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In the next next two days, the training cycle for municipal councillors continues in Veles and Ohrid. The municipal councillors from Sveti Nikole and Veles will improve their knowledge in the area of spatial and urban planning in the local self-government units, while the councillors from Chair and Ohrid will strengthen their capacities on topics related to gender equality and inter-ethnic cooperation at the local level.

Meanwhile, the municipal councillors from Strumica and Valandovo concluded the second cycle of trainings, and thus became the first councillors who completed the Capacity Development Programme for municipal councillors.

Previously, the councillors from these six municipalities successfully completed the first phase of training on public financial management in the municipalities and good governance at the local level.

The trainings are part of the “Empowering  Municipal Councils” Project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation with a total value of CHF 3.4 million implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in cooperation with national and local partners.

In the next two years, this project will include additional 18 municipalities that will be selected through public calls.

In addition to the training for counsellors, a total of CHF 1.2 million is reserved for small grants intended for the realization of priority initiatives in all 24 municipalities that will participate in the project.

With training on topic “Spacial and urban planning in the local self-government”, this weekend the training cycle for the councillors from the municipalities of Strumica and Valandovo continues in Strumica.

At the same time, in Veles, the councillors from this municipality and the councillors from Sveti Nikole, will improve their knowledge and skills on topics related to gender equality and inter-ethnic cooperation, while in Ohrid, the municipal councillors from Chair and Ohrid will strengthen their capacities through training in the areas of human resources management, innovation in governance and inter-municipal cooperation.

Previously, the councillors from these six municipalities successfully completed the first phase of training on public financial management in the municipalities and good governance at the local level.

The trainings are part of the “Empowering  Municipal Councils” Project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation with a total value of CHF 3.4 million implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in cooperation with national and local partners.

In the next two years, this project will include additional 18 municipalities that will be selected through public calls.

In addition to the training for counsellors, a total of CHF 1.2 million is reserved for small grants intended for the realization of priority initiatives in all 24 municipalities that will participate in the project.

With training in the fields of gender equality and inter-ethnic cooperation, today in Strumica the training cycle for the councillors from the municipalities of Strumica and Valandovo continues. At the same time, in Veles, the councillors from this municipality and the councillors from Sveti Nikole, will improve their knowledge and skills on topics related to human resources management, innovation in governance and inter-municipal cooperation.

In addition to these, in the next two months, the councillors from the municipalities of Veles, Sveti Nikole, Valandovo, Strumica, Chair and Ohrid will improve their capacities on topics related to urbanism and spatial planning at the local level.

Previously, the councillors from these six municipalities successfully completed the first phase of training on public financial management in the municipalities and good governance at the local level.

The trainings are part of the “Empowering  Municipal Councils” Project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation with a total value of CHF 3.4 million implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in cooperation with national and local partners.

In the next two years, this project will include additional 18 municipalities that will be selected through public calls.

In addition to the training for counsellors, a total of CHF 1.2 million is reserved for small grants intended for the realization of priority initiatives in all 24 municipalities that will participate in the project.

The training in the field of human resources management, innovation in governance and inter-municipal cooperation in Strumica, marked the start of the second phase of training for municipal councillors.

In addition to these, in the next two months, the councillors from the municipalities of Veles, Sveti Nikole, Valandovo, Strumica, Cair and Ohrid will improve their knowledge and skills on topics related to urbanism and spatial planning, interethnic cooperation and gender equality at the local level.

Previously, the councillors from these six municipalities successfully completed the first phase of training on  public financial management in the municipalities and good governance at the local level.

The trainings are part of the “Empowering  Municipal Councils” Project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation with a total value of CHF 3.4 million implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in cooperation with national and local partners.

In the next two years, this project will include additional 18 municipalities that will be selected through public calls.

In addition to the training for counsellors, a total of CHF 1.2 million is reserved for small grants intended for the realization of priority initiatives in all 24 municipalities that will participate in the project.

The main objective of the project “Empowering municipal councils” financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is to provide support to municipal councils to be more effective and autonomous bodies, to better deal with the influence of the executive, to appropriately fulfil their constitutionally assigned roles of legislation, oversight and advocacy. As a result, these efforts will increase the transparency and accountability of the Mayor towards the Council and of the municipality towards the citizens and will improve the living conditions in the local community through successful implementation of the priority community projects.

