OSCE Mission to Montenegro supports civil society organizations in using digital platforms for everyday work

To strengthen capacities of civil society organization (CSOs) in using digital platforms, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro organized two online training courses on 16 and 17 November and from 25 to 27 November 2020.

The courses, organized in partnership with the Forum MNE, a non-governmental organization, and the South East European Youth Network, gathered representatives from 19 CSOs dealing with youth. The first course examined various digital platforms with a view to understand how these tools and methods could support CSOs in their work. The second focused on how to use digital platforms for organizing events, such as meetings, training courses, conferences and collaborative research online.

The training courses are particularly timely due to the profound effect COVID-19 has had on everyone’s lives, said Ivana Vujović, the Mission’s Democratization National Programme Officer. “We have been ‘locked down’, working from our kitchen tables and have had to significantly change our usual routines and preferred interactions. We have had no choice but to shift to digital services in all areas of our lives. The need to create enabling working environments in the digital world is huge and pressing, and we all hope we will manage to address it.”

Digitization of programmes was also an inevitable step for Forum MNE, explained Elvira Hadžibegović-Bubanja, the Forum’s Executive Director. “The epidemiological situation has just accelerated the process. Youth programmes and work must be transferred to an online space to respond to the needs of young people. The training courses will help to enhance the digital capacities of youth and professionals in civil society involved in licensed programmes.”

Online tutorials are also being developed to complement the courses and expand access to training for all CSOs interested in using digital platforms.