Economic Research & Policy Institute
Annual program of activities
2016
Frederik Shopen 1/2 1000 Skopje Macedonia www.financethink.mk
Research
hood pay gaps in Macedonia and to advocate solutions for addressing the prevalent pay gaps. The project envisages activities positioned within three pillars: ◊ Capacity building and direct knowledge transfer.; ◊ Collaborative research; ◊ Building networks for advocacy, promotion and collaboration.
1. Promoting Active Inclusion of Disadvantaged Persons Excluded from the Labour Market
4. FISCAST: Building capacities and tools for fiscal accountability, sustainability and transparency in Macedonia
Overall objective of the project is to increase the activation of persons at risk of social exclusion in the labor market by improving their skills, education, qualification and facilitating their full integration into the society and the labor market. Specific purposes include: ◊ Improve the efficiency of employment and social services as a way of promoting the social inclusion of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups; ◊ Empower vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and give them the skills and experience for achieving long-term work and independence; ◊ Foster improvements in service delivery by designing new family support services, raising public awareness, and developing effective partnerships.
The overall objective of the project is twofold: first, to improve the capacity of civil society and media to contribute to evidence-based economic dialogue in the country, enabling more participatory and transparent policymaking, with strong focus on fiscal policymaking; and, second, to increase the public awareness for the process of spending public money.
2. Challenging unemployment in the Western Balkans: Enhancing active labor market policies in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia The main objective of the project is to contribute to improvement of active labor market policies and boosting employment in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. More specific objectives of the policy advocacy are: ◊ To identify legal, financial, and practical weakness in employment policies which result in their low efficiency and low effectiveness; ◊ To inform and expand knowledge of key stakeholders in the field; ◊ To empower stakeholders to make informed decisions by providing relevant analysis and feasible policy recommendations in this area; and ( ◊ To put the issue of ALMP on the respective agendas of relevant decision-makers in these three countries. 3. “Heroes and she-roes”: Knowledge for analysis of and advocacy for equal pay for women and mothers in Macedonia (SHE-ROES) The objective of this project is to correctly measure gender and mother-
5. Migration as social protection: Analysis of Macedonian, Albanian and Serbian remittance-receiving households The objective of the proposed research is to investigate if remittances sent to Macedonia, Albania and Serbia serve an informal social protection for household members left behind. The key tasks include (2016 only): ◊ deeper qualitative investigation through interviews of the linkages between remittances and social vulnerability; ◊ devising policy proposals and policy instruments of converting remittances into a more formal social protection; ◊ wide communication with the policymakers and the public. 6. Fostering female self-sustainability through embedding traditional values into alternative touristic attractions in Krushevo The main objective of the project is to improve self-sustainability of women through development of alternative touristic attractions out of their skills for traditional, homemade and ecological production. Project activities envisage: ◊ Training of Krushevo women for skills for entrepreneurship; ◊ Promotion and sales of traditional products; ◊ Expanding and strengthening the mini-cluster; ◊ Developing three alternative touristic attractions embedding traditional values and promotional campaign involving “Days of alternative touristic attractions in Krushevo” and a Fair.
