MLGA Activities
Click on the map to view separate MLGA activities per cooperating municipalities
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Success stories |
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The MLGA Success Stories are primarily intended for informing US readers on the accomplishment of project goals.
For more information on activities, please read Project News.
| Citizen Access Improves Citizen Service |
Several people are waiting in a line in front of the archive booth
window of the Municipality of Karposh. The last one in the line will
spend nearly an hour just to report a problem or make a request about
a municipal service. In addition to the waiting time to file a complaint
or request, the law requires citizens to be charged 150 denars for
administration processing taxes and paper. In this outdated model,
citizens are forced to spend their own time and money to
communicate with their local government.
Read more. |
| New Opportunities from Old Traditions |
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From the capital city of Skopje, a dusty asphalt road leads into the rural Municipality of Studenichani, where traditional life and culture dominate this largely Albanian community. Like many rural communities in Macedonia, economic development is a key concern for Studenichani’s residents. The general unemployment rate is 33.80%, and unemployment among Albanian women is the highest at more than 90%. Families often struggle to meet their basic living needs, and many Albanian women seek opportunities to contribute to their household income without abandoning their cultural and religious traditions.Read more. |
| Official Credit Rating helped Strumica get Euro 9.8 million Grant |
Over the past years USAID Macedonia Local Government Activity (MLGA) has been working on enhancing municipal creditworthiness and establishing municipal tools for good municipal credit rating. Municipal credit rating is very important for the municipality future in Macedonia, since now they can access credit markets and borrow money for municipal development.
Read more. |
| USAID helps Strumica have a More Efficient and Timely Communication with its Budget Users |
With the process of decentralization, municipalities in Macedonia assumed larger financial management authority and responsibilities. The transfer of decentralized functions make up the greatest part of the overall municipal budgets, and their efficient and accurate planning and allocation require fast, timely information, and continuous communication between the municipalities and the institutions.
Read more. |
| USAID Macedonia Local Government Activity helps Mogila Develop Successful Application for the IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Program |
With the beginning of fiscal decentralization in Macedonia, municipalities received bigger responsibilities including those in the area of finances. At of the start of the second phase of decentralization (economic municipal independence), municipalities in Macedonia have been faced with the new challenge of attracting investors and tourists, thus enhancing their income. One of the major possibilities is the European Union pre-accession funds that support municipal cross-border cooperation. However, the big challenge facing Macedonian municipalities is learning how to apply and win the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) funds.
Read more. |
| Number of Newly Registered and Legalized Farmers in Sveti Nikole Increased for More than 3000 |
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Although Macedonia is considered to be predominantly an agricultural country, the official statistics show that the number of registered farmers’ businesses and employed individual farmers is very low. The Municipality of Sveti Nikole was just one such example. In 2008 this Municipality had only 274 individual businesses registered and none of these businesses were in the Ministry of Agriculture registries. At the same time, there was no commercial firm for agriculture. As such, these people were not eligible for state subventions, commercial credits and loans and did not have any health and pension insurance. This situation improved dramatically as a result of the implementation of USAID MLGA grant for educating farmers on the need to register and increasing their awareness about all the benefits of having registered business.
Read more. |
| Promoting Fairness in Tax Collection |
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The Ohrid Framework Agreement for Peace provided greater autonomy for Macedonian municipalities to collect local taxes to pay for local needs. However, when the property tax system was decentralized, municipal leaders learned that property registries were often outdated and inaccurate. Without good information to plan and assess taxes fairly, many citizens complained that the system was corrupt, and tax avoidance was a common problem. Read more. |
| Developing Local Economic Development |
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Despite many changes since the Ohrid Framework Agreement for
Peace, central government control of public land remained a key
point of debate and disagreement in the decentralization process.
