Regional Projects

 

List of projects
please select a project from the list to read more
- “Civil Alliance 08: Together towards NATO”
- “Building Capacities for Balkan Youth Lobbying”
- “Regional Cross-Border Cooperation Kukës-Prizren-Dragash-Gostivar”
- “Albania and Macedonia towards sustainable cooperation for bilateral and regional confidence building”
- “Addressing the Challenges for Paving the Future to Regional Confidence Building”
- “Cross-border Confidence Building between Macedonia and Albania”
- “Serbia after Djindjic: Regional Impact of Fighting Organized Crime”
- “Albania and Macedonia toward Better Understanding and Recognition”

 

 Project Title: “Civil Alliance 08: Together towards NATO”
Duration: 2007-2008
Partner: FORUM Center for Strategic Research and Documentation, Skopje; Institute for International Relations, Zagreb
Area: Albania, Croatia, Macedonia
Donors: Businesses and different donors
 

Since the early 1990s the countries of South East Europe have looked to NATO not simply as a security organization, but as the harbinger of a new era of stability, sustainable development and democratic prosperity in the region. In this framework, Adriatic Charter (A3) countries – Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia - have collaborated at different levels of security and have collectively participated in NATO-led peace-keeping trainings and missions. Looking forward to the full membership of NATO in 2008 three civil society organizations from A3 countries have joined together in the Civil Alliance 08: Institute for Democracy and Mediation in Tirana, FORUM Center for Strategic Research and Documentation in Skopje and Institute for International Relations in Zagreb. This is an initiative for opening up the processes of NATO integration to our societies and region at large, for stimulating the non-for-profit sector in A3 countries to take relevant responsibilities and to be active partners of governments in the integration processes and for engaging in lobbing in Brussels and Washington D.C for the acceptance pf A3 countries in NATO. Civil Alliance 08 has found support from the  Ministers of Defense from the A3 countries.

Civil Alliance in the initiated through three national conferences that will took place in Tirana on 20.04.2007, Skopje on 23.04.2007 and Zagreb on 07.05.2007, where representatives of civil society organizations, politicians and governmental experts discussed NATO integration process, national priorities, and the contribution of the civil societies to these Euro-Atlantic processes. In these conferences were approved the frameworks and roadmaps for civil action contributing to the support and enhancement of reforms.

The inaugural activity of Civil Alliance 08 was the national conference organized in Tirana on 24/04.2007, by Institute for Democracy and Mediation. Participants were representatives of civil society organizations, MPs, ministers, politicians, diplomats of NATO countries, academicians, opinion-makers, etc. In the opening session the conference was addressed by the leaders of parliamentary groups of Democratic Party and Socialist Party, respectively, Bamir Topi and Ben Blushi, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Besnik Mustafaj, the US ambassador of  and NATO contact point for Albania, Marcie B. Ries, the deputy minister of defense Petrit Karabina, representatives of the other founding organizations of Civil Alliance 08 - Saso Ordanovski from FORUM and  Damir Demonja from the Institute for International Relations- and the commander of Military Representation of NATO in Albania, Brig. Gen. Anastasios Rintis. At the end of the conference, the participants endorsed the “Framework for Action” for civil society in Albania (see below).

Other activities of Civil Alliance 08 will be activities with civil society organizations in A3 countries, lobbying in Brussels and Washington and a conference in Montenegro for expanding the regional cooperation for security of A3 with PfP countries – Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Hercegovina – and also Kosova.

 

Draft of the “Framework for Action 2007-2008”

 

Looking forward to the achievement of the historic aspiration to join NATO at the next NATO Summit in Washington; fully supportive to the structural reforms of our armed forces, law enforcement structures and other institutions; believing that the civil society has an important role to play in the integration process; we as civil society organizations pledge to join our best efforts and engage to work together in these directions:

 

- encouraging and supporting a civil and fruitful political dialogue between the government and the opposition for the accomplishing reforms of vital interest to the country and to the objective of the NATO integration;

- cooperating closely with the political parties in reaching an understanding on the electoral reform;

- monitoring the implementation of reforms for the strengthening the rule of law and enhancing the democratic principles in Albania;

- undertaking initiatives and partnerships with governmental agencies in fighting the corruption in the public sector;

- supporting and participating in programs for the restructuring of the security sector, civil oversight and democratic control of the armed forces;

- undertaking public awareness campaigns about duties and responsibilities of NATO integration of the country;

- supporting and participating in regional cooperation and trust building initiatives;

- undertaking nationally, regionally and internationally lobbying in Brussels and Washington D.C. for NATO membership of Albania, together with Croatia and Macedonia.

