Representatives from 20 civil society organizations (CSOs) from Western Macedonia met on 1 February 2018 in Ohrid. Specialists on different areas of rural development, the participants identified the main problems today that rural populations face, discussed how to overcome them on a sustainable basis, and participated in the creation of important policies for their local communities.

This is the first of a series of three two-day meetings from which CSOs are expected to acquire knowledge about rural development policies at national and EU level, as well as obtain skills in reading, interpreting and elaborating policies. The same meetings will be held later in Eastern Macedonia to involve its rural-focused CSOs in the preparation of strategies, policies and programmes at local and national level.

Through this process of capacity building, the EU-funded project National rural parliament as a voice of the rural citizens will use a participatory approach for creating rural development policies and establishing partnerships between the civil society and government sectors to improve decision-making and resource allocation with which to improve rural life and livelihoods in Macedonia. The project considers that increasing the involvement of local residents and stakeholders is the only sustainable mechanism for achieving functional and effective rural development measures.