PRESS RELEASE
19.11.2011, Skopje

GUIDES FOR CITIZENS PARTICIPATION IN THE LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT PROMOTED

The promotion of the “Guides for citizens participation in policy and decision making process in local self government”, organized by the Citizens Association MOST, took place today. The Guides are developed for the citizens and municipality administration, with aim to increase the citizens’ participation in the policy creation and decision making processes on a local level.

The need for continuing cooperation between the local self government and citizens is undoubted, but unfortunately the involvement of the citizens in the policy creation and decision making processes in the local self government is small. According to Mr. Darko Aleksov, the Executive director of MOST, this is the reason for the Citizens Association MOST to direct part of its activities and capacities towards citizens’ participation in the everyday functioning of the local self government.

“In the past two years, CIRa, through the program CIVICA Mobilitas has been strategically supporting MOST in the implementation of projects that provide awareness arising of citizens and their increased participation in the local self government. This project is essential for citizens’ involvement on a local level, and at the same time contributes towards more transparent and accountable work of the local self government units” – stressed Mr. Zoran Stojkovski, Executive director of CIRa.

Some of the members of the editorial team introduced the Guides.

Ph.D Mirjana Borota – Popovska, introduced the Guide for the citizens: “There is no doubt that democracy is defined through the citizens and their activity, therefore the aim of this Guide is to provide citizens to understand their importance in the processes of creation  and decision-making and help in building mutual trust between citizens and municipal government. We believe that effective citizen involvement is essential to good governance”.

Ph.D Zoran Sapuric introduced the importance of the Guide for municipality administration and underlined: “The Guide for the municipality administration that is being promoted today, represent serious effort to help the municipality administration to successfully perform its functions. This guideline aims to provide a simple and easy display of opportunities for citizen’s involvement in decision-making processes in the municipalities and for the performance of their intensive communication with the citizens in exercise of this communication with citizens. This Guide aims to provide a simple and easy display of opportunities for citizen’s involvement in decision-making processes in the municipalities and for the performance of their intensive communication with the citizens in direction to exercise improved process of decision making on a local level”.

Additionally this event was used to promote the Advocacy handbook that was published as part of the activities of the Advocacy Center, a project supported by the Balkan Trust for Democracy. According to Mrs. Slavica Biljarska Mirceski, one of the authors of the Handbook, the aim of this handbook is to invest in the citizens and their skills and knowledge, because the best results are achieved through learning, and creation of new common experience and exchange of good practices.

These Guides and the Handbook will be available to all interested citizens, and will be distributed to all Local self government units in Macedonia.

The project “Accountability, cooperativeness and transparency of the local self government” in which frames the Guides are published, is implemented by the Citizens Association MOST through the program CIVICA Mobilitas administered by the Center for Institutional development CIRa and financially supported by the Swiss agency for development and cooperation represented by the Office for cooperation in Macedonia and by funds from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

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