Letter of Civil Alliance 08 to the ministers of Defence of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia for the endorsement of the Civil Alliance objectives
 
 Project Title: “Building Capacities for Balkan Youth Lobbying”
Duration: January – December 2006
Partners: Forum for Ethnic Relations (Belgrade), Center for Research and Policy-Making (Skopje), The Monitoring Center (Podgorica), Kosova Youth Network (Prishtina)
Area: Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia
Donor: Open Society Network (Soros)

The Balkan Youth Initiative network that was established in the framework of the previous project “Addressing the Challenges for Paving the Future to Regional Confidence Building”, continued the work to cement the cooperation between young leaders in the region. As a consequence they undertook the implementation of a project of training of young people in capacity building, networking, advocacy and lobbying strategies. Besides the project was an opportunity for the network to evaluate the youth-related developments in Albania and in other Balkan countries, in the framework of EU integration. Activities under this project were a round table in Tirana, training sessions organized in Durres and a youth conference in Skopje. In the later, the participating youth organization approved of action plans for joint youth lobbying
 
 Project Title: “Regional Cross-Border Cooperation Kukës-Prizren-Dragash-Gostivar”
Duration: April 2005 – March 2006
Partners: Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (Macedonia), Kosova Development Center (Kosova).
Area: Kukës (Albania), Prizren, Dragash (Kosova) and Gostivar (Macedonia)
Donor: ICCO (Netherlands)

On of the least developed cross-border areas in the region is the triangle zone situated between Albania, Macedonia and Kosova. In order to build up the human capacity of government officials and civil society in this area three NGOs, one from each country implemented joint project. It consisted of a series of trainings in Durres, Peshkopi (Albania), Struga, Skopje (Macedonia), Mitrovica (Kosovo) on project cycle, strategic planning and action planning, then a fact finding visit in each of the target localities. Later on in three workshops, one in each country, developing plans for each municipality/commune were drafted by the target groups and they were presented in a final conference in Prizren (Kosovo). Throughout the project time span a joint monthly and multi-lingual newsletter was published and distributed in all localities were the project was implemented and in the central institutions of each country. The outputs were trained municipality/commune officials and the drafting of development plans for the targeted municipalities/communes.

Local Plan on Development of the Municipality of Kukes (Albania)
Local Development Strategic Plan of the Municipality of Gostivar (Macedonia)
Local Development Plan of Municipalities Prizren and Dragash (Kosova)
 
 Project Title: “Albania and Macedonia towards sustainable cooperation for bilateral and regional confidence building”
Duration: April, 2004 – March, 2005
Partner: Euro-Balkan Institute (Skopje)
Area: Albania, Macedonia
Donor: Freedom House/USAID

The project was a follow-up effort of the project “Albania and Macedonia toward Better Understanding and Recognition”, implemented jointly by IDM and EBI during the year 2002. The objective was to monitor and support the bilateral processes for deepening of the understanding between Albania and Macedonia. The activities included questionnaire survey in both countries, national conferences in Tirana and Skopje and two conferences of bilateral forums, on in Peshkopi-Debar on the media cooperation and the other one in Korça on bilateral cooperation in education and culture. At the final stage of the project, participants in both countries established Albania-Macedonia Friendship Associations, which would institutionalize the joint efforts in cultural and educational spheres to bring both countries closer to one another. The Albania-Macedonia Friendship Association is headed by Academic Luan Omari, while his counterpart in Macedonia is the Academician Gane Todorovski.
 
