Macedonia Evaluations

Mid-term Review of “Advancing Social Cohesion in Macedonia” Project

This is the report of an internal mid-term review (MTR) conducted at the end of the second year of this four-year project, “Advancing Social Cohesion in Macedonia”. The MTR was completed in June 2019 with the goal of reflecting on project results thus far and identifying potential areas for improvement. The MTR utilized both qualitative (FGDs and KIIs) and quantitative data to assess project progress and initial achievements, and measuring respondents’ views on social cohesion and interethnic collaboration. The MTR revealed that participants felt the program was relevant to their work, found a high level of participant satisfaction with the training, and showed that respondents indicated that the training proceeded along the lines of expectations. Words such as ‘organized’ and ‘well organized’, “very positive”, and even “wonderful” were frequently used to describe the training. There was also an overwhelming desire from project participants for more training of this nature in the future. One of the strongest findings from this review was the widespread approval of the inclusion of practical exercises in the ASC Project training – and that support for this practical element was consistent across all respondent groups. With a lack of opportunity for practice experience in most cases, teachers and parents used the inclusion of practical content as an example of how the ASC training differed from other trainings they have attended previously, highlighting that it is an opportunity to show what is actually happening on the ground. Respondents also approved of the opportunity the training provided to exchange experience and best practices with teaching colleagues from other locations across North Macedonia.

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Sharing Common Culture: Balkan Theatre Networks for EU Integration

Sharing Common Culture: Balkan Theatre Networks for EU Integration (BTN) was a peacebuilding program conducted by the Center for Common Ground (CCG) in Skopje, Macedonia between January 2011 and November 2012. The project was funded with €224,754 from the European Commission for Directorate General Enlargement, and was designed to respond to the ongoing challenge of establishing core EU values such as tolerance, unity, and interethnic diversity among and within Balkan communities.

The project had three overall objectives:

  • To encourage creation of new networks of cultural CSOs as basis for sustainable inter-cultural dialogue and cooperation within the region and between the region and the EU.
  • To increase awareness of and access to different cultural traditions within and beyond national boundaries through the exchange of cultural experiences.
  • To increase youth participation in production of inter-ethnic, intended-outcome and interactive theatre performances.

This report contains the final conclusions of an external evaluation conducted in December 2012 using in-person interviews, both individual and in groups, as well as a short electronic survey distributed to youth participants. The evaluation is aimed at assessing the level of effectiveness and sustainability achieved by each of the above objectives in order to promote learning that improves peacebuilding at CCG both conceptually and programmatically. It concluded that the program was successful at increasing inter-ethnic tolerance and access to cultural participation among youth in the Balkan region who participated in the project’s theatre program.

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Project Evaluation Report: Kosovo Youth for Democracy and Peace-Building

The Kosovo Youth for Democracy and Peace-building Project supported five youth-focused CSOs and built 150 young peoples’ skills in mediation and multi-ethnic dialogue. These youth worked collaboratively to pursue a common goal of improving participatory democracy and respecting human rights in the Prishtina, Mitrovica and Prizren regions of Kosovo. In this final evaluation, young people who had participated in the project stressed the importance of continuing multi-ethnic projects in Kosovo.

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External Evaluation of Nashe Maalo

Nashe Maalo, produced by SFCG-Macedonia (“Our Neighbourhood”) is a television series aimed at promoting inter-cultural understanding among children with a view to conflict transformation. This evaluation focused on assessing the achievement of the intended objectives of Nashe Maalo as well as determining the breadth of listernship. In addition, the evaluation sought to ascertain the contribution of NM to the wider Macedonia situation, despite this not being part of the original project expectations. Led by Channel Research, independent evaluators Emery Brusset and Ralf Otto submitted the evaluation report in December 2004. Some key findings include:

  • 94.30% of the children have heard of the show, and more than 91% watch it at least once. Only 5.7 % have not heard of Nashe Maalo at all.
  • Children who watch NM over a longer time period learn slightly more concrete information about other ethnic communities and other languages in their country, going beyond external attire and eating. To some degree they find out about conflict resolutions skills and alternative models for behaviour.
  • The research confirms the assumption made by Search in the design of intended outcomes that children are naturally openminded on the subject of inter-group relationships, in spite of the fact that many have been exposed to specific negative notions regarding others. Nashe Maalo succeeded in getting new messages to the children and made them discuss the messages with peers and parents.

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