On the eve of the Local Elections 2021, six partner civil society organizations (NGO Info-center, Youth Cultural Center-Bitola, Community Center of the Municipality of Struga, Glasen Tekstilec, Multicultura and Idea SEE), in cooperation with three other civil society organizations – Spektar, Civic Initiative of women from Sveti Nikole and the Center for Media Development, formed the Forum for Civil Dialogue.
The main goal of this Forum was to encourage the direct participation of citizens in the public discussion, in identifying local problems and needs, as well as in determining the main priorities in their local communities. The forum realized a series of activities that included nine municipalities: Centar, Bitola, Stip, Tetovo, Struga, Kavadarci, Kriva Palanka, Sveti Nikole and Demir Hisar.
Through 18 consultative meetings with the citizens, 9 public debates and meetings with the candidates for mayors and candidates for councilors, 9 meetings with the elected mayors and councilors in the local self-governments, as well as online polls, the Forum covered the opinions and views of over 500 citizens who identified a total 250 priorities in several areas.
More on the priorities you can read at Citizens’ Priorities and New Local Administrations.
The Forum for Civic Dialogue was conducted within the project “Civic Alliance for Progressive Change at the Local Level”, supported by the International Center Olof Palme from Sweden, in the period August – December 2021.