 Project Title: “Addressing the Challenges for Paving the Future to Regional Confidence Building”
Duration: March, 2004 – April, 2005
Partners: Forum for Ethnic Relation (Belgrade), Kosovo Action for Civil Initiative (Kosovo/UNMIK), Centre for Tolerance and Dialogue (Podgorica) and Euro-Balkan Institute (Skopje)
Area: Albania, Kosovo/UNMIK, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia
Donor: Balkan Trust for Democracy, Kosovo Foundation for Open Society

Young leaders from Serbia, Montenegro, Kosova, Albania and Macedonia came together to share their experiences and ideas and established a network, Balkan Youth Initiative for commonly addressing regional challenges. The youth involved in this network included political leaders, Members of Parliament, leaders of youth party forums, elected local government officials, students, public opinion makers and columnists, representatives of youth NGOs etc. The main activities of the project consisted of three round-tables taking place in Tirana, Prishtina and Cetinje. An highlighted event during the Tirana round-table was the meeting of the young leaders with the President of Albania, Mr. Alfred Moisiu. On this occasion, the President emphasized the importance of the mutual reconciliation and trust building among the young generations in our region and congratulated the young leaders for their cooperation.
 
 Project Title: “Cross-border Confidence Building between Macedonia and Albania”
Duration: April, 2003 – May, 2004
Partner: Euro-Balkan Institute – Skopje
Area: Bordering area between Albania and Macedonia
Donor: Public Affairs Offices in the United States Embassies in Tirana and Skopje

For the first time in bilateral relations between Albania and Macedonia, a joint initiative came for the civil society to undertake responsibilities to cross-border security and to encourage trust, cooperation, stability and good neighborly relations in border areas. The target groups were members of border guarding structures, local government officials, regional NGOs, business community. In Albania the regions of Kukes, Diber, Librazhd and Pogradec were involved, whereas from Macedonia the regions of Debar, Struga and Ohrid. The activities consisted of bilateral meetings and of local meetings in border localities to discuss bilateral relations at the local level. To serve the aims of the project the participants of the round-tables approved various recommendations and presented them to state and public institutions in both countries. The project raised the interest of the local actors on both sides of the border in the cross-border security and other relations between Albania and Macedonia and in trying to incorporate their concerns and issues in the agenda of bilateral meeting between state representatives of the two countries.
 
 Project Title: “Serbia after Djindjic: Regional Impact of Fighting Organized Crime”
Time and place: May 12, 2003, the Hall of Books and Communication House at International Cultural Center, Tirana
Partner: Albanian Media Institute

Following the tragic death of the Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, a distinguished analyst from Serbia, Dr. Dusan Janjic, coordinator of the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade, delivered a talk in Tirana on the latest developments in Serbia and their impact on the region. The Albanian audience, composed of media and political analysts, met with interest the analysis of Dr. Janjic on and discussed on the importance of regional co-ordination and cooperation in different levels to fight organized crime and terrorism.
 
 Project Title: “Albania and Macedonia toward Better Understanding and Recognition”
Duration: May 2002 – February 2003
Partner: Euro-Balkan Institute (EBI) - Skopje
Area: Albania, Macedonia
Donor: Freedom House/USAID

After a period of mistrust between Macedonia and Albania during the year 2001, this was the first time that public personalities from both countries - politicians, members of parliament, media leaders, opinion-makers, representatives of NGO-s, university lecturers, businessmen, members of local authorities on cross border area, members of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia and representatives of Macedonian minority in Albania – joined in a forum to jointly exert their influence on the publics and policy makers to enhance the bilateral understanding and cooperation. The project implemented by IDM and Euro-Balkan evolved in three stages. The first one consisted of the evaluation of bilateral relations through a questionnaire survey that was distributed to over 200 civil society personalities in Albania and Macedonia. In the second stage of the project, national round-table were organized by each organization, respectively in Tirana and Skopje. The final stage of the project was the Ohrid Regional Conference, on December 7-8, 2002. The project established a multifaceted civil dialogue between personalities of the two countries focused on the mutual efforts to overcome the various problems and creatively work towards a peaceful, prosperous and integrated region. By the participants and the media in both countries the project was hailed as success story: “NGOs succeed in what politicians failed to achieve” – Aktuel (Skopje); “Euro-Balkan Institute and IDN anticipate the meeting of prime ministers Nano and Cervenkovski” – Korrieri (Tirana).