International Transparent Education Forum

[Raphael Shepard]

by Dona Kosturanova

In March, Youth Educational Forum in association with the Educational Development Center organized a three day conference (19-21 March) in Skopje - Macedonia. The forum was attended by 60 participants from 14 different countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Romania, Latvia and Ukraine.

Panel discussion on youth anti-corruption networks. Left to right: Luba Fajfer, Dona Kosturanova, Svetlana Zakrevska, Igor Pucarevic, Krisztina Seberin.

The main goal of the event was the promotion of transparency in higher education; therefore, all the participants who took part in the conference were representatives of civil associations, university of promoting transparency in higher education. 

During the three day event, the participants from youth organizations had the opportunity to create action plans which represent the base of their future actions in the field of transparency in higher educational institutions. The key segment of the conference was the last session on which the groups presented their action plans in front the Macedonian media and representatives of institutions which joined their hands together to make the conference and workshop successful.

Dejan Dokuzovski from Youth Educational Forum stated, “The aim of the conference is to promote exchange of different experiences between the participants of the region, creating a basis for cooperation between the countries and joint approaches in fighting the corruption in higher educational institutions. This event aimed to support the production of action plans, which hopefully will result concrete activities that will strenghten the transparency in higher education institutions.”

Nalini Chugani, working on development of action plans with one of the groups.

One of the sessions was designed for presentation of the existing networks which work in the field of anti-corruption in higher education: Transparent Education Network (TEN), Anti-Corruption Student Network in South East Europe (ACSN-SEE) and Global Youth Anti-Corruption Network (GYAC). The panelists Ms. Svetlana Zakrevska (NGO Alliance - Ukraine), Ms. Luba Fajfer (USAID), Ms. Krizstina Szeberin (OSF Budapset), Mr. Igor Pucarevic (Belgrade Open School, Serbia) and Ms. Dona Kosturanova (Youth Educational Forum, Macedonia) discussed the best practices, methods of work, types of communication and impact of these networks. The session was moderated by Mr. Gustavo Payan from the Educational Development Center.

The participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences as well as discuss opportunities to continue working in the field of transparency in education, taking back home the motive of fighting corruption in the region.

YEF believes that these types of events are great opportunity for further cooperation between organizations and transfer of experience that will increase transparency and reduce corruption.

The conference was financially supported from the East East Partnership: Beyond Borders Program by Open Society Foundation - Macedonia and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).