• The basics of citizens participation
• Importance and models of parents’ participation in the delivery of childcare services
• Presentation of findings from the field survey with parents and SWOT analysis based on the findings
• Preparing instruments for fostering participation of parents

• Introduction to making of process based public transport efficiency strategy
• Increasing efficiency at the beginning of the trip
• Increasing efficiency in transit between stations
• Increasing efficiency at the end of the trip

Од пред некое време ги забележав последните рекламни спотови од кампањата на Владата за претприемништво, на кои се прикажуваат приказни на различни претприемачи кои со силата на ‘добрата идеја’ успеале да направат одличен бизнис и богатство. Некои од нив се: основачот на Амазон он-лајн книжарницата, изумителите на спојувалката за хартија, на ‘фризби-то’ и други.  Помислувам, секоја чест за луѓево, како се сетиле на некои работи пред сите други и како верувале во својот изум. Си викам, ајде и мене нешто да ми текне генијално и оригинално. Па почнав да шетам низ соба како  Балтазар во цртаниот филм, со надеж дека овој метод ќе ме донесе до оригинален изум, ама – ништо.

„Сеуште дивергентното мислење се занемарува, критичкото мислење се осудува, наставникот и учебникот сеуште ‘господарат’ со информациите а интернетот се користи како извор за потврдување на истите. Нема посебни програми за талентираните и надарените ученици со кои би се негувал нивниот потенцијал. “

Па си го вратив филмот назад во времето кога бев ученичка во основно училиште. Секогаш не ‘учеа’ дека секоја задача или прашање имаат еден точен одговор, дека треба да се јавиш да одговараш само ако си сигурен дека го знаеш тој одговор. Ако не – седи и молчи за да не ‘тропнеш’ некоја глупост. Затоа, секогаш кога пишував домашна задача, а мајка ми се обидуваше да ме насочи да додадам нешто повеќе од традиционалниот ‘точен одговор’ и кога татко ми се обидуваше да ми покаже како можам да ја решам задачата преку друг метод од оној кој ни го покажале на училиште, веднаш се бунев: ‘Не, не смеам така, ќе се налути наставничката’. И навистина чувствував страв дека ако покажам креативност и неконвенционално размислување ќе бидам не само неразбрана, туку и критикувана.

Карактеристиките на ‘добар ученик’ и начинот на размислување кој се очекува и толерира од истиот не се сменија ни во средното училиште, ниту пак на факултет. Секогаш се бараше да го знаеме единствениот точен одговор, а креативноста (ако нешто од неа останало) можеше да се искаже само по предметите ликовно и макдедонски јазик и литература, иако и таму знаеја да ‘паднат’ критики ако не си го погодил она што наставникот/професорот си го замислил.

Да се вратам на првичната мисла – како да очекуваме да добијам генијална идеја ако моите обиди за креативно, т.е. дивергентно размислување постојано биле потиснувани во текот на формалното образование. Тој период не беше толку одамна, а одтогаш начинот на работа во нашите училишта не е многу променет, и покрај сите обуки кои наставниците ги поминаа изминативе години. Сеуште дивергентното мислење се занемарува, критичкото мислење се осудува, наставникот и учебникот сеуште ‘господарат’ со информациите а интернетот се користи како извор за потврдување на истите. Нема посебни програми за талентираните и надарените ученици со кои би се негувал нивниот потенцијал. На универзитетите критичкото мислење уште повеќе се задушува со тестовите со повеќечлен одговор и есеите кои најчесто се прават по принципот ‘copy-paste’. Read the rest of this entry »

The Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) from Skopje, in partnership with the Centre for European Studies and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung office in Skopje will publish series of timely, well-targeted policy briefs addressing key challenges and opportunities of the future of fyr Macedonia’s EU accession. For that purpose we are announcing the following:

CALL FOR PAPERS

On the following topics:

(deadline extended by 11 of April)

1. Trade, investment and single market in goods and services

•    The impact of trade on both EU27 and accession countries – e.g. impact on employment levels (“local jobs”) and GDP for EU exporters/importers andMacedonia

•    Short-term vs medium-term impact on GDP and other indicators in EU and accession countries, e.g. “tax burden”

•    Harmonization of product standards and product safety

•    Terms of trade – non-tariff vs tariff barriers, equal access to markets vs protectionism (“fear of cheaper imports”), including common agricultural policy

•    Overall impact of widening EU market (‘soft power’ of EU standards in food safety, product labeling, etc.)

