Views

Independently, more coordinately and more aim-oriented

During the society transformation into pluralistic democracy, at the beginning of the ‘90s, one of the heralds of the new system was the appearance of a large number of non-governmental organizations dealing with women issues. Together with the ones, which had been formed in any shape by the former system, this large number of new women non-governmental organizations created a good basis for eventually solving the issues of the women’s social status.

Taking into consideration the number of non-governmental organizations active in the area of women issues in Macedonia (according to the MCIC Address Book since 2001 there have been over 100 active women NGOs), and the number of the activities taken in the last ten years, it can be concluded that many issues are open, many dilemmas are closed, many prejudices are not longer prejudices, in one word the things are moving in the wanted direction. In the women non-governmental organizing there is a critical mass of people who are dedicated and competent and there is also a great number of good ideas which are good as a large number of successfully realized plans. There have also been some obvious results in almost all fields where women organizations, coalitions and networks have been engaged for the past ten years, starting from the women participation in some economic and political processes, legal and political measures related to the women status, solving problems of specific groups of women etc.
On the other hand, if we ask ourselves, whether women in Macedonia, generally speaking, make profit in the same size of the investments made in the women non-governmental sector, of our internal development, and whether their overall social position has been improved to a great extent as a result of the work of the women non-governmental organizing in Macedonia, the answer is not always simple.
What I think is missing in order to have a bigger effect in our actions, is the lack of coordination. This may sound controversial, but it is a fact that the coordination is exactly the part which the donators dedicate the greatest attention to, and as a result of this there are a lot of forms which can impel it. However, it is a fact that the programs and projects are unnecessarily doubled and repeated, there is certain parallel in the functioning of the networks, as well as competition in the struggle to stand out in front of the donators. In fact, in relation to everything that is not inside your own network or coalition, actions are taken completely opposite to what has been proclaimed as a networking value. When a big deal of the energy and time are dedicated to these issues, the network efficiency is compromised, that is achieving the primary objectives that have caused their forming.
Another challenge is increasing the aim-orientation of our taking actions that is bigger embarking on solving some concrete needs of concrete groups of women. Namely, a large number of actions which origin from the networks are still directed towards the surface of the problems. Because of this, within the women non-governmental sector, there is not any long-term creative potential to influence the legal frame, social policy, concrete preventive actions on a national or regional level etc. In all these areas, activities certainly exist (some of them are even very successful), but they are in either an embryonic phase or a result of ideas by some foreign donators or helpers.
All this will not be so problematic if we do not take into consideration the fact that now the withdrawal of foreign donations and support are visible (especially financial support) and we are faced with the question of how much we had used the past ten years and both mentally and institutionally to take roots in the civic society and to become its active part.
There is also a need to compensate what we missed, now at shorter notice and with less comfort in order to create an efficient women movement.
The logic of the term movement directs towards acting in one and the same direction. If in this country with 2 million people we have 3-4 groups which work on promotion of women rights and bigger socio-economic integration of women, at the same time mutually understanding each other very little, then the conclusion is that no unified women movement exists.