Pro Local

Consultative Meeting with Cultural Stakeholders in Bitola – A Digital Cultural Calendar in the Making!

As part of the project “Bitola 2.0 – A Digital Municipality Closer to the Citizens,” today Pro Local held a consultative meeting with representatives from all relevant cultural institutions in Bitola, local NGOs, and the University, with the aim of co-designing a new digital tool that will bring culture closer to the citizens.The meeting sparked an inspiring discussion on the current cultural offerings in the city and the challenges of effectively communicating them to the public. Participants agreed that there is a notable fragmentation in the way events are shared—across various uncoordinated platforms, apps, and social media—creating an information cacophony and making it difficult for citizens to stay informed in a timely and comprehensive manner.In response, within the project framework, Pro Local is developing a digital cultural calendar that will serve as a central hub for all cultural events in the city—regardless of the organizer. Initiated by the needs and interests of the younger generation, the tool will allow users to browse events by category (film, music, exhibitions, etc.), filter by date, and receive timely notifications, making planning easier and enhancing the visibility of Bitola’s cultural content.

The coordination of cultural institutions in the city will be led by the municipal public institution Cultural Information Centre – Bitola, in close cooperation with the Municipality of Bitola.

The project “Bitola 2.0 – A Digital Municipality Closer to the Citizens” is funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Austrian Development Agency, as part of the “Creating an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform in the Western Balkans – WeBER 3.0” initiative. The grant is provided by the European Policy Institute (EPI) – Skopje.

Successfully Held Local Forum: “Active Involvement of Stakeholders in Addressing Local Issues”

On April 3, 2025, at the Officers’ Hall in Bitola, the association Pro Local, with the support of the Municipality of Bitola, successfully organized the Local Forum on the topic “Active Involvement of Stakeholders in Addressing Local Issues”, as part of the project “Bitola 2.0 – A Digital Municipality Closer to Its Citizens.”

The event was opened by Emilia Geroska, President of Pro Local, and Borce Dimitrovski, Secretary of the Municipality of Bitola. They emphasized the importance of building partnerships between citizens and local authorities to more effectively address the challenges related to digitalizing municipal services.

The forum began with a presentation of the results of a citizen satisfaction survey on digital services in the Municipality of Bitola, delivered by Prof. Dr. Ana Sekulovska. This was followed by interactive working sessions, during which participants identified the key issues and challenges that citizens—particularly young people—face in using the municipality’s digital services.

The discussion focused on:

Challenges in access to and functionality of digital services
The need for increased awareness and digital literacy among citizens
Deficiencies in communication between the administration and citizens via digital channels

As a final outcome, participants identified more than 20 concrete proposals for the development of IT tools aimed at accelerating the digitalization of public services in Bitola, in areas such as culture, transport, environment, and education.

The forum concluded with clearly defined next steps for continued collaboration among stakeholders and the development of mechanisms for transparent monitoring of progress.

This forum is part of the project “Bitola 2.0 – A Digital Municipality Closer to Its Citizens,” funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Austrian Development Agency, within the framework of the project “Western Balkan Enablers for Reforming Public Administrations – WeBER 3.0.” This initiative aims to create an enabling environment for civil society monitoring of public administration reform across the Western Balkan countries. The grant provider is the European Policy Institute (EPI) – Skopje.

Young people actively participate in shaping local policies through the regional youth platform

At the third meeting of the Regional Youth Platform, held on February 13, 2025, at the Officer’s House in Bitola, young people from the Pelagonia region actively debated key issues affecting them with the mayors, in the presence of the Ambassador of Switzerland, Mrs. Véronique Ullmann. The meeting was also attended by the Presidents of the Councils and representatives of the Municipal Councils.
The meeting provided an opportunity for exchanging ideas and jointly adopting concrete measures to be implemented in all nine municipalities by the end of the year. Discussions focused on local economic development, environmental protection, and improving health and fire safety.
As a result of the meeting, specific measures were adopted to be implemented across all nine municipalities by the end of the year, including the integration of organic waste into the circular economy, a pilot project for waste management in schools, fire safety education as part of extracurricular activities, organizing a regional youth entrepreneurship competition, and conducting business training for young entrepreneurs.
The Regional Youth Platform represents an innovative mechanism for participatory democracy, aimed at strengthening the participation of young people in local decision-making processes. This mechanism is being piloted within the framework of the project “Youth Policies Tailored to Young People,” implemented by Pro Local in cooperation with eight local civil organizations.
Ambassador Ullmann emphasized that the inclusion of young people in policy-making is essential for the development of local communities, stressing that their voices and ideas must be integrated into decision-making processes.
The project “Youth Policies Tailored to the Youth” is supported by the Government of Switzerland through the Civica Mobilitas program.

February, 2025