For the duration of the project 2016-2020, a total of 24 municipalities will be directly involved in its implementation. Since August 2016, the project worked with six pilot municipalities (Strumica, Valandovo, Sveti Nikole, Chair, Veles and Ohrid) that were selected as part of the preparatory phase of the project in 2015. The six pilot municipalities were selected through the creation of a sample of different types of municipalities and include urban and rural municipalities, different numbers of population, municipalities from different regions, municipalities governed by the position and the opposition, municipalities with negative audit reports, municipalities with blocked accounts, etc.

Through this call for expressing interest in taking part in the “Empowering municipal councils” project additional 9 municipalities will be selected to be included in the project as of January 2019.

The activities with the new nine selected municipalities will take 18 months, and their implementation is planned to start in January 2019 and end in June 2020.

Municipalities that express interest to submit Application for taking part in the “Empowering Municipal Councils” project can download the Operational Guidelines and the Application from the following link.

Applications must be delivered by hand, by post, or by courier at the following address: UNDP Office – ‘Empowering Municipal Councils’ Project, Jordan Hadzi Konstantinov – Dzhinot Str., no. 23, Skopje.

In order for the applications to pass the evaluation for admittance, they must be delivered at the above address, no later than by 14:00 hours on 12 October 2018.

Skopje, 13 September 2018

Marking the International Day of Democracy, the presidents of more than 70 of the country’s 81 municipal councils gathered in Skopje today to discuss ways to make local government more inclusive, transparent and accountable.

The event, organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), featured the launch of a public call for municipalities to apply to participate in the “Empowering Municipal Councils” project.

The project already covers six municipalities: Chair, Ohrid, Strumica, Sveti Nikole, Valandovo and Veles. Another nine municipalities will now be selected to join the program, in a competitive process, with a further nine to follow in 2019. The successful applicants will be announced in November 2018.

Participating municipalities will receive focused training designed to improve the ability of municipal councilors to exercise effective oversight over local budgets and engage more directly with citizens in setting spending priorities.

In this way, the project aims to reinforce the position of municipal councils in democratic decision-making at local level, where traditionally mayors have played a dominant role, and to ensure that every single municipal denar is spent wisely, efficiently and transparently.

Municipal councils that successfully complete the training program will each receive USD 62,000 to dedicate to public-interest projects identified as priorities by local residents.

The USD 3.4 million project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, reflecting a long-standing commitment to promote inclusive, responsive and accountable governance at local level. It is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, which commit all UN member states to “ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.”

The statement issued by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for this year’s International Day of Democracy sparked a lively discussion at today’s forum. “Democracy is showing greater strain than at any time in decades,” Guterres warned, appealing to the world to “invigorate democracy” by fighting inequality and making political systems more inclusive, innovative and resilient to threats.

With the training conducted for the municipal councilors from the municipalities of Ohrid and Cair on financial control and audit in the local self-government units, the first phase of the Municipal Councilors Capacity Development Program was completed last weekend.

Through trainings conducted by a team of experts in the past three months, a total of 80 councilors from the municipalities of Veles, Sveti Nikole, Valandovo, Strumica, Chair and Ohrid have improved their knowledge on topics of public financial management in the municipalities, while gaining new skills to strengthen the role of Councils on good governance at the local level.

The second phase of the Municipal Councils Capacity Development Program continues in September, and the councilors from these six municipalities will receive trainings on topics related to innovation in governance, inter-municipal cooperation, spatial and urban planning, human resource management, inter-ethnic cooperation and gender equality at the local level.

The trainings are part of the “Empowering  Municipal Councils” Project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation with a total value of CHF 3.4 million implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in cooperation with national and local partners.

In the next two years, this project will include additional 18 municipalities that will be selected through public calls.

In addition to the training for counsellors, a total of CHF 1.2 million is reserved for small grants intended for the realization of priority initiatives in all 24 municipalities that will participate in the project.

In the next two days, the implementation of the Capacity Development Program continues to be implemented in Ohrid and Veles for municipal councillors from 6 municipalities.