Activity
Stage
Planned tasks
D
1. Promoting Active Inclusion
Working plan
xx Training to employment and social welfare professionals xx Piloting of the social mentoring model xx Manual “Mentors for social inclusion” xx Design and Delivery of a PreEmployment Training Program xx Design of Family Support Services and Referral Mechanisms xx Organization of a Public Awareness-Raising Campaign xx Establishing networking corners
August 2018
2. Challenging unemployment in the Western Balkans
Not started yet
xx Descriptive analysis of datasets for active measures for employment xx Semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders xx Policy brief and policy study xx Round table
August 2016
xx Statistical training on the econometrics of gender and motherhood pay gaps xx Research stays of economists of FT at wiiw xx Participation of FT staff at wiiw thematic seminars/workshops in Vienna xx Developing an econometric model xx Upgrade of www.edplako.mk xx Policy study on gender and motherhood wage gaps in Macedonia xx Policy brief on aspects of gender pay gap xx Organization of round table
March 2017
3. Heroes and Working meeting She-roes about the forms for transferring knowledge and skills
Activity
Stage
Planned tasks
D
4. FISCAST
xx FISCAST-NET network is established xx Workshop 1: Identifying public policies for analysis xx Workshop 2: Costbenefit analysis for economic experts and think-tanks xx Workshop 3: Costbenefit for economic journalists xx 9 teams that will make cost-benefit analysis are selected
xx Workshops to discuss findings, quality assurance, and define recommendations xx Visualization of CBAs xx Journalistic stories xx Building a resource center xx Production of materials (joint booklet, infographs and thematic graphometrix)
March 2016
5. Migration as social protection
xx Literature review and econometric analysis conducted xx Index of vulnerability devised xx 20 in-depth interviews conducted
xx Qualitative analysis xx Policy brief xx Annual conference
July 2016
6. Fostering female selfsustainability in Krushevo
xx Training on economic empowering of women in Krushevo and workshop for developing alternative touristic destinations
xx Developing alternative touristic attractions xx Producing video stories and brochures xx Organization of “Days on alternative touristic attractions in Krushevo” event xx Fair on homemade, traditional products “It’s homemade, It’s from Krushevo” xx Upgrading web platform www.odkrusevo.mk
July 2016
Analytics 1. Delivering at least 5 issues of Graphometrix – the observer of the national, regional and global economy through graphs; 2. Delivering 4 issues of the Macro-monitor – the macro-observer of the national economy with a forward looking elements; 3. Delivering at least 3 FT Comments – a commentary of important national and international documents, reports, strategies and so on, concerning Macedonia; 4. Delivering at least 10 FT Opinions - the short and swift reactions to the moves of the daily economic policy and trends; 5. Delivering 4 issues of the Index of Financial Stability to inform policymakers in the financial areas (mainly central-bank policymakers) and the wider public, herewith understood as being financial analysts and employed in banks, pension funds, insurance system; economic faculties and research centers; financial managers in the corporate sector; other civil organizations; savers; 6. Delivering 12 issues of the Leading Composite Index based on combining indicators co sidered to precede economic activity with a time lag of about six months ahead; 7. Delivering monthly posts on the main blog ‘Economic Talks” – short posts on current ‘hot’ topics; 8. Delivering at least 6 blog posts on the “Fistful of denars” blogpost; 9. Improving the economic datasets to be available for analysis purposes by the other NGOs and other interested parties, and presenting those data in an easily understandable format for non-economists;
Activity
Stage
Planned tasks
1. Graphome- Ongoing trix
xx Devising at least 5 issues
2. Macromonitor
Ongoing
xx Devising 4 issues
3. FT Comment
Ongoing
xx Devising at least 3 issues
4. FT Opinion
Ongoing
xx Devising at least 10 issues
5. Index of financial stability
Ongoing
xx Devising and publishing 4 issues of the index
6. Leading Composite Index
Ongoing
xx Devising and publishing 12 issues of the index
7. Blog posts
Ongoing
xx Monthly posts on the blog "Economic talks" xx Bi-monthly posts on the blog "Fistful of denars"
8. Datasets
Ongoing
xx Improving the datasets
D Continuously over 2016
Advocacy and communication 1. Continuous publication of research results and findings in the form of articles in international peer-reviewed journals; monographs; chapters in books and so on; 2. Devising at least three policy briefs on issues pertinent to the economic development in Macedonia and stemming out of current research – so as to advocate for innovative solutions and to educate citizens on their potential contribution in solving the problems; 3. Sharing information, graphs, infographs and links on the social media; 4. Visuelization of current economic trends through infographs; 5. Building the resource center FISCAST for public spending www.fiscast.mk; 6. Production of joint booklet of the cost-benefit analyses within the FISCAST project; 7. Upgrading the web platform on traditional, homemade, ecological products and the Association “Krushevo women”, www.odkrusevo.mk; 8. Production and dissemination of brochure of alternative touristic attractions in Krushevo; 9. Producing a leaflet and posters on social exclusion and social/labor market discrimination of the vulnerable group; 10. Organization of five art exhibitions focusing on the negative effects of social exclusion of vulnerable groups;
11. Production of TV broadcast on the themes of social exclusion; 12. Organization of two panel discussions focused on the problems disadvantaged and marginalized groups face with accessing the labor market; 13. Upgrading the web platform www.edplako.mk with a module to gather at one place similar studies, persons working on gender inequalities in Macedonia and the region, link to Austrian researchers; link to wiiw databases and so on. 14. Organizing a round table for presenting the results of the project “Simulation of a voucher system for social protection of the individual sociallyvulnerable remittance receivers in Macedonia”; 15. Organizing a round table to present the ongoing activities within the project ““Heroes and she-roes”: Knowledge for analysis of and advocacy for equal pay for women and mothers in Macedonia (SHE-ROES)” and to reinforce the power of EdPlaKo-MK; 16. Organizing a round table for presenting the findings of the project “Challenging unemployment in the Western Balkans”; 17. Organization of the Annual panel debate in December that will bring the government and citizens together to talk at a hot issue; 18. Advocating (“fighting for”) for more space for economic news in the media by stronger links with them, through publishing the ‘Index of financial stability’ in ‘Kapital’ (the other prominent economic medium in the country, despite ‘Economics and Business’ where we publish the ‘Index of future activity’).