2. Mobility: tourism, travel, migration

•    Impact on tourism revenue for both EU27 countries andMacedonia

•    Student exchanges – raising educational standards and mutual understanding (economic impact, raising professional standards in public and private sectors)

•    Visa-free relations, impact of the new EU visa policy onMacedonia, ease of cross-border travel (“fear of organized crime”)

•    Prospects for internal affairs reform inMacedoniain those sectors which have international links, e.g. border management, combating corruption and organized crime.

•    Trends in asylum-seeking/refugees after waves of EU enlargement and impact on public opinion of labor migration and asylum-seekers

•    Minority rights in EU andMacedonia, and trends in anti-immigrant public opinion/political parties in EU

•    Impact of remittances on economic development ofMacedonia”taking money out of EU economies vs taking responsibility for economic development at home”)

3. Gender awareness

•    Analysis of women’s rights, in particular access to education and health care and scope for EU advice in increasing girls’ equal participation

•    Potential, e.g. through training, for greater women’s participation in professional life – both national and local government, private sector, senior management in Macedonia

•    Awareness about understanding of different countries’ efforts/lack of efforts to improve equality of access and participation, and scope for, and limits of, EU ‘soft power’ influence

4. Good governance and democratic reform

•    The EU role in promotion of good governance inMacedoniaand measures of progress on “good governance”, in particular public administration reform, judicial reform, capacity of law enforcement etc.

•    Implications for EU support and ‘soft power’ in democratization reforms in candidate/post-candidate countries

5. EU financial instruments towards candidate countries – past, present, future

•    Study of impact of different EU mechanisms and agreements – ENPI, IPA, EIDHR, SAAs, EPA

•    Lessons for review/refinement in terms of civil society support (“what is there to show for EU funding through taxpayers’ money?”)

•    Lessons for review/refinement in terms of professionalizing public administration and strengthening good governance

•    Scope for country-driven reform agendas and tailor-made support programs.

All policy briefs will be subjected to internal and external peer review as part of the CRPM commitment to quality standards in policy work.

Application process
Applicants should submit a completed application form to eupolicybriefs@gmail.com by April 11, 2012. The successful applicants will be notified in mid April, 2012. The application consists of 250-300 word abstract, and a short narrative biography [max 300 words].

Tune in…

The Center for Research and Policy Making invites you to the Regional conference “Achieving social and economic sustainability through energy efficiency on central and local level” The conference will be held on the 20th of March in Hotel Continental, starting at 09:00 am. The conference aims to discuss the issues of energy efficient local communities and energy poverty. You can information about the project, the conference agenda and biographies of the speakers on the following link.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/85859205/Conference-Programme

About: The Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) from Skopje, in partnership with the Centre for European Studies and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung office in Skopje will publish series of timely, well-targeted policy briefs addressing key challenges and opportunities of the future of Macedonia’s EU accession. For that purpose we are announcing the following

                                                                  CALL FOR PAPERS 

On the following topics:

1. Trade, investment and single market in goods and services

•    The impact of trade on both EU27 and accession countries – e.g. impact on employment levels (“local jobs”) and GDP for EU exporters/importers and Macedonia

•    Short-term vs medium-term impact on GDP and other indicators in EU and accession countries, e.g. “tax burden”

•    Harmonization of product standards and product safety

•    Terms of trade – non-tariff vs tariff barriers, equal access to markets vs protectionism (“fear of cheaper imports”), including common agricultural policy

•    Overall impact of widening EU market (‘soft power’ of EU standards in food safety, product labeling, etc.)

