ANALYSIS
Increasing Volunteerism in
Macedonia
On paper, Macedonia has a good legal framework and national strategy on volunteerism. In
practice, the country lacks much of the grass roots activism and general public awareness needed
to truly bring these documents to life.
Macedonia adopted a Law on Volunteerism in 2007
and a 5-year National Strategy on Volunteerism in
2010. With a National Council on Volunteerism in
place, the country seems to have laid the foundations for good practice in this area. But – as one might
have expected – volunteerism rates didn’t automatically jump in response to these official decrees. Local experts explain that much more needs to be
done to boost volunteerism in the
country, starting
with raising public
awareness of the
social importance
of the practice, increasing the engagement of various authorities, as
well as persuading
company leaders
that they have an
important role to
play in encouraging their employees to volunteer.
“The Strategy envisages education about volunteerism becoming part of the standard national
school curriculum, but we know that didn’t happen,”
says Nikica Kusinikova, an NGO member of the National Council on Volunteerism, a nine-member body
created by the National Strategy tasked with coordinating the activities for promoting the practice.
“There was also the idea of allowing university students to earn credits by volunteering; this also hasn’t
happened in practice,” Kusinikova says.
Emerging Macedonia Spring 2014 Issue 41
“On regional terms, Macedonia isn’t doing so bad;
but we are certainly not great compared to other
parts of the world,” Kusinikova explains. “We need
more government effort and money in order to implement the Strategy,” she says. This is because promoting volunteerism properly would require the cooperation of a number of ministries – Labor and Social Affairs, Finance, Education, Justice, Health. In
the absence of adequate funding and clear delegation and ownership of related responsibilities, little
progress has been made. Kusinikova explains that
the Strategy also envisages more activity by local
governments, the National Youth and Sport Agency,
religious groups, media and the NGO sector.
“Having in mind the interconnectedness, interaction
and dependence of all participants in the Strategy,
9