Follow up: Macedonia and IPA Funds - Guidelines for Civil Society Organizations 18 pages, pdf  Download Back

Follow up: Macedonia and IPA Funds -  guidelines for Civil Society Organizations

Publisher: Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organizations (TACSO)

Introduction:

In 2009, Analytica published the report Macedonia’s lagging behind in efficient usage of EU funds (IPA,Framework Programmes). In 2009 the country was still just getting to know all the complex procedures and labyrinths that the EU funding represents. The conclusion was that: “...the overall feeling is that compared to Croatia and Turkey, Macedonia is lagging behind in terms of IPA usage. Institutional capacity has been a persistent problem and there have not been sufficient trainings of the private sector in the past years either, which adds to the situation Macedonia is in. What was available as data were the lists of who got funding for what project in the previous years through the EIDHR and IPA funding schemes. The report will discuss those findings later. Next topic of discussion will be the possibilities that the EU offers to the CSOs in the country which fall under the Civil Society Dialogue (CSD).


The views of Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organizations (TACSO) in Macedonia

TACSO is quite a unique project- technical support for the CSOs in the Western Balkans (WB) and Turkey in order to strengthen CSOs capacity and their role in participative democracy. Among other specific objectives the project aims also to boost the capacities of the CSO for using the EU Funds (does not necessarily focus on IPA funding). What they do regarding this objective-information sessions,
distribution of current calls, plus training courses and in addition networking between the civil societies in the region. They have quite extensive database of CSOs in Macedonia and the region.


Profile of CSOs that have won EU funds 2007-2009

Under EIDHR from 2007 to 2009 and IPA 2007-2009 forty-five CSOs won grants for their project ideas. The exact number of applications is unknown. Out of those 45 organizations, four organizations have won grants consecutively year after a year. For instance the Center for Research and Policy Making (Centar za Istrazuvanje i Kreriranje na Politiki Skopje) has won projects under EIDHR 2007 and EIDHR 2008. Furthermore the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (Makedonski Centar za Megunarodna Sorabotka) has won projects under EIDHR 2008 and EIDHR 2009 and Polio Plus (EIDHR 2007 and IPA Component I 2008). Under the same Country Based Support Schemes (08/09) the Citizens Association REACTOR Research in Action has also won two projects. The Macedonian Center for International Cooperation has also won a project under the IPA 2007 Component II–Cross-border cooperation (CBC) Macedonia-Albania (MK/AL) which makes it one of the most successful Macedonian CSOs when it comes to getting EU funding 11. Other most successful organization for the period of 2007-2009 is a CSO from Prilep called Center for Civic Initiative (Centar za Graganska Inicijativa). They have won funds under IPA 2007 Component II–Cross-border cooperation Macedonia-Albania, under EIDHR 2008 and under IPA 2008 Component I.