Skopje, 3 February 2023 (MIA) – Citizens of 40 municipalities will be attending forums in their community to directly decide on the types of projects to be realized in their place of living.

As the UN Development Program says, this will be a tool to assist civil participation in decision-making on a local level, which has been established and works successfully for more than a decade, currently implemented within the “Strengthening of Municipal Councils” project.

The program amounts to USD 6.6 million, funded by the Swiss Government and the Ministry of Local Self-Government, co-funded and implemented by the UNDP in cooperation with national and local partners.

“Switzerland has been supporting local self-government and decentralization for over 15 years. The implementation of forums is the result of this cooperation which encourages the citizens to get involved in the decision-making process,” according to Swiss Ambassador Veronique Ullmann.

Between September-December 2022, the Association of Local Self Government Units (ZELS) and UNDP completed a process of certification of forum moderators, awarding certificates to 25 persons at an official ceremony held Friday.

ZELS president Orce Gjorgievski said this process of knowledge and skill checking for moderation of forum process should be a given in order to maintain a standard of quality implementation of forums in the community through ZELS and creating good practices that ensure ZELS' self-sustainability.

To realize the goals of municipal development and improvement of the quality of life of the citizens over the next 4 years, the focus will be on improving municipal councillors’ capacities, directly involving the citizens in decision-making, legislation improvement, service digitization, increased transparency and the fight against corruption. One of the key commitments of the project is respecting the principles of equal gender representation and equal opportunity for all citizens. dk/ik/