ensuring a more ambitious National Action Plan (NAP) for the period 2021 - 2023. Specific objectives: Improving the design and level of ambition of the NAP through focused thematic consultation workshops (online); Improving the quality of engagement and co-creation dialogue through involving new members of the government, the CSO network of organisations dealing with OGP issues and the international partners, especially those encouraging the inclusion of groups of people with fewer opportunities, women, young people and the Roma community; Strengthening the consultation process and prioritizing actions to be taken; Development and monitoring of the adopted NAP through the working groups of the network of civil society organisations dealing with OGP issues.

Partner-organisations: Centre for Civic Communications and the Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women – ESE, with the support of the Ministry for Information Society and Administration (MISA)

Expected Results:

• Functional cooperation and technical support provided to the Council for Cooperation between Civil Society Organisations and Public Institutions as well as established policies and operational procedures, including the implementation of its regular mandate in coordination with the OGP- National Coordinator in supporting project activities;
• Developed materials and implemented activities to inform civil society organisations and the general public about the principles, opportunities and benefits from the OGP process;
• Questionnaire for evaluating the achievements of the previous NAP of the OGP drafted;
• Developed procedure and timeframe for conducting consultations to draft the new (fifth) NAP of OGP;
• Developed criteria for selection of actions in the course of drafting the fifth NAP of OGP;
• Online information meeting to train interested parties on the implemented OGP process;
• Consultations to identify, develop and prioritise actions for the fifth NAO of OGP prepared and conducted;
• Secured contribution of the marginalized groups as part of the process of drafting the Action Plan;
• Developed and implemented questionnaire for the marginalised groups of citizens and consultations with relevant institutions and stakeholders to improve the design of the actions;
• Actions within the framework of the prioritised policy areas developed and the fifth NAP of OGP completed;
• Developed NAP of OGP for the period 2021-2023;
• Indicators to measure the successful implementation of the actions developed, and establishing a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the actions agreed as part of the fifth NAP through the working groups of the Network of civil society organisations dealing with OGP issues;
• Developed and published online case studies on priority areas, public service delivery and transparency, accountability, pro-active involvement and inclusion;
• Secured visibility through promoting the activities and results on the web-sites and social media of the three partner-organisations, including the web-site of MISA, especially its OGP-portal expected to be active and operational towards the end of November 2020.

Budget: 10.000 dollars