Activity
Stage
Planned tasks
1. International publications
Ongoing
xx Articles, monographs, chapters in books
2. Policy briefs
Ongoing
xx Devising at least 3 issues
3. Social media communication
Ongoing
xx Devising and sharing at least 24 own graphs xx Sharing own-produced results, findings and conclusions xx Sharing external information and links xx Sharing own products
D Continuously over 2016
4. Infographs
Ongoing
xx Producing at least 5 infographs on current economic topics
5. Resource center
Not started
xx Building a resource center
February-March 2016
6. Booklet
Not started
xx Production of joint booklet
March 2016
7. Web for “Krushevo women�
Ongoing
xx Upgrading the web
Continuously over 2016
8. Brochure for alternative tourism
Not started yet
xx Devising brochure
May-June 2016
9. Leaflet and Not started yet poster on social exclusion
xx Design and devising of leaflets and posters
March 2016
10. Art exhibitions
xx Organization of 5 art exhibitions on social exclusion
June-August 2016
xx Production of TV broadcast on themes for social exclusion
May 2016
Not started yet
11. TV broad- Not started yet cast
Activity
Stage
Planned tasks
D
12. Panel discussions
Not started yet
xx Organization on 2 panel discussion on problems of marginalized groups
April and September 2016
13. www. edplako.mk
Ongoing
xx Upgrading the web platform
Continuously over 2016
14. Media
Ongoing
xx Increasing the presence in media
Continuously over 2016
15. Round tables
Not started yet
xx Voucher system for social protection xx Gender and motherhood wage gaps in Macedonia xx Challenging unemployment in the Western Balkans
February 2016 June 2016 August 2016
16. Annual Panel Debate
Not started yet
xx Conduct of the AnDecember 2016 nual Panel Debate on a hot current topic
Capacity building and networking
Activity
Stage
Planned tasks
D
1. Statistical training
Not started yet
xx Conducting a training on the econometrics of gender and motherhood pay gaps
January - February 2016
2. Research stay
Not started yet
xx Two research stays of economists of FT at wiiw
March and August 2016
3. Participation at thematic seminars/ workshops in Vienna
Not started yet
Whenever ofxx Participation of FT staff at wiiw thematic fered by wiiw seminars/workshops in Vienna
4. International conference participation
Not started yet
xx Participate on at least two conferences
5. Domestic conference / round table participation
Not started yet
xx Participate on at least three events
4. Participation in at least two international conferences to present results of ongoing projects and/or to build network with international researchers;
6. MoUs
Not started yet
xx Sign a MoU with at least one institution/ organization
September 2016
5. Participation at domestic conference, round tables, forums and other similar events, so as to present ongoing research and build networks with domestic researchers, other NGOs, government representatives and media;
7. Trainings
Not started yet
xx Attend seminars for advocacy and research skills
Continuously over 2016
8. Literature
Ongoing
xx Securing relevant literature
Continuously over 2016
1. Statistical training on the econometrics of gender and motherhood pay gaps; 2. Two research stays of economists of FT at The Vienna Institute for international economic studies - wiiw; 3. Participation of FT staff at wiiw thematic seminars/workshops in Vienna;
6. Initiating cooperation (leading to Memos of understanding) with repute domestic institutions and other NGOs conducting similar or complementary activities; 7. Participation at seminars for equipping with advocacy skills and research methods; 8. Securing a referent literature, mainly research methods and econometrics.
Continuously over 2016