Increasing awareness of the hybrid threats: Strengthening resilience in the Western Balkans

The Euro-Atlantic Council of North Macedonia in cooperation with nine partners from the Balkan and Visegrad countries will implement the project “Increasing awareness of the hybrid threats: Strengthening resilience in the Western Balkans”, supported by the International Visegrad Fund and MFA Republic of Korea.

The aim of the project is to strengthen the resilience of the civil society members from the WB region. Society in the WB appears to be vulnerable to the influence of propaganda, disinformation, and hybrid threats that undermine the democratization process and stability in the region. Through the mobilization and activation of CSOs in the WB, the critical thinking of people will be strengthen, but more importantly, it will raise awareness about disinformation, especially in the online space.

The goal of the project is to create a network of active future leaders from CSOs who will act as multipliers in their communities, thus addressing hybrid threats and disinformation in the Western Balkans. The main objective is to activate and strengthen the capacities of young leaders from CSOs who aspire to become visible actors in the fight against disinformation and third-party propaganda.

The hybrid threat associated with the dissemination of disinformation and propaganda by third actors is a regional problem that can be more effectively addressed through international cooperation and the exchange of experiences and best practices with other actors. The V4 countries involved in the project share many similarities when it comes to the problem of spreading disinformation, especially in the online space. The root causes or root causes of the hybrid threats in question are very similar.

The project uniquely combines the extensive experience of the implementers and their Visegrad partners -in working with NGO/CSO communities, with extensive expertise in working with vulnerable communities threatened by disinformation, propaganda and hybrid threats, and (3) with the extensive experience of some of the Visegrad partners working to refute/debunk disinformation and malicious fake news on the internet using facts, common sense and a healthy dose of critical thinking.
Participants in this project will gain knowledge and tools in an interactive way.

Project Activities

- Kick-off Coordination Meeting, January 25, 2023

The official kick-off coordination meeting of participating organizations was organized on January 25, 2023, via video conference with the aim of fine-tuning and approving the project timeline and selection criteria for participants and team coordinators.

- Finalization - Selection Participants / Pre workshop event, April 27, 2023

The second online meeting was organized on April 27, 2023 and it was mainly for selection of the participants from each of the WB6 countries, finalization of the topics & agenda and final coordination before the regional workshop in Ohrid. The final selection was made by the project coordinators and approved by the consortium of partners.

- Regional resilience-building Workshop: “Increasing awareness of the hybrid threats – Strengthening resilience in the Western Balkans”, May 05-08, 2023

From the 5th of May until the 8th of May, 2023, The Euro-Atlantic Council of North Macedonia and nine partners from the Balkan and Visegrad countries, co-organized the Regional Resilience – Building Workshop in Ohrid, North Macedonia.

The regional resilience-building Workshop is a part of the project named „Increasing Awareness of the hybrid threats – Strengthening Resilience in the Western Balkans” which aims to increase the capacity of Western Balkan civil society in countering disinformation to strengthen democracy, societies‘ resilience, integration to the EU and socio-economic development by improving their skills and knowledge through discussions with experts with strong pro-transatlantic and European values.

The first regional resilience-building workshop taught NGO/CSO Young leaders how to analyze the issues of particular WB6 countries and how to recognize available data which are valuable and reliable. This training also taught participants to prepare short, informative, and up-to-date analyses using reliable and verified data. The outcome will be participants with skills that allow them to distinguish between sources that bring unbiased and fact-based information from fake news and disinformation.

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Group work - Policy Papers

Policy Papers: Combating Disinformation in the Western Balkans – Young Leaders Perspective

The presented policy papers were developed as part of the project named: „Increasing awareness of the hybrid threats: Strengthening resilience in the Western Balkans”, supported by the International Visegrad Fund and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea.

The lead of the project is The Euro-Atlantic Council in North Macedonia, in cooperation with nine partners from the Balkan and Visegrad countries.

The teams were formed through a skills workshop, which was organized in Ohrid, with each team comprising six participants, one from each of the project countries in the Western Balkans (WB6), totaling five teams. Partners from V4 and WB6 countries mentored the groups.

These teams were tasked with creating a policy paper and an advocacy strategy aimed at addressing the growing threat of disinformation in the Western Balkans. Concurrently, each team was responsible for promoting their policy paper at the National Symposiums, which were organized during October 2023 in each respective country.

The policy papers they’ve produced offer fresh insights into critical topics connected with disinformation that impact the Western Balkans.

Full policy papers and topics:

Electoral Disinformation in the WB

Enhancing Regional Cooperation to Combat Disinfo in the WB

Media Literacy in Education – A WB Perspective

Truth in the Age of Disinfo Investing in Fact Checking Organizations in the WB

Unregistered Media as a Tool of Spreading the Disinfo in the WB