Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women - ESE, was founded in 1994 as Humanitarian Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women – HA ESE, targeting its work at improving the situation of the woman and her representation in the decision-making structures. We focused on the situation of the women in the transition period, with particular emphasis on the women in the rural regions and the marginalized women. Our spirit stems from the principle of equity and equality, and hence we are committed to representing all women, regardless of their religion, ethnicity and age.

In the Period 1994 – 1996

In 1994, we conducted the project entitled “Women and Education”. We distributed textbooks to those that were not able to provide them themselves. In 1995, a series of projects heralded the beginning of the changes: “Women and Health”, targeting the Roma and Albanian women; “Women and the Media”, allowing for a broader interpretation of the women issues and interests; and “Women and Their Employment Possibilities”, enabling 225 women from rural areas to acquire certificates for courses in sewing in cooperation with the Republic Bureau for Household Promotion.

Furthermore, in this period we marked the beginning of a very fruitful cooperation with some newly established organizations, such as: DAJA, the League of the Albanian Woman, the SOS Line of the Skopje Women Organization and a number of international organizations as well. We developed concepts that were later transformed into multi-year programs – health, legal and educational programs for equal opportunities of the women in the decision-making structures. The structure of our organization was soundly founded by the establishment of the Executive Board in 1995.   

In the Period 1996 - 1998

This period is of particular importance to our organization, since a number of processes took place aimed at enhancing the organizational capacities and the capacities of our employees as well. In 1997 and 1998, we developed our first annual programs. We set up the milestone of ESE’s work – the projects conducted hitherto were transformed into program activities. We significantly increased the number of our activities in the area of lobbying and raising the public awareness in a number of areas by organizing campaigns. We redirected our activity towards organizing educational events for lawyers, attorneys, politicians, health care workers and representatives of women non-governmental organizations in the sphere of emancipation. In addition, we continued our health education with the women from the rural areas. 

In the Period 1998 - 2003

In 1998, the Humanitarian Association ESE was renamed into Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women of Republic of Macedonia, expanding thus its area of work nation-wide. For the first time, we developed our three-year programs for 1998 – 2000 and 2000 – 2003, which enabled us to identify more easily the anticipated results, the indicators of all conducted activities and the effect achieved by them. In our work, we continued developing the organizational structure, enhancing the human capacities and promoting the strategies for accountability and transparency.     

In terms of our program, we expanded our activities by adding a three-year program entitled “Enhancement of the capacities of the Women NGOs for Health Care Education” in cooperation with the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation. We started off activities with women prisoners, which ranged from providing psychological and social support to them to increasing the possibilities for their successful reintegration. Major part of our educational activities targeted the young population. We enriched the programs with components designed for work with the general population. For the first time, the program for Legal Education and Action included direct services (legal counseling and representation) for women victims of domestic violence. Furthermore, we carry out intensive activities for representation and lobbying in order to accelerate the adoption of the related legislation.  

We established a strong organizational structure, including the General Assembly. In this period, ESE provided its own working premises and fully furnished them. We grew from a team of four members into an organization of ten members. We developed a clearly determined and defined structure and each of our employees accomplishes her/his working tasks in accordance with her/his job description.     

