ISIE has been implementing the project "Strengthening the capacities of Civil Society Organizations to exercise their rights for referendum at local level" for 1 year on the territory of the Municipality of Aracinovo, the Municipality of Butel and the Municipality of Gazi Baba. ISE created this project in order to raise awareness of the possibilities for direct participation of citizens in decision making, through their declaration in a Referendum. The capacities of the civil society organizations need to be strengthened in order for them to be able to appear as initiators for conducting a referendum and to provide adequate mobilization of the citizens. Direct beneficiaries of the project are: 1) local civil society organizations in the Skopje planning region, 2) civil informal groups and nuclei, 3) civilian individual activists, 4) representatives of the municipalities; and 5) local media.

For the purposes of the project, as well as for the implementation itself, challenges and good practices, we talked with Darko Spasevski, national legal expert on the project at ISIE - Skopje.