Jordan Piperkata, Street, 15
6250 Kicevo
North Macedonia
- Environment/Sustainable development
Rural Coalition is already a recognized partner of local civil society organizations, municipalities, institutions, which covers more segments of action, starting from grass root activities, up to monitoring, following legal national and EU regulations, creating documents for public policies, representation and monitoring. More than 10 years this organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life in rural areas. It is non-formal coalition of 58 local grass root organizations through which it covers all the territory of North Macedonia. It has 2 employees and 8 engaged persons on honorary basis. It has 100.000-150.000 annual budgets and 90% its’ activities are financed by European Union. As we already mentioned it has variety of activities like field activities and working through the method learning by doing, organization of workshops, seminars, national and international experience and knowledge sharing etc. Main partners: local associations, national organizations and organizations from the Western Balkan countries.
Improving the conditions in rural areas for the establishment of sustainable family farms and organizations through direct support, capacity building, contribution to balanced regional development and participation in the creation of local and national agrarian policy.
Objectives: First objective if focused on promoting gender equality in the local community, including economic empowerment, financial independence and social inclusion of women with a focus on women from rural areas, as well as inclusion and activation of young people in the local community, and towards the creation of sustainable local development with developed and competitive rural communities.
Second objective: Advocacy based on evidence according to the needs of the community, as well as in the direction of bringing the legislation closer to the citizens at the national and local level, including EU integrations, especially in the clusters related to local and regional development, gender equality and agriculture and rural development
Third objective: Development of rural tourism as one of the main sources of income and opportunities for the development of local and rural communities, but also an opportunity for employment and self-employment of the local population.
We have variety of projects and activities like: Academy for women entrepreneurs from rural areas which we have organized with US Embassy in our country, then projects that are related to strengthening the capacities of youth in rural areas and their involvement in local public decision making processes; currently we are working on establishing of local partnerships for local climate change; digitalization of services in rural areas; gender-responsive budgeting; preparation of monitoring reports for different aspects of spending of public funds by the municipalities; gender mainstreaming in the sector of agriculture and rural development; creation of local strategies and plans for municipalities and local action groups etc.
We can first contribute to the promotion of the network in our country, given that we cover the entire territory of the country and that we have 58 member associations. Furthermore, we would make our contribution in the area of network capacity development, project management, coordination, then our active involvement in the organization and implementation of events, projects, workshops etc. Also, because we have a long network of associates of all types (institutions, CSOs, ministries, municipalities, etc.) we could encourage new partnerships and networks in order to strength the network and its active contribution to the politics, social and economic development of the country.
Networking in such a network will bring the organization a different kind of benefits considering that it is one of the world's most famous foundations. Additionally, through the network we will be able to build our capacities as an organization, we will be able to build the capacities of the member organizations, and through the network we will connect all over the world with organizations similar to us, so we will also expand our work and acting area. As we mentioned, we can contribute a lot to the network as well, and our experience from working in networks so far shows that the changes and improvement of our life and society depend on how many stakeholders work towards the same goal. The more we are, the greater is the success, so that is our main motivation to become part of such a new network, the first of its kind in our functioning.