Grants for the implementation of five-month projects have been awarded to 8 civil society organizations from five countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. These grants will focus on addressing the urgent local and national issues in the upcoming period in order to advance good governance and the rule of law.
These grants are dedicated to local civil society organizations, and have been awarded within the ACTION SEE – Accountability, Technology and Institutional Openness Network in SEE project, which is implemented by Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), Metamorphosis Foundation, Westminster Foundation for Democracy, CRTA – Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, Citizens Association “Why not?”, Open Data Kosovo – ODK and Levizja Mjaft!, with financial support of the European Union.
The awarded organizations from the third and final cycle of the Grant Scheme component are listed below.
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Liberal Forum (www.liberalniforum.com) – “Towards efficient and transaprent SOEs”
Liberal Forum in cooperation with the Online portal InfoRadar, will implement the project “Towards efficient and transaprent SOEs” through conducting needs analysis, advocacy campaigns and a public panel discussion “Competition in telecommunication market – equal position for all operators”. The activities will be implemented with the goal of striving towards providing arguments to the media and journalists related to the sources of inefficiency and inadequate quality of public services provided by SOEs in Bosnia & Herzegovina and with the goal of reaching 150.000 citizens and inform them about the efforts of public telecom operators to improve their operations in order to meet recommendations given in recently performed due diligence analysis, how public telecoms can contribute to sustainable and inclusive development and the pace of implementation of the most important infrastructure projects.
Kosovo
Association for Capacity Improvement “Media Pulse” (www.ngomediapulse.org) – “Together for better transparency”
In cooperation with RTV MIR and the Leposavic Municipality, Association for Capacity Improvement “Media Pulse” strives towards contribution to a better transparency of administration in municipality Leposavic and towards a greater participation of citizens in the decision-making process, by implementing the project “Together for better transparency”. The project objectives will be reached through monitoring of the local assembly and the official website of the Leposavic Municipality, organising meetings of the citizens with the representatives of local self-government, having public appearances with representatives of the local self-government, conducting a media campaign on the importance of citizens’ participation in the processes of local administration monitoring and publishing flyers about citizens’ rights provided by laws that would contribute to greater awareness of citizens about the rights and obligations provided by laws.
Montenegro
NGO Travel & Technology Centre (www.facebook.com/ngo.ttc) – “Efficient PR services – more informed citizens”
The overall objective of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of the communication between ministries and citizens, as well as to provide recommendations in order to communicate in a more professional, efficient and coordinated manner, which is in line with ACTION SEE objectives through enhancing the involvement of civil society and media organizations in the creation of public opinion, policy making and participation in the decision-making mechanisms and increasing capacities of civil society to build its constituencies and tackle bold issues, and is in line with the principles of transparency and Free Access to Public Information. NGO Travel & Technology Centre, in cooperation with News Agency MINA – Podgorica, will work on the achievement of the objectives of the project through legal analysis, interviews and focus groups for journalists, preparation of a policy paper and a press-conference.
North Macedonia
Association for youth and marginalized groups: Center for Integration and development – “The importance of usage of languages of the communities for good governance at local level in the municipalities of Kumanovo, Cair and Lipkovo”
Jointly with the local TV station FESTA, Association for youth and marginalized groups: Center for Integration and development will work on the advancement of the Law for usage of languages through documenting and monitoring the implementation of the law for usage of languages in certain institutions in the local government through the project “The importance of usage of languages of the communities for good governance at local level in the municipalities of Kumanovo, Cair and Lipkovo”. The project focuses on the definition of the framework (what are the cases that the selected institutions at local level use other language beside the Macedonian language for communication with the citizens), documenting the existing procedures (completion/finalization of the existing guidebooks and rules used by the municipal officers for communication with citizens who speak a language other than Macedonian language), evaluating/establishing the capacities of the selected institutions whether there is a staffed unit (department, sector) that enables communication of the institution in a language other than the Macedonian language, and preparing and presenting a report that will contain a list of good practices and recommendations.
Association Initiative of unemployed intellectuals (www.ini.org.mk) – “The Citizen is the real inspector”
Together with the NGO,,HOPE” and TV STAR, the Association Initiative of unemployed intellectuals will work on reducing the number of violations of labor rights through the activation of the Labor Inspectorate in the East Planning Region in the Republic of North Macedonia. The project is envisioned to achieve its objectives through campaign for promotion of Law for Labor relation in the social media and Regional TV STAR, organising round tables in 11 municipalities, creating a platform for reporting violations of labor rights: submitting requests for information of public character to the regional units of the Labor Inspectorate, analysing the received data from the reporting platform and the received responses from the submitted requests to the Labor Inspectorate, creating a video with relevant stakeholders and testimonies of victims of labor exploitation and having a final event for the promotion of the project’s achievements.
Coalition of Civil Associations ”All for Fair Trials” – CAFT (www.all4fairtrials.org.mk) – “CAFT Trial dossier”
Coalition of Civil Associations ”All for Fair Trials” (CAFT) in partnership with Radio MOF (www.radiomof.mk) is implementing the project “CAFT Trial Dossier” which aims to improve the citizens’ trust in the judiciary in North Macedonia, improve the transparency of the Primary Court Skopje 1 and the transparency of the Special Prosecutors Office (SPO), as well as to ease the access to information related to high- profile court cases for media, researchers, students and general public. For this purpose, CAFT will create a sub domain of its web page (sub- page) where at least 20 case files of high-profile criminal cases initiated by the SPO will be published. These case files will contain all the available public data, such as case summaries, general information, timeline, indictments, motions, decisions and verdicts, as well as trial monitoring reports, systematized in both chronological and thematical, easy to use format. The sub page will be promoted on a public event which will be live streamed, as well as via social media, mailing lists, and radio products.
Eko-Natyra (www.ekonatyra.org) – “Good governance for a good environment”
Eko-Natyra in cooperation with TV Koha will work on the implementation of the project “Good governance for a good environment” which aims to increase the citizens engagement in policy making related to environmental issues on local level, or more specifically, to provide recommendations for citizen participation in policy making on local government level on issues related to environment (using Tetovo as a sample municipality), to present a model for citizen participation related to environmental protection on local government level and to lobby for an increased budget transparency on local level (pertinent to environment protection).
Serbia
Renewables and Environment Regulatory Institute – RERI (www.reri.org.rs) – “Your right – Increasing transparency, accountability and public participation in significant infrastructural and environmental project and plans”
The project “Your right– Increasing transparency, accountability and public participation in significant infrastructural and environmental project and plans” promotes good governance and the rule of law by utilising available legal instruments to protect environment and rights of the citizens. The project tackles the problem of the lack of transparency and accountability and abuses of public authority in the development of consent procedures and implementation of projects with possible adverse environmental effects and those significant infrastructural projects which are under high public attention. Through this project RERI, in cooperation with Danas Daily News, will conduct monitoring of public authority performance and will expose responsible authorities and public officials to legal and social responsibility in cases where environment and public interests is jeopardized by non-transparent and non-inclusive planing and construction processes.
The ACTION SEE Network is officially growing and gaining new members who strive towards the same goals and cheris the same values.