2. Mobility: tourism, travel, migration

•    Impact on tourism revenue for both EU27 countries and Macedonia

•    Student exchanges – raising educational standards and mutual understanding (economic impact, raising professional standards in public and private sectors)

•    Visa-free relations, impact of the new EU visa policy on Macedonia, ease of cross-border travel (“fear of organized crime”)

•    Prospects for internal affairs reform in Macedonia in those sectors which have international links, e.g. border management, combating corruption and organized crime.

•    Trends in asylum-seeking/refugees after waves of EU enlargement and impact on public opinion of labor migration and asylum-seekers

•    Minority rights in EU and Macedonia, and trends in anti-immigrant public opinion/political parties in EU

•    Impact of remittances on economic development of Macedonia “taking money out of EU economies vs taking responsibility for economic development at home”)

3. Gender awareness

•    Analysis of women’s rights, in particular access to education and health care and scope for EU advice in increasing girls’ equal participation

•    Potential, e.g. through training, for greater women’s participation in professional life – both national and local government, private sector, senior management in Macedonia

•    Awareness about understanding of different countries’ efforts/lack of efforts to improve equality of access and participation, and scope for, and limits of, EU ‘soft power’ influence

4. Good governance and democratic reform

•    The EU role in promotion of good governance in Macedonia and measures of progress on “good governance”, in particular public administration reform, judicial reform, capacity of law enforcement etc.

•    Implications for EU support and ‘soft power’ in democratization reforms in candidate/post-candidate countries

5. EU financial instruments towards candidate countries – past, present, future

•    Study of impact of different EU mechanisms and agreements – ENPI, IPA, EIDHR, SAAs, EPA

•    Lessons for review/refinement in terms of civil society support (“what is there to show for EU funding through taxpayers’ money?”)

•    Lessons for review/refinement in terms of professionalizing public administration and strengthening good governance

•    Scope for country-driven reform agendas and tailor-made support programs.

All policy briefs will be subjected to internal and external peer review as part of the CRPM commitment to quality standards in policy work.

Application process :Applicants should submit a completed application form to  eupolicybriefs@gmail.com by April 1, 2012. The successful applicants will be notified in mid April, 2012.  The application consists of 250-300 word abstract, and a short narrative biography [max 300 words], and a request for travel/accommodation support.

The sphere of energy efficiency and renewable energy resources is a new concept for Macedonia and as such meets numerous obstacles. With the harmonization of the Macedonian  with the EU law problems emerge, such as : lack of legal and technical terms, lack of institutional clarity as to who is implementing what, problems within the articles of  the EU which are not entirely precise.

Regarding the legal framework, Macedonia in so far has established the legal framework by the adoption of the Law for Energy efficiency, the Strategy for energy efficiency by 2030 and other legal documents.  However, the implementation of these legislative documents has turn out to be a slow process because there is an overlapping of certain jurisdictions of the institutions. Several stakeholders believe that the problem is with the lack of capacity and staff that works in the Ministry, while others believe that the problem is that there are very few consultation processes where different actors in the field can discuss and create initiative to solve problems in that field.

Local communities are also a priority of the state institutions. By making local communities energy efficient they will have a greater level of independence and as such can focus investments to stimulate social and economical development.  By saving, creating and using energy efficiently the country will lower the import of energy and as such put little or no pressure on the budget.

The environment for a fruitful dialogue among stakeholders exists. Now what we need is to start taking action and joint develop the dialogue even further. In order to achieve this the stakeholders both the governmental and nongovernmental have to focus on several aspects : develop in-depth analyses of the situation with a specific focus on local municipalities, extend the process of consultation and make it even more participative.

The dialogue also needs a better citizen’s approach, in order to promote and encourage citizen’s participation. It is vital for the citizens to actively engage the energy efficiency process in order to benefit the most of it.  This can be achieved with education of consumers about the products that they buy (how much do these products save energy of spend for that matter), showcase examples of citizens that made their homes energy efficient and most importantly to try and include the citizens in the process.