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Macedonia

Country profile

The economy is worse than before

The prospect of being included in the EU has not yet created significant economic development in Macedonia. The unemployment rate is still more than 33% and the majority of the population still lives in poverty.

The economy is worse than it was when Macedonia became independent in 1991 after having been a part of the communist republic, Yugoslavia, for 45 years. The economic decline inevitably affects the vulnerable groups in general, amongst them the rural population and ethnic minorities, and the Macedonian Roma population in particular.

The country’s poor economy is partly a result of Macedonia being involved in the former Yugoslavian civil war in the years leading up to 2000. In 1999, 350,000 refugees arrived in the country, which has an area the size of Jutland and a population of two million people.

Two years later, in 2001, an armed conflict broke out between the Albanian rebel army UCK and the Macedonian security forces. As a result, 120,000 people fled from Macedonia. This unrest had many consequences for the country and its population.

The growing role of the civil society

Macedonia frequently struggles with a wide gap between the existing legislation and the actual administration of it, especially in the social area.

This affects the ethnic minorities in the country, including the Roma population. A big challenge thus awaits the civil society in mobilising those vulnerable groups and documenting their lack of access to social rights such as education, medical care and aged care.

Another task is to organise a civil society. This is what DanChurchAid’s partner organisation, MCIC, is doing in Macedonia.