The director of the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC), Aleksandar Krzalovski at the CIVIL Conference “Perspectives 2021” talks about the challenges of the civil sector in the coming year, given the crisis with Covid-19, the economic crisis and the Bulgarian veto.
-Obviously, 2020 will be remembered by all of us, both globally and in our country, for the coronavirus pandemic, and for civil society organizations it was very strange, unusual, and with the need to change many regular activities and adapt to the new situation. With the advent of vaccines, we expect the situation to stabilize in the first half of the year, and to slowly return from the new normal, to the old. Although it seems that a lot of the things we did during the year turned out to be some good things, in terms of online communication and working from home. We have experimented with many things, so I believe that many of them will remain. If nothing else, one of the phrases “paperless office”, we saw that it could work and I guess that many organizations will switch to electronic operations, says Krzalovski.
He referred to the health crisis and the role of civil society organizations in dealing with it, pointing to prevention and assistance to those at risk.
– What happened this year will probably be a feature of the first half of next year, and that is that many civil society organizations have adapted to direct work for prevention and assistance to vulnerable people and their target groups in dealing with the pandemic, especially because there was a third wave in our country, which was the most severe. The last event was with the Minister of Health, Dr. Filipce, to which eighty civil society organizations presented what they can do and heard from the Minister what they should do, so I expect the first period of next year to be dedicated to dealing with and improving the situation with the corona crisis and prevention of new deaths in so much volume.
Regarding the work and financing of civil society organizations in times of health, political and economic crisis, Krzalovski said that he is not optimistic about the situation with the civil society in the coming period, due to the stagnation of reforms and the transition of funding from foreign donors to domestic sources of funding.
-For the long-term views and perspectives, for the civil society, unfortunately, I do not expect good things, because of the crisis all the reforms that should have happened in the civil sector have been postponed, above all I mean the transition of financing from foreign donors to domestic sources of funding , above all the state budget, which is still far below the level of the region. The countries in the region provide far more from their own budget sources than from foreign donors. they should have closed and abandoned them, ie not financed projects in Macedonia, because the function of a candidate country for EU membership should take over the responsibilities, and maybe that will be one of the lessons, especially if this lasts with Bulgaria. We will have to deal with it ourselves, and perhaps the European Union is therefore not receptive to us as a member, because we simply do not even meet the pre-transition standards in Yugoslavia, let alone raise them, to qualify for EU membership. Nobody wants to have countries that will just draw help from other members and not contribute. So, I think it will be a challenge for the civil society sector as well, in the coming years to contribute more to that transition to European values, without European support, including the possibility of having less funding for the civil society sector from the EU and other donors. Whether the government will find the strength for the reform I expect, to make a transparent system of domestic financing, I would not expect again, although the goal is to do it in 2021, there are more initiatives and organizations, and the EU itself aims at that, and the government is committed to making this happen this year or next, but because of the whole constellation and situation we may not have to hope for such a thing.
-Most of the civil society programs that are currently active are Civica Mobilitas, which is managed by MCIC at the Swiss Embassy, but also USAID with the project Concept for Civic Engagement. The point is for the organizations themselves to restore or restore the connection with the citizens, that is, what they are doing should be a reflection of the needs of their target groups, of the wider citizenry, and I expect a move in that direction, the organizations that will demonstrate that they have the support of the membership or are truly committed to certain target groups, to grow and continue to grow, and establish themselves in that area of the civil society sector, and probably many of those organizations will cease to exist, because the goal is to fulfill the vision for which the organization was formed, when that vision is fulfilled , there is no reason for that organization to exist anymore. So, as things get settled on the road to the EU, it is likely that some of the organizations will cease to exist and new ones will be formed. What I see lacking in the civil society sector is coverage by right-wing voters’ organizations, but also citizens, that most of the civil society sector enjoys the support of more liberal citizens, relatively left-leaning, although in our country it is difficult to make a difference. There is no adequate coverage of the more conservative part of the citizens or the organizations they cover are not included in the funding flows of European and other foreign and domestic organizations, which causes a clash in the society, and I think it should be slowly balanced, equated to some way access to funds and access to the public, and in the presentation of things.
-More because of the Bulgarian veto and less because of the coronavirus crisis, I think that many of the issues dealt with by the civil sector will stagnate, from support for vulnerable and vulnerable groups, to issues of gender equality, hate speech, etc., that they will have lower priority because we have a bigger problem, both for health and political reasons. I think that in part, even significantly, CSOs will be thrown on the margins of social movements next year, because in addition to health and political, I think there will be a third crisis, economic, which will be effective on health, but with the level of borrowing that we have done this year, and a deficit is planned for next year, I think we will reach the limits of economic collapse, and that will be a priority to deal with, both the Government and the citizens, with employment, with the maintenance of income and standard of living. So, unfortunately, I do not expect bright days for CSOs, but they are also a chance to show and demonstrate their value. In crisis situations, CSOs have always stepped in and helped the state deal with those crises.
D. Tahiri
Camera: Atanas Petrovski
Editing: Arian Mehmeti
