Executive Summary
The Assessment has identified the technical basis for a substantial Bank intervention for both ECCD and Youth-related programs. According to a non-professional cost estimate, the required investment would amount to $ 9 million, of which $ 5.5 million for ECCD and about $ 3.5 for Youth. The undertaking could be designed, implemented and financed in parallel by the Bank/IDA, UNICEF and some NGOs, notably the Open Society Institute, OSI, supported by the Soros Foundation. Ministerial-level representatives of the Government of Macedonia, GOM, have expressed interest for such an initiative while reserving to decide upon review of the results of the Assessment and of the country's priorities for external borrowing.
The Assessment research was conducted in Skopje as well as in six other towns, representative of socio-economic and cultural conditions in Macedonia. The results stem mostly from structured and semi-structured interviews, informal focus groups and short exchanges all along during the Assessment (March 1st-May 30, 2000). It capitalizes the considerable insight gained during the mid-term evaluation of the achievement of the $ 2 million Post-Conflict Grant extended by the Bank to Macedonia in 1999 and successfully managed by UNICEF-Skopje. It drew also from a research the Assessment co-coordinator made in France about the Maisons de Jeunesse and the network Eryca, based in Paris, associating Youth organizations throughout Europe and several Balkan countries.
The Assessment was executed by two teams of Macedonian social and education experts, led by professors of the Skopje University and directed by UNICEF-Skopje, which also participated in the research and took care of logistics. The work was coordinated by a consultant, appointed by the Bank, who prepared this report.
Macedonia Assessment of Needs and Resources for ECCD and Youth (pdf, 103 kb)
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