Fostering critical debate in evidence-based budgetary processes and fiscal transparency

Goal: Scaling democracy by expanding fiscal transparency at the national and local level in North Macedonia.

The proposal aims to contribute to the International Budget Partnership’s (IBP) objectives by fostering transparency in the country. This overarching aim is broken down into specific objectives involving concrete interventions on two fronts.

  • Specific outcome 1: To advance data-driven policymaking.
  • Specific outcome 2: To increase municipal transparency and strengthen citizen engagement, by making publicly available and updating 3-digit Budget data for all 80 municipalities in North Macedonia.

Donor / Partner: International Budget Partnership

FISCAST Network – Enhancing dialogue for higher municipal financial transparency, with focus on parafiscal charges

The overall objective of the project is “To strengthen FISCAST network’s monitoring of and partnering with local stakeholders on LSGUs’ financial transparency, with reference to parafiscal charges.”

This overarching aim is broken down into specific objectives involving concrete interventions on four fronts.

Specific objective 1: To enhance capacities of local CSOs and of the FISCAST Network to become active stakeholders in the municipal financial transparency processes;

Specific Objective 2: To improve municipal budget and parafiscal charges transparency;

Specific objective 3: To establish evidence-based, multi-stakeholder policy dialogue for monitoring of financial transparency and building effective municipal policies;

Specific objective 4: To increase public awareness about the benefit that higher transparency, accountability and sustainability have for citizens and businesses, in their roles and capacities to act at the local level.

Duration: January 2021 – July 2023

Donor: European Delegation

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Calls and tenders

CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST OF THE LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT UNITS IN THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA AND THE CITY OF SKOPJE

Call for tender for design and printing of materials 03-156-01 IPA-2020-420-727-01

Call for tender for tax expert for verification of collected parafiscal charges 03-162-01 IPA-2020-420-727-02

Call for tender for an expert / group of experts for preparation of studies on financial transparency and accountability at the local level 03-346-01 IPA-2020-420-727-03

Call for tender for an expert / group of experts for preparation of studies for municipal parafiscal charges 03-370-01 IPA-2020-420-727-04

Gender responsive budgeting in times of pandemic

The project aims to improve the position of women and reduce gender inequality in the labor market in the long run. A detailed examination of the use of gender responsive budgeting in active employment measures will provide a basis for designing new measures and models to improve the position of women in the labor market and mitigate the socio-economic consequences of the crisis and / or recommendations for redesign of existing measures in order to design gender-responsive measures that best meet the needs and characteristics of women.

Donor: Center for Research and Policy Making through the Gender Budget Watchdog Network

Timeline: December 2020 – May 2021

Analysis of parafiscal charges in North Macedonia

The objective of the project is to provide analysis of the parafiscal charges for SMEs in North Macedonia, by revieweing the Catalogue of public services and conduct of survey among SMEs.

 

Provider: Ministry of Economy

Dates: September 2019 – January 2020

 

Bridging measures to alleviate Covid-19 consequences

The aim of the project is to develop proposed measures to mitigate the consequences of Covid-19, as a form of operationalization of the United Nations document “North Macedonia: UN Covid-19 Response Framework (CRF)”.

Client: UNDP

Duration: July – November 2020

Roma-responsive budgeting in North Macedonia

The aim of the project is to pilot the Roma responsive budgeting guidelines through building capacities of civil servants, selecting budget programs and applying guidelines, resulting in two Roma responsive budgeting submissions to the 2020 budget.

 

Donor: Regional Cooperation Council

Duration: April – June 2019

 

Good or bad tax? Reforming Macedonian personal income tax

The overall objective of the project is to assess the effect of the announced tax reform of the personal income tax.

The specific objectives include:

  • To assess the impact of the announced tax reform on the poverty, income inequality, employment behaviour and the budget of the country;
  • To assess the reflected and expected behaviour of the stakeholders (employers and employees);
  • To steer policymakers to make informed decisions based on evidence, data and recommendations;
  • To increase public awareness of the potential impact of the announced tax reform.

 

Donor: Balkan Monitoring Public Finance / Analytica Think Tank

Duration: January – August 2019