In the Period 2003 - 2006

ESE considers this period as a period of harvesting the fruits of its years-long work. Our lobbying activities were crowned by the adoption of concrete legal remedies in the existing legislation on domestic violence. We have become recognizable as an organization that has the capacity to represent and lobby for legal amendments that would allow for greater gender equality in our society. In addition to the help for the women victims of domestic violence, we enriched our direct services with health information and support provided by the Women’s Health Information centers. In the context of this component, in 2004 we opened the dispersed legal aid centers and the health information centers in Shtip and Tetovo. We supported these direct services concurrently with building of the human health care resources; we conducted a series of training events for designing health promotion interventions based on theories and facts, thus, enhancing, the capacities and network of our health care workers. We are especially proud of the achievements in all penitentiary and reformatory institutions throughout the country; the educational component on “Conflict Resolution” was conducted as a “train the trainer” event in the training center for prison staff. Furthermore, in the framework of the project “Health for All, Health for the Roma”, we trained 16 young leaders from the Roma community on their right to health and health care. In the course of 2004 and 2005, we conducted a series of successful campaigns in each of ESE’s programs; ESE presented the dark figure on domestic violence in Macedonia to the health sector in the framework of the international campaign for prevention of violence; we marked the World AIDS Day, 1 December, under the motto “Girls, Protect Yourselves”. On the occasion of the International Day of Action for Women’s Health on 28 May, we organized a campaign for access to health care to advertise the issue of women’s vulnerability to AIDS. During the parliamentary elections in 2004, we organized a campaign to promote women candidates and the amendment to the legislation proposed by ESE for 30% participation of women was adopted in Parliament with 41 votes. The promotion of both formal and informal system for protection of domestic violence victims was organized in the framework of the campaign “16 International Days of Activism for the Elimination of Violence Against Women”.

In anticipation of the announced withdrawal of the numerous developmental and donor agencies from this region, or more precisely, one of our traditional donors, we decided to take concrete steps. To that end, in June 2004, we conducted strategic planning and identified the following future priorities as our activities: providing direct services to target groups, lobbying for legal amendments and focusing on educational and informative activities. We introduced a new program entitled “Women’s Human Rights” to join our formerly separate programs for legal education and combating domestic violence. In addition, we harmonized our internal structure in line with our new program priorities. We established a development unit that will be the driving force in the implementation of our strategic commitment and for our sustainability.

In February 2005, we received the status of a “National monitor to stop violence against women”, which we used to help develop a www page as a comprehensive tool for representing the women’s interests in the Republic of Macedonia.   

In the course of 20005 – 2006, we initiated two major processes for introduction of an effective institutional response to domestic violence: unification of the civil and criminal justice systems and development of the National Program for Domestic Violence. These processes undertaken by ESE were financially supported by the USAID and the Institute for Sustainable Communities; ESE was also a grant user in the group for representation and local partnerships. These two initiatives will continue to be part of our program work in the forthcoming three-year period (2006 – 2009) as well.

In the period 2006 - 2009

Within this period, ESE is implementing its fourth three-year program 2006 – 2009.
We have been undertaking substantial steps in the fight against domestic violence in the framework of two processes: in partnership with Akcija Zdruzhenska, we initiated the process of Unification of the civil and criminal justice systems for protection against domestic violence. The Ministry for Labor and Social Policy, as our strategic partner, has undertaken activities for creation of a National Strategy for protection against domestic violence. In addition, we conducted a research on the phenomenon of domestic violence that later grew into a comprehensive multidisciplinary study. We also initiated a two-year process for prevention and suppression of domestic violence in the Republic of Macedonia. To that end, we will introduce a number of activities targeted at promoting the victim protection system through improvement of the quality of the existing protection measures. As part of this process, we will organize multidisciplinary education for the professional structures for the purpose of establishing a unified coordinated protection system for the domestic violence victims. The process will be implemented in cooperation with the Ministry for Labor and Social Policy and in partnership with WAVE (Women Against Violence Europe) from the Republic of Austria.

Keeping up with the intensive reforms of the health care system in the Republic of Macedonia, we provide direct help through our program Women and Health; moreover, we are also making certain changes to take into consideration the needs of the unprivileged groups. To that end, we are preparing a comprehensive study of the Roma population related to issues of health, health insurance and the factors that affect the Roma’s health. We will thus create the basis for development of a strategic document that will contribute to the improvement of the health condition of the Roma people. The condition of the population generally, in terms of their reproductive health, will be assessed through a study to be conducted throughout the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, which will serve as a direction for the policy makers in this sphere.

On the other hand, the reforms aimed at delegating authorities and responsibilities from central to the local level require additional efforts for implementation of the new local self-government concept. In this direction, