[ Balkan | -s ]

One more Call for Applications concerning an interesting Seminar in Macedonia, this time by the Euro-Balkan Institute, Skopje, Macedonia, the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, Providence RI, USA, and the Jefferson Institute, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro; in cooperation with Ohrid Summer University, supported by Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. They are announcing a regional Seminar: EVALUATING INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRACY PROMOTION: Qualitative Research methods for policy impact in the Southern Balkans.
The Events take place in the Summer Session (June 19 - July 2 2005, in Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia).
Over the past fifteen years, in a period of prosperity, Western Europe and North America devoted substantial resources to the promotion of market democracy in the Balkans. The scale of the intervention and the density and duration of interaction far exceeded that in other “nation-building” projects. Shifts in international attention (to the Middle East) and in economic performance will certainly lead to reduced levels of support over the next decade, and funders concerned with cost-effectiveness are looking to the lessons of the past to guide future investment. Opinion is still sharply divided, often on strongly ideological grounds, on the effects of past spending.
The school seeks to integrate academic and practical approaches to the challenges of monitoring and evaluating international efforts to promote democracy. In particular, the school aims to contribute to the ongoing assessment needs ongoing initiatives, and to develop
proposals for evaluating the long-term impact of international projects now in their final stages.
The operating language will be English.

Concrete Aims and Objectives:
The school seeks to stimulate interest and provide training in the field of empirical policy-relevant social science, and initiate discussions on innovative forms of monitoring and evaluation. Drawing on expertise from development studies, anthropology, sociology, political science and philosophy, as well as methods of policy analysis, the class sets out to achieve the following concrete goals

• To reflect on how different trajectories of globalization, including especially projects of “democracy promotion,” impact democratic development and practice in Southeastern Europe.
• To examine the potential impact of empirical, qualitative field research on the delivery of democracy assistance, especially
  through monitoring and evaluation.
• To lay out the principles and methods of qualitative research design and implementation.
• To explore the possible impacts on local democracy, empowerment, and civic participation of forms of beneficiary assessment and participatory evaluation, drawing on existing literature.
• To design and initiate specific proposals for new forms of
  monitoring and evaluation, to facilitate learning from experience, and to guide ongoing investment in democracy promotion.

Workshop participants will pool expertise to link theory and practice from the fields of democracy, democracy promotion, and monitoring and evaluation. Key concepts to be examined include cosmopolitanism, participation, accountability, and civil society as components of democracy.

A range of methods will be discussed, focusing especially on qualitative approaches based on interviewing, document and discourse analysis, critical oral history, and participant-observation, and on the importance of beneficiary and participatory input to evaluation and monitoring.

The final goal of the workshop is to foster robust and enduring networks between the attendees, whether scholars or practitioners, senior or junior, identify key research which might impact policy-making either directly or indirectly (by providing, for example, clear “lessons learned”), and launch that research. The aim is that this will enhance the impact of the workshop, by setting in chain research and collaboration that will go on after the workshop has ended.

Applications:
Applications are welcome from experienced practioners and researchers in the field of monitoring and evaluation, and from postgraduate and doctoral students with interests in applied work on democracy promotion. Applicants should send a brief cv and full contact details, plus a short abstract (maximum 500 words) of probable project for development to Keith Brown by May 15, 2005. Places are limited, and participants will be chosen so as to ensure a range of interests and experiences. Candidates will be notified of whether their application has been successful no later than May 21, 2005.

The course will take place from 09.30 - 12.30 and then from 15.30 - 17.30 each day. Certificates of attendance will be presented to all participants.
For participants from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia-Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria, all accommodation and course fees will be covered by the school. Travel costs up to USD 150 equivalent will also be covered.

Contact person:
Ljupka Simonoska - Academic Coordinator
"Euro-Balkan" Institute
Blvd. Partizanski Odredi 63
MK-1000 Skopje
Republic of Macedonia
Phone: (+389 2) 3075 570; 3090 731
Fax: (+389 2) 3075 570; 3090 731 ext. 102
e-mail: ljupka@euba.org.mk
For more information, please visit www.euba.org.mk