Central government control of construction land presents a serious
obstacle to local economic development in Macedonia. Municipal
government advocated for control in order to develop private
sector investment opportunities, but the central government
resisted decentralizing the authority due to concerns over the
capacity of local governments to effectively manage public land.Read more. |
| Making Regional Development a Reality |
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The Ohrid Framework Agreement for Peace expanded the number of municipalities in Macedonia as well as the capacities and services provided at the local level. In order to achieve the full benefits of decentralization, the new municipalities must also work together on common objectives such as regional development.Read more. |
| Bridging the Capacity Gap to Financing |
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The Law on Local Government Finance is a central element of the
decentralization process initiated by the Ohrid Framework Agreement
for Peace. The law provides municipalities with the capacity to selffinance
capital improvements through private credit markets, provided
they meet certain eligibility criteria. While all municipalities are in dire
need of capital improvements, the process of achieving access to
private capital is one of the most elusive self-government capacities to
be granted by the central government.Read more. |
| A Shared Vision for the Skopje Region |
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After the municipal elections in April 2009, the newly elected Mayors
of the Skopje Region faced a looming deadline—to create a shared
vision of their region in time to qualify for European Community
development funding. Koce Trajanovski, the newly elected Mayor of
the City of Skopje, requested the help of USAID/MGLA to meet this
important challenge.Read more. |
| USAID Assistance Doubles Tax Collection |
When property tax administration was decentralized in response to
the Ohrid Framework Agreement for Peace, local government learned
first-hand how bad the previous centralized system had performed.
Property Tax records provided by the central Public Revenue Office
were outdated and incomplete. Tax avoidance and inaccurate
assessments contributed to very low property tax collection overall.
When fiscal decentralization started, municipalities had little capacity
to improve the property tax system.Read more. |
| The Big Picture in a Small Town |
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The Municipality of Petrovec is a rural municipality, staffed with young, enthusiastic, and hardworking employees dedicated to serving their own community and creating an example of successful decentralization. However, outdated and duplicative financial management systems forced the finance department to work 10 hours a day, non-stop, just to process transactions and keep the basic functions of the municipality working day-to-day. Read more. |
| Growing a Marketplace for Accountability |
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The good news of decentralization in Macedonia is that municipalities gained greater management authority and independence from the central government. The bad news is that many municipalities also inherited a legacy of bad debts and lawsuits, poor financial record keeping, and a reputation for secrecy and/or corruption. While many municipalities have made significant improvements, citizen confidence and creditworthiness remains stubbornly low. Read more. |
| Energy Efficiency – Saving for the Future |
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Decentralization in the Republic of Macedonia provides increased municipal authority, including ownership of public buildings formally the property of the central government. After years of minimal maintenance and neglect, Strumica, like many other municipalities, became the owner of schools and other public buildings that were leaking heat, wasting electricity on poor lighting, and costing taxpayers too much money. In many cases, operating costs were 3-10 times higher than comparable US and European standards. Read more. |
| A Small Municipality Makes Big Improvements |
Zajas is a rural town in the Midwest of Macedonia that faces many challenges to address the new authorities and responsibilities provided to municipal government. Increasing the effectiveness of local government is one of the basic principles of the Ohrid Framework Agreement for peace that ended armed ethnic conflict in Macedonia.
Read more. |
| First Municipal Loan Agreement in Macedonia Signed |
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By signing the Loan Agreement on Friday 18 July, 2008, the Municipality of Karpos and UNI Bank have marked the beginning of a new phase in the development of municipal credit market. USAID/Macedonia Local Government Activity’s (MLGA) implementation of the Development Credit Authority (DCA) took a major step forward, as the Municipality of Karpos received approval from the Government of the Republic of Macedonia based on the positive opinion from the Ministry of Finance for the very first municipal borrowing in Macedonia. Read more. |
| Youth Toward Development |
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The USAID-funded Macedonia Local Government Activity Project (MLGA), together with the YES Incubator and Municipality of Gazi Baba, opened the first CISCO Entrepreneur Institute on 24 November 2008. YES Incubator is using premises that formerly belonged to municipality to help young entrepreneurs start businesses.Read more. |
| Organized, Informed, Educated |
About 6 kilometers north northwest of Sveti Nikole, in the Ovche Pole Valley, are the 1000 inhabitants of Gorobinci. As in most of the region, people here live and work farming. However, many have never had their own land, let alone the opportunity to prosper.
Through the Macedonia Local Government Activity Project (MLGA), USAID has helped the Foundation for Rebuilding and Development of Ovce Pole (FOROP), an association of farmers from Sveti Nikole, work with the region’s farmers to achieve their goals and fulfill the Government of Macedonia’s requests for registered farmer benefits. The government is giving state agricultural land to registered farmers to promote agriculture and farming, thus reducing unemployment in some regions.
Read more. |
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