The Civil Society and the Council for Cooperation with and Development of the Civil Sector call on the Government of the Republic of Northern Macedonia to reconsider and change its decision to drastically reduce financial support for civil society organizations, published in the Official Gazette of RSM on April 9, 2020.

This decision, by which financial support, depending on the institution, is either completely abolished or severely reduced, is made in a non-transparent manner, without consulting civil society organizations, stakeholders and the general public, which speaks to the government's unprincipled attitude towards civil society. crisis time. With the decision to reduce the necessary support by approximately 525,000 euros, the state de facto exempts civil society as a relevant partner in dealing with the crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the civil society organizations from the very beginning of the epidemic mobilized very quickly and efficiently, made available all their resources and through a series of activities provided direct and humanitarian assistance to the most affected citizens. Unfortunately, the Government of RSM does not recognize this quick reaction for taking actions that are of great importance for the citizens, but also for directly dealing with the crisis, as a partnership in the fight against COVID-19. Moreover, the decision to reduce the financial support of the Government of RSM seriously hinders the sustainability and ongoing work of organizations, especially in terms of their assistance and support to communities in times of crisis.

CSOs are a key segment in a democratic society, they have the skills, knowledge, services and access to priority target groups, which are often much more appropriate than those of state institutions.

The official reaction has been submitted to the Government of RSM, and the full text can be found at the following link: https://bit.ly/34Pqbk7

Ahead of the Parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12, 2020, one of the highlights is the issue of the Roma community, their needs for inclusion of priorities in political programs.

That struggle and priorities have always been important and various campaigns have been organized in that direction, most notably the Roma NGO sector.

In 2016, during the parliamentary elections, a network of Roma NGOs organized a campaign called "My Voice - My Responsibility"

The campaign presented the needs and problems of the Roma community for which they were identified during that period.

Four years later, more precisely now, in the run-up to these 2020 Parliamentary elections, similar events are being organized, but now without the network of Roma NGOs, but implemented by Roma activists and intellectuals from the AVAJA civic initiative, and named almost with the motto "My Voice - My Duty"

All is well, but the Roma NGO Network responds and wonders: "What is different with the previous implemented campaign and this one organized by Avaja?

What is the point and difference in this and the previous campaign. In the previous one, 70% of the Roma NGO sector participated, while this campaign was a "solo" of Avaja?

The reaction of the Roma NGO network is that this is quite transparent by Avaja, with the campaign title being plagiarized 4 years ago with a slight permutation of the slogan from "My Voice - My Responsibility" to "My Voice - My Duty" “

The second highlight is that Avaja is acting independently, not of a different ambition, but only because he wants to promote himself, and to self-confidently impose himself as a "factor" in the Roma community.

And the third point is the financial resource, where in the previous campaign the budget was equally distributed among all the Roma NGOs on the net, and in this campaign Avaja was "its own boss".

No more comment from the Roma NGO network is needed.