A regional blogging initiative on the experience with the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Western Balkans.
For several months now, the region functions in emergency circumstances caused by COVID-19. To prevent the virus from spreading, governments in the region are taking several measures. Citizens, institutions, and the private sector face a multitude of challenges. We know the situation at home, but how do neighbouring countries deal with the pandemic? What are their challenges? What lessons can we learn from this health (and economic) disaster?
The “Tales from the Region” initiative addresses these questions and more. The initiative consists of organizations and authors from the region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia). During two weeks (24 June 2020 to 6 July 2020), we will publish each of the institute’s blogs, with the blog on Albania prepared by IDM, authored by Alban Dafa, researcher on governance & security, and Redion Qirjazi, security programme manager, launching on July 1st.
The blogs focus on how COVID-19 attacked the countries in the region, what measures were taken by their local and national authorities and how the citizens reacted to these measures. We will learn from their successes, but also their mistakes.
By sharing their “tales”, we learn about the challenges the region faces in the coming months, and we learn what the “new normal” will look like for all of us.
The initiative “Tales From the Region” is coordinated by Res Publica (North Macedonia) in cooperation with the Institute of Democracy and Mediation (Albania), Analiziraj.ba (BiH), Radio KIM (Kosovo), Sbunker (Kosovo), the civic initiative “Ne Davimo Beograd” (Serbia) and PCNEN (Montenegro). The initiative is implemented within the project “Connecting the Dots: Improved Policies through Civic Engagement”, implemented by the Institute of Communication Studies, with support of British Embassy Skopje.