In November, 2009, InDevelop-IPM was assigned by Sida in Stockholm and the Swedish Embassy in
the Republic of Macedonia to plan and facilitate a learning process of the achievements and experiences
of projects on inter-ethnic education and youth work in Macedonia. The overall purpose of carrying
out this learning process is two-fold. Firstly, in the process of phasing out the Swedish support to Macedonia,
Sida would like to have a better understanding of the achievements and lessons learned of the
supported interventions within the area of human rights and social cohesion. Secondly, and more
importantly, the purpose has also been to enhance the capacity and support networking for the future
among key stakeholders within the specific area of inter-ethnic education and youth work in Macedonia.
The organisations being a part of the learning process have been: Search for Common Ground (with the
project Mozaïk-bilingual kindergartens), Macedonian Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution/ the
Macedonian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (with The School of Tolerance project), The Centre for
Non-formal Education, Triagolnik (Triangle) with various initiatives and Cultures Project Association,
CCPA (with the project Open Fun Football Schools, OFFS). The process has been facilitated by Mr. Joakim
Anger (team leader), Dr. Rogier A. van ’t Rood (education specialist) and Mrs. Zhaklina Gestakovska
(local consultant – training and HR specialist).
This assignment has been performed in close collaboration with the selected organisations and was carried
out in three phases. During the inception the team had thorough discussions with the organisation and
Sida on the objectives and methodology of the assignment. The second phase included field visits to
Macedonia to Skopje, Gostivar, Tetovo, Kumanovo, Tearce, Brvenica and facilitated meetings with beneficiaries
and stakeholders involved in the four different projects. During the third phase the team implemented
a workshop including key stakeholders on interethnic relations in Macedonia. The main findings and
conclusions of the learning process have been summarized by the consultants in this report.
In total, for the last 5 to 8 years Sida has disbursed about Euro 4.5 million on the four organisations
involved in this learning process. When this financial support soon comes to a halt, a central question
from both a Swedish and Macedonian perspective is, was it worth it? In general, the activities carried
out by the NGOs appear to have had an effect (outcome) on the direct stakeholders (children/learners,
teachers, parents). For example, it has been observed that these stakeholders significantly developed or
changed their attitude positively with regards to child upbringing, communication skills and conflict resolution.
However, on societal level it is more difficult to say anything certain about the changes and in
what respect the activities carried out by the organisations have made a difference (brought about
change). The overall trends towards a greater segregated society are nothing that could be stopped by
the initiatives and activities carried out by the organisations. Only if these initiatives should have been
implemented throughout the country and be shown as best practices to all relevant actors in the Macedonian
society (governments at all levels, the entire education sector) a real difference on an overall level
would have been achievable. Hence, there is an apparent need to further institutionalise and mainstream the activities currently
carried out by the NGOs.
On an overall level, there is an urgent need to strengthen the inter-ethnic relations and social cohesion
in Macedonia. The non-cooperative behaviour on the individual, organisational level and ethnical
group level is a clear sign/indicator of this problem. Also, there is an urgent need to cultivate a civic
overall identity for people living in Macedonia. From this perspective and given the ongoing segregation in Macedonia,
all initiatives identified by the NGOs evaluated are highly relevant.