The Accountability through Citizen Engagement (ACE) Project will support civil society organizations to tackle issues related to accountability, transparency and social cohesion and to promote good governance through a grant scheme of 44,000 GBP awarding approximately 10 small grants to CSOs in Macedonia.
The ACE project will provide support for targeted advocacy campaigns and policy initiatives that will contribute to achieving the following overall objectives:
- Enhancing the involvement of civil society in the creation of public opinion, policy making and participation in the decision making mechanisms;
- Increasing capacities of civil society to build its constituencies and tackle issues related to accountability, transparency and social cohesion.
In order to contribute to the achievement of the overall objectives, the following specific objective will be accomplished within the project timeframe:
- Promoting dynamic civil society that effectively mobilizes citizens for active engagement on good governance and social cohesion issues and influences policy and decision-making processes at local and national level.
Activities of the projects supported through the grant scheme will contribute in providing mechanisms for Civil Society Organisations and citizens to be able to make the case for transparency and accountability of institutions, through civic activism, engagement, or implementation of community-based initiatives in Rule of Law, Good Governance and Social Cohesion.
The initiatives supported by the Grants Scheme are expected to focus on tackling good governance issues and social cohesion, in particular transparency and corruption practices at the municipal level, within the following targeted areas:
- Free Access to Public Information Act (Freedom of Information – FOI)
- Financing of political parties
- Corrupt Public Procurement Practices
- Bribery Practices
- Gifts/Sponsorship
- Election-related concerns
- Breach of Duty
- Cronyism,
- Social cohesion
- Multiculturalism and interethnic relations
- Ohrid Framework Agreement
- Other
Target groups: Civil society organizations (grassroots NGOs, community development organizations, foundations, etc.) from geographically dispersed regions from Macedonia are the main beneficiaries of this project.
The project is supported by the British Embassy Skopje.
