Electoral party programs play a crucial role in party democracy and fair and democratic elections. Electoral campaigns represent a fair competition between ideas, projects, visions for the country, communities and citizens.
An electoral campaign, from a voter’s point of view, represents a set of various promises made by political parties. Once fulfilled, these promises benefit citizens and the overall community. Usually, such promises are produced based on party positions, ideology, and an interest in winning over a particular target electorate. Once the party and/or the coalition win the elections, the program of the winners becomes a governmental program. In order to hold the government accountable, citizens need to be proactive, mobilize themselves, and closely follow if and how promises are implemented.
Civic engagement and mobilization can cover a broad range of objectives, such as: influencing policies, holding public authorities accountable, transforming attitudes and cultural norms, and complementing the state’s delivery of services, among others.
Once citizens start demanding to see results, political parties will feel obliged and pressured to strive toward preparing feasible programs but also be held accountable and implement promises made during their campaigns.
Community Mobilizers’ Innovative Initiatives
After a one-year training program, a group of 16 young enthusiasts, hereafter referred to as community mobilizers, are being given the opportunity to put into practice what they learned and implement their innovative initiatives to mobilize their communities, engage in monitoring specific government policies, and track implementation progress.
The community mobilizers come from all 8 regions in the country and they will engage their local community on various topics as well as pave the way for other newcomers.
Innovative Initiative Examples
Raising Awareness About Deforestation in Jablanica
Biodiversity and maintaining natural resources are strategic government priorities. Nevertheless, Jablanica has been continuously abused by the “wood mafia” and state institutions have been complicit in allowing deforestation. Our community mobilizer is engaging the local community and, through petition and campaigns, asking for greater engagement by state institutions while also raising public awareness about the damage done by illegal loggings and deforestation.
Open Lists – a Better Solution for the Country?
The government envisions that the upcoming Electoral Code revision will introduce open lists for candidates and would be implemented during the local elections planned for October 2021. The community mobilizer’s innovative initiative (2I) will organize meetings with parliamentary group coordinators, representatives of the Ministry of Justice, public figures, practitioners, civil society, and other experts to discuss their points of view on the open list. The general public will also be kept informed through social media about the benefits and challenges related to the possible implementation of an open list.
MySpace
When the recent Youth Law was endorsed by Parliament, the government promised that “…during 2020, Youth Cultural Centers will be opened in four municipalities” over the next five years. One of our community mobilizers, through an online campaign, guerrilla actions, and in person (or on-line) discussions, will mobilize each municipal community, inform and debate about the government measure, and demand accountability from the relevant institutions to fulfill this promise.
Other Focus Areas and Next Steps
These innovative initiatives are an important opportunity for youth to become more actively involved in North Macedonia’s future. Indeed, how many young people are aware of the government’s commitments to create youth, IT and cultural centers throughout the country? Are Macedonian youth aware of the startup village project, which can benefit all young entrepreneurs?
In reality, the government has made many promises for a better future, including pledges to renovate and build schools around the country, create a registry for people with disabilities, etc. These and many more promises and their implementation have been subject of the innovative initiatives created by our community mobilizers. In the upcoming period, 16 innovative initiatives, on a variety of different topics, will be implemented throughout the country. The community mobilizers will raise awareness through online and in-person campaigns, informing the public and citizens on different topics, policies, and interventions. And this is just a beginning. At the same time, the community mobilizers, using a highly developed monitoring methodology, will closely follow government promises, reporting on and contributing to a more responsible and accountable government.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implementing partners IFES and NYCM are strongly committed to raising community voices, investing in local mobilization and engagement and this commitment will continue in the upcoming year. Increased demand for accountability and more visible community engagement, fostered through the project interventions, will contribute to improving transparency, inclusiveness, and professionalism of state bodies and their officials.
If you would like to learn more about these initiatives and join our community mobilizers in their efforts to make changes in society, please visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Support-to-Electoral-Reforms-100476728210504 and our webpage: www.electoralreforms.mk.
