Initiative for increased participation of the civil sector

Proposed strategy of city of Skopje for cooperation with civil organizations

In the period from May till August 2007, City of Skopje, in partnership with the Center for Institutional Development – CIRa, and with support from OSCE – Monitor Mission in Skopje, has implemented a project, which was aimed towards increasing the public participation through systematic improvement of the cooperation between the local civil organizations and the City of Skopje.

      The main goal of the project is to develop a Strategy of City of Skopje for Cooperation with Civil Organizations, accompanied by action plan through a process that provides active participation and contribution of the civil organizations. In line with the long-term contribution of the civil organizations to the work of City of Skopje, a Counseling Forum will be established, comprised from members of citizens’ associations and foundations. Also, throughout the process, mechanisms and criteria will be developed for offering support of City of Skopje to civil organizations, which will lead towards increasing the transparency and efficiency of the work of City of Skopje.
      In order to successfully create this strategy six workshops were conducted, where representatives from the civil sector participated, amongst which representatives from PORAKA. During these workshops, civil organizations had the opportunity to actively participate and give their contribution in preparation of priorities for the strategy.
      The text of the proposed Strategy of City of Skopje for cooperation with civil organizations is already prepared, and will be submitted to the Council of City of Skopje for its adoption through the administration, which will be followed by its implementation.
This strategy represents a middle-term plan document that covers the period 2007-2010. Its main goal is to provide active involvement of civil organizations, which actively work on the territory of City of Skopje, in the processes of defining developmental activities and initiatives of City of Skopje, as well as to create preconditions for establishing effective partnerships. Seven strategic goals are developed with adequate action plans, which include detail description of the appropriate activity, indicators, time-frame and the responsible organization unit for implementing the activity.

STRATEGIC GOAL 1: Establishing mechanisms for cooperation between City of Skopje and civil organizations

      City of Skopje aims to institutionalize the cooperation with civil organizations and to make it sustainable. Therefore, establishment of new and qualitatively improved mechanisms for close cooperation are being planned through a series of activities. Therefore, the idea is to establish mutual working and counseling bodies, which will be available for the city administration, and will be supported by the available resources of the city.
      In order to achieve this goal, it is foreseen to realize the following activities: preparation of resource database of civil organizations; setting up discussion groups in different areas and election of members from civil organizations in the City Forum for cooperation and coordination of City of Skopje with civil organizations; establishing the City Forum for cooperation and coordination of City of Skopje with civil organizations (City Forum); adopting and announcing criteria for support of nominated projects and of procedures for application; preparation and implementation of mechanisms for protection of intellectual property relating the submitted project-proposals; publishing announcement for nomination of project-proposals.

STRATEGIC GOAL 2: Increasing the flow of information between City of Skopje and civil organizations

      The achievement of this goal is foreseen with: setting up joint e-mail groups according to different areas; setting up discussion blogs within the internet page of City of Skopje; establishing a network of contact persons according to areas in the city administration as main contact points for civil organizations; setting up a city center for support of civil organizations (City NGO Center); providing professional support and information to civil organizations regarding the interpretation of legal regulative, which is in direct connection with competencies of City of Skopje and the decisions of City of Skopje; preparing and publishing annual narrative and financial report regarding the cooperation of City of Skopje with the civil organizations.

STRATEGIC GOAL 3: Increasing and strengthening the capacity of the city administration in order to improve the quality of their functions and offered services

      The idea behind this goal is for civil organizations to contribute towards the improvement of the quality of performed functions and offered services by the city administration. The current experience of most of the civil organizations, as well as the access they have to positive experiences in other local self-governments in the world, but in the country as well, are sufficient reason for utilizing this potential.
      The foreseen activities for realization of this goal are: needs assessment for training of the city administration; performing a series of training for the city administration; preparation and adoption of a Ethic Code for the employees in the city administration; creation of library of world’s good practices related to the work and competencies of City of Skopje; introducing a principle of assessing the quality of the offered services; choosing and implementing parts of the good practices in the work of the city administration; monitoring and evaluation of the realization of annual plans and programmes.

STRATEGIC GOAL 4: Developing strategic partnerships between City of Skopje and civil organizations

      Developing strategic partnerships between City of Skopje and certain civil organizations is necessary because of maximum utilization of the potentials and resources of certain civil organizations “specialized” for certain areas of work, decreasing the expenses of the city administration in these areas and significant improvement of the conditions in the existing areas. Also, strategic partnerships illustrate coordinative cooperation in which everyone invests and acts with using resources of key actors and concerned parties.
      The foreseen activities for this goal are: identification of “specific” areas of interest to the city in order to establish partnerships with civil organizations; mapping the conditions in the identified “specific areas”; preparation and adoption of measures for improvement of the conditions in the “specific” areas; signing memorandums for cooperation with adequate civil organizations for realization of the adopted measures in the “specific” areas; permanent monitoring of the conditions in the “specific” areas and reporting to the city administration about the efficiency of the measures taken.

STRATEGIC GOAL 5: Increasing the level of protection of the environment and improving the city sanitation

      The activities foreseen in this strategic goal are aimed towards improvement of the overall condition in the area of protection of the environment and significant improvement of the city sanitation by realization of different measures. Special attention is given to protection of the stray dogs and to the need of protection, development and expanding green surfaces.

STRATEGIC GOAL 6: Increasing the participation of civil organizations in the processes of planning and preparation of specialized strategies

      By providing active participation of the civil organizations in the processes of planning and preparation of specialized strategies, City of Skopje provides transparency in the work, as well as involving citizens in identifying the needs for development. Representatives from the civil organizations have identified the need for development and adopting the following strategies: preparation of a strategy for urban development; preparation of strategy for development and promotion of the tourism in the City of Skopje; preparation of a strategy for development of sports, recreation and physical culture in the City of Skopje; preparation of a strategy for development of culture and protection and promotion of city cultural heritage; preparation of a strategy for development of handicrafts; preparation of strategy for development of small and middle size businesses.

STRATEGIC GOAL 7: Giving support to the city administration regarding the health, social and educational problems in the city

      The seventh and last strategic goal unites a group of programmes and policies necessary for improvement of certain concrete conditions in the areas of social protection, education and health security of the citizens of Skopje. There are civil organizations that are working in this area for a long period now, and they have noticed visible changes and improvements. Because of their experience, they will have an important contribution in the realization of this strategic goal.
      Among the activities foreseen with this strategic goal, also is the adoption of a city policy and preparation of a programme for support of persons with disability. The result of this activity will be prepared and adopted programme for support of persons with disability, which will have annual and general and specific objectives, as well as key activities for achieving these activities, and adequate budget projection. The programme will be consisted of a plan for monitoring and evaluation, as well as concerned parties and persons responsible for managing and implementation. The programme will be prepared with participation of all key actors that undertake initiatives and activities for support of persons with disability. There will also be a possibility for identification of all activities taken in this field and mapping the key actors. This mapping will contribute for analysis of the current situation and creation of a programme with specific activities and clear coordination and cooperation between all concerned parties. The realization of this activity includes establishing a working group comprised of representatives from the concerned civil organizations, city administration, relevant governmental institutions and individual experts who, through a serial of meetings will work on preparation of draft programme, which will correspond to the national programme for the rights of persons with disability, and to the national strategy for de-institutionalization of persons with disability.
      Key subjects in the implementation of the strategy are: the administration of the City of Skopje and the civil organizations. Nevertheless, regarding the fact that on the territory of City of Skopje there are ten municipalities existing, it is indisputable that in order to implement certain parts of this document, it will be necessary to establish good coordination and cooperation with the administrations of the tenth municipalities in Skopje.