Форуми во заедницата

 The residents of the municipality Caska have decided that the best way to spend the MKD 4 million, funds from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the local authorities, is to dedicate it to the reconstruction of municipal streets and roads.

 This is the epilogue of the sixth and final forum session in the Community Forums Programme.
 The Project’s main goal is to facilitate the everyday movement of the citizens of three settlements and help them arrive faster to several key facilities, such as the outpatient clinic, the school, religious facilities, etc. The activities will take place on the main streets of the villages Gorno and Dolno Jabolciste, as well as on Aco Sopov street in the Caska settlement. A total of MKD 3.915 million will be spent on the full implementation of this project. The start is scheduled for this month, and the completion is expected by July next year.
 “I am satisfied with how the overall forum went. I think that this is the right way to select the project. The community forums will also help improve the co-existence of various ethnic communities, because of the joint work over a longer period of time,” said Mekail Zekirov, coordinator of the Reconstruction of Streets and Roads project.
 Session 6 included representatives of seven working tables with voting rights or with a minimum of four attendances, and the Reconstruction of Streets and Roads project won the trust of five working tables while two voted in favor of the Ceples project.   
 Only the two aforementioned projects were put to vote at the sixth forum session, upon previous recommendations from the programme board. The other two projects that got into the final competition were rejected by the programme board, with the board members concluding that the projects to construct sports fields in the Caska settlement and a water supply in the village Busilci lacked proper documentation which made it hard to realize the project in the planned timeframe.
 Given the fact that the total budget of the Reconstruction of Streets and Roads project does not exceed MKD 4 million, the forum agreed to dedicate the remaining funds to the realization of some of the activities related to the Reconstruction of the Ceples Mountaineering House project. This project’s budget amounts to MKD 747,091, and the Forum awarded MKD 489,000. That means that over 60 percent of the project could be implemented immediately, while for the remaining activities it is up to the Solunska Glava Mountaineering and Sports Club to find ways to implement them. However, the main goal will be achieved, namely to improve conditions in the mountaineering house and develop mountain tourism.
 “We are pleased with the latest developments. Forum work in the community is good because it results in more ideas, and naturally only a portion of those ideas will be realized,” said Jovan Pavlov, coordinator of the Reconstruction of the Ceples Mountaineering House project.
 The participants of the sixth forum session were also addressed by the Mayor of the municipality Caska, Stojan Manevski, who expressed his satisfaction at the overall process and hope that the cooperation with the project implementer – the Center for Institutional Development – would continue in the future. A participant in the forum presented the Mayor with the forum recommendations that the local authorities should consider for implementation.
 The majority of the forum participants think positively of the Programme. They stated they would take place in similar forums in the future.
 The forum participants had some minor remarks about the organizational aspects.
 “The forum is too long, and too much time is needed for continuous participation,” said Riste Petrusevski, coordinator of the Water Supply Construction project in the village Busilci. 
 “Contacts between the organizers and the working groups’ members as well as the coordinators should be more intensive, and not just on the sessions. That would help remove certain flaws and ambiguities,” said Jovan Pavlov.
 The forum members who were not part of the final projects think that the experience would greatly help the development of the municipality.
 “The forum is a nice idea because it gives citizens the opportunity to choose the priority on which the funds should be spent. That’s a proof of its transparency,” said Marjan Jovanovski.
The Community Forums Programme has been implemented in the municipality Caska in the past few months.