SOCIAL DEPOLARIZATION AS THE PATH TOWARD DEMOCRATIC, STABLE AND INCLUSIVE INSTITUTIONS: CIVIL SOCIETY’S CONTRIBUTION

In 2023, ISSHS with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation within the framework of the Civica Mobilitas program and in cooperation with the partners: Institute for Media and Analytics, Balkan Institute for Regional Cooperation, and Life with Challenges implemented the project ”Social depolarization as the path toward democratic, stable and inclusive institutions: Civil society’s contribution.” The main goal of the project was critical and informed dialogue, monitoring, analysis and advocacy of policies that contribute to strengthening the institutional capacities of the executive branch for building democratic and inclusive institutions.

The activities that included:

• Analysis in the area of general acts and principles of public administration by way of applying the RESPA and SIGMA methods and policy analyses;
• Sector-based policy analysis concerning the social groups that are marginalized on their ethno-geographic and social situation as well as those subject to discrimination based on ableism;
• Case studies for policy advocacy leading to a greater degree of democratic institutions, as well as inclusive with regard to the marginalized groups;
• Organized advocacy panels in several regions of the country, presenting, through practical examples in front of the local CSO’s and local government representatives the values and modalities of practical application of the principle of democratic institutions;
• Ensuring effective and as visible as possible media outreach in the regions and languages other than predominantly Macedonian;
• Direct advocacy in front of the relevant sectors: health, social welfare and others (depending on the findings of the studies).
• Media monitoring and analysis, combined with visibility campaigning and outreach to the general public regarding the overall scope of the action: through depolarization to democratic institutions (and vice versa), by way of mobilizing its social media platforms and online media outlets.
  These activities contributed to: raised conscience for democratic institutions among the CSO’s, the wider society and the institutions themselves; depolarization of the public discourse thanks to the promotion of the approach that transcends party-line and other social divisions and endorses informed dialogue on the topic of democratic and/or socially inclusive institutions; empowered civil society sectors by way of promoting cooperation and sustainable networking; and enhancing institutions’ capacities for policymaking with a focus on the horizontal value of “democratic institutions” (and social inclusion) through monitoring.

Learn more about the platform and the project on this link https://www.depolarizirajse.org/