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HISTORY OF COOPERATION

Let’s go back to the 2010 when a group of young people and youth organizations from Republic of North Macedonia and Greece initiated the bilateral project for encouraging cooperation between the young people named as “Contacts for the Common Future. The project strived towards building strong and sustainable cross-border cooperation between young people from the two neighboring countries.

One of the proposals of the young people back in the 2010s was to establish a “Liaison office of cooperation”. This is a driven force behind our initiative bilateral youth cooperation office that starts 10 years ago when the partners, Youth Alliance - Krusevo and Thessaloniki Youth Club for UNESCO underscored the importance of efficient cross border cooperation built on mutual trust and respect between the young people. From the very begging we have tried to build systematic attempts relating to the experiences and challenges of everyday life of young people in both countries as a focal point for overcoming the existing confrontational spirit, prejudices and stereotypes.

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Contact making

The main theme and basis of the project was stated in the title” Contacts for the Common Future”, which emphasized that through cooperation between young people as key figures of the future we will set the cornerstones of a common future. The “contact making” has been developed by 40 active young people, youth leaders, youth workers, 20 from North Macedonia

and 20 from Greece during two seminars, that took place in Krusevo and in Thessaloniki. During these ten working days the participants had time to get to know each other, their organizations’ profile and target group and to come up with new projects and initiatives ideas for future cooperation. Take a closer look of the beginnings on the following link.

The main theme and basis of the project was stated in the title” Contacts for the Common Future”, which emphasized that through cooperation between young people as key figures of the future we will set the cornerstones of a common future. The “contact making” has been developed by 40 active young people, youth leaders, youth workers, 20 from North Macedonia and 20 from Greece during two seminars, that took place in Krusevo and in Thessaloniki. During these ten working days the participants had time to get to know each other, their organizations’ profile and target group and to come up with new projects and initiatives ideas for future cooperation. Take a closer look of the beginnings on the following link.

Meeting of our neighbors

“Contacts for the Common Future - Let’s meet our neighbor” as continuous process, represented the vision and the achievements of the first step of the initiative, C4CF 2010/ 2011. Developed in 5 phases in a period of two years (2012 and 2013) the project “Contacts for the Common Future - Let’s meet our neighbor” was driven by the following objectives: • To introduce/explore the possibilities for cooperation between civil societies, particularly between youth population, from the two neighboring countries North Macedonia and Greece;

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Cooperation for youth empowerment and employment

The contacts for the common future in 2014 continued for youth empowerment and employment. Young people required tackling the common issue of youth unemployment in the both countries stressing out the cross-border cooperation as a focal point for shaping a common future. As a starting point of the cycle we have made a situation analysis of the young people in the cross-border region between the Republic of North Macedonia and Greece and how the cross-border cooperation is influencing on their youth empowerment and employment. The conclusions and finding in the report about situation analysis of the young people in the cross-border region between both countries confirmed the relevance for working on the topic. The presentation of the findings as well as sharing of good practices and solutions for the huge employment rate in the cross – border region took place on the capacity building workshop in Krusevo in June 2014. On the workshop participated diverse group of experts from different fields related to the topic from the both countries (representatives from relevant CSOs, representatives from the educational institutions, representatives from the business sector and representatives from relevant institutions responsible for local development in the cross-border region).

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Platform for possibilities

In the period from 2015 till 2018 the traditional partners organized series of study visit for different stakeholders that provided opportunities for an empiric analysis. The series of the study visits were organized in Skopje and Thessaloniki tackling the possibilities for cooperation, linking and exchange of staff and experiences in the field of related study visits programs. The finding of the analysis that practically enabled the study visits brought valuable data and bassline for the idea of establishing bilateral youth offices of cooperation.

From idea into a reality

Finally, the past two years were vastly significant for the bilateral relations between the two countries. By signing the Prespa Agreement on 17th June, 2018, many opportunities and challenges appeared. Consequently, Youth Alliance – Krusevo started realizing their idea into practice by direct involvement of other partners and stakeholders. Hereby, with strategic advocacy actions we have managed that youth cooperation and establishment of the bilateral youth cooperation offices to be part of the action plan of this historical agreement. Based on this Youth Alliance – Krusevo and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of North Macedonia signed an agreement for establishment of bilateral youth cooperation offices.

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Contact Us

  • adress
    Hristo Smirnenski 48/I- 8 1000 Skopje
  • phone
    +389 (2) 3120 214
  • mail
    c4cf@youthalliance.org.mk
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