PERIPHERAL CIVIC NETWORKING
FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN
THE OHRID-PRESPA REGION
OF ALBANIA AND MACEDONIA

 

The Ohrid and Prespa region of Albania, Greece and Macedonia is a place of outstanding natural beauty, but also incredible ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity. Despite this tremendous capital, the region has been plagued by political, social, and economic hardship. A group of NGO leaders working in the region have long shared an understanding that more secure, consolidated, peripheral civic institutions, capacities and activities that directly improve people’s lives and their surroundings are desperately needed. While several Albanian and Macedonian NGO from the Lake Ohrid region in 2001 signed an Agreement to Cooperate in achieving these goals, the network remained inactive due to a lack of concrete organizational and operational guidelines, networking skills, and a vision and strategy through which to affirm the network identity, purpose, and legitimacy, and the capacity to act in the public interest. This network initiative, once dead in its tracks, was brought back to life in August 2004 when “Interim Board” of the “Prespa and Ohrid Sustainability Network” was established by 7 organizations including environmental, youth groups and women’s associations. At the meeting the Interim Board confirmed that its principal purpose is to establish the capacity to go beyond the national, ethnic, and religious divide to value and nurture local civic, transboundary, multi-ethnic cooperation for the promotion of democracy, diversity, and sustainable development.  In Board’s understanding, in achieving these goals the Network should:

• establish the network as a formal grassroots-based, professional civic organization on the periphery;
• develop a solid framework for the implementation of sustainable development through civic network consolidation and capacity building;
• carry out concerted civic action to implement sustainable development;
• increase visibility and importance of consolidated civil society and its role in improving the quality of life through the implementation of sustainable development.

The project “Prespa and Ohrid Sustainability Network – Peripheral civic networking for the implementation of sustainable development in Ohrid-Prespa region of Albania and Macedonia” helps the network make the first, critical step, that is, establish itself as a formal transboundary network organization through a gradual process of institutionalization based on trust and legitimacy. Financed under the “Micro-Project Launch Fund” of the “Prespa/Ohrid Transfrontier Institution Building Project for the Prespa/Ohrid Region 2003-2005- Towards the Establishment of the Euroregion” implemented by the EastWest Institute with the support of the Council of Europe and within the framework of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, the project is implemented by the Alliance for Lake Cooperation on Ohrid and Prespa (Ohrid, Macedonia, and Mala Gorica, Albania) and the Environmental Association “Areal” from Struga, Macedonia, in three phases:

Phase I. During the first phase the Interim Board convened on March 6, 2005, in Ohrid, Macedonia, to establish criteria and procedure for selecting additional civic organizations to become the “core members” of POSNet (The Prespa and Ohrid Sustainability Network). Following this meeting, the following organizations comprise the “core members” of POSNet:

• ALLCOOP-Alliance for Lake Cooperation on Ohrid and Prespa (Ohrid, Macedonia, and Mala Gorica, Albania)
• Turkish Women Association “Hayat”, Struga, Macedonia
• Association “Tourism and Environment”, Pogradec, Albania
• Environmental Association “Jagoda”, Lescoec, Macedonia
• Environmental Association “Areal”, Struga, Macedonia
• Environmental Association “Green Forest”, Pogradec, Albania;
• Organization for Integration of Women and Children, Mala Gorica, Albania;
• Cultural Association “Our Struga”, Struga, Macedonia;
• Civic Association “Mbela”, Struga, Macedonia;
• Civic Association “Lihnidos”, Ohrid, Macedonia;
• Civic Association “Fruit-Net”, Zavoj, Macedonia; and
• The Center for Environmental Policy and Law (CEPL), based in Budapest, Hungary.  

Phase II. Representatives of all “core members” of POSNet met in Ohrid, on April 3, 2005, to discuss and agree upon the principles element the draft Charter of POSNet, such as the vision statement, mission statement, organizational structure, and by laws, as well as outline a draft action plan for civic action in implementing sustainable development in the region.

Phase III (ongoing). The Project Coordinator, the Project Assistants and experts from ALLCOOP and CEPL will hold a series of meetings with each member organization to discuss their comments, recommendations and suggestions on the draft Charter, seek common solutions and negotiate the pre-final version of the Charter, to be revised and officially endorsed at the meeting of the “core group” on May 8, 2005, in Struga, Macedonia. With the official adoption of the Charter the “core group” will be constituted as the Management Board of POSNet.