The closing conference “Local democracy – ideal or practice” of the “CSOs for making Local Democracy Work” project was held on the 22nd of January 2020 in Skopje.

More than 70 representatives of Civil Society Organizations and Local Self-Government had the opportunity to get acquainted with the implemented activities of the project, as well as their results and achievements.

The conference was opened by ALDA President, Oriano Otocan and the Deputy Minister of Local Self-Government Dejan Pavleski. Mr Otocan gave an overview of the key issues related to local democracy, as well as the good practices that ALDA promotes through its projects and activities, while Mr Pavlevski emphasized all the measures taken by the government regarding the improvement of the local democracy and of the decentralization and referred to the work and role of the regional councils which he sees as a very good platform, adding that the cooperation between Civil Society Organizations and Local Self-Government is very significant in this section.

The ALDA Skopje Director, Ms Ivana Petrovska, welcomed the participants and briefly presented some of the main results achieved during the implementation of this project.

During the second part of the event ‘’Transferring experiences from project implementation”, Mr Zoran Jankulovski from the Association of Financial Officers talked about the financial and non-financial support to CSOs from local authorities. Later, Mrs Mileva Gjurovska, president of the European Movement, pointed out the necessity for Civil Society Organizations and Local Self-Government to work together in the European integration process.

The third part of the conference was dedicated to ‘’Transferring experiences from projects at local level”. The speakers who shared their project experiences and results were: Tome Hristoski, Mayor of the Municipality of Krusevo, Todor Efremov, from the Municipality of Kavadarci, Liljana Jonoski from the organization “Rural Coalition” and Daliborka Zlateva from the Association of people with cerebral paralysis. They talked about the impact of the project activities on the beneficiaries, both citizens and municipalities, as well as the way in which Civil Society Organizations developed mutual cooperation.

One of the most positive results was the initiative to set up a Local Democracy Network, made up of project partners and organizations funded by the sub-granting scheme. After the conference, the project partners and grantees signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Local Democracy Network.

The “CSOs for making Local Democracy Work” project was implemented under IPA Civil Society Facility and Media Programme 2015.

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