the former Yugoslav Republic of MACEDONIA

When the resources of local government are stretched to the limit and municipalities lack the capacity to provide basic services, it is often the most vulnerable people in society who pay the greatest cost.

This was the situation until recently in the municipalities of Zajas and Oslomej. ‘We just didn’t have the means or the mechanisms in place to solve all the issues related to social welfare and child protection,’ explains Burim Sejdini, Secretary of the Municipality of Zajas. ‘The needs of the most vulnerable groups—the very young, elderly people without families, and people with disabilities—are all very different and our municipalities didn’t have the capacity to provide them with the services they needed. We had to find a solution.’

Zajas and Oslomej found the solution in inter-municipal co-operation, establishing a permanent joint committee to share their competence for social and child protection and developing closer links with local schools, local media, and with the relevant institutions of the central government.

‘By working together we have been able to cut the costs of implementing basic services,’ says Begzat Aliu, a civil servant from the Oslomej municipal administration. ‘This is very important because it allows us to devote resources to improving our responsiveness to the people who are most in need and to invest in making our services more efficient.’

Education has been a major focus of the joint committee’s activities. Asan Limani, a local primary-school teacher who took part in training provided by the inter-municipal project, describes the impact:

‘I’ve been teaching here for the past thirty-five years and all too often I’ve met children with special needs who are excluded in the educational process. The training we received as part of the inter-municipal project—and the training planned for the future in meeting these children’s educational needs—will make a big difference. It is helping us develop the skills to make sure these children are not excluded.’

Registering and mapping social vulnerable groups is another vital area in which the municipalities of Zajas and Oslemej have made progress by working together. ‘There are a lot of elderly people in our municipality who don’t have any family to look after them,’ says Lutfi Osmani, president of the village council of Zajas Chelikaj and a long-time activist for improving social conditions. ‘Before this project it seemed no-one from the local authorities cared about these people. Now with the registration and the municipalities visibly working together to map the needs of the people who really need their help, there is a lot more hope.’