Project Title: Linkor – Connecting the Civil Society
Applicants: Lazar Nikolovski, Zulfi Ismaili
Location: Western Balkans (Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Field: Public Policy, Civil Society
The civil society institutions, both in and between the Western Balkan states, are not yet well connected. Through their project called Linkor, the second-year student of Public Policy, Lazar Nikolovski, in collaboration with Zulfi Ismaili, Executive Director of the Association for Development and Policy-making based in Skopje, Macedonia, are striving to create a web platform that will represent a virtual meeting point for existing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), think-tanks, as well as other stakeholders (foreign development agencies, universities) that are concerned by the public policies in the Western Balkans. ‘The project will strengthen the existing channels of communication and cooperation among the relevant actors that play a role in the policy-making process in the countries of the region, offering simple, efficient and effective methods for establishing and strengthening cooperative links (project ideas, research topics etc.)’ Lazar explains.
One of the core assumptions of the project’s idea is that the increase of the interaction and interconnection between the key stakeholders dealing with the public policy will enhance their effectiveness and efficiency. ‘We envisage that the established partnerships among national and regional civil society actors will sustain the development of the civic sectors in the individual Balkan countries, as well as in the whole region, therefore reinforcing the civil society’s capacity to affect the policy-making and make a positive social progress’, adds Lazar further. The beneficiaries of this project among others will be the organizations in the Western Balkans (non-governmental, academic institutions), as well as the governmental and international organizations that are concerned with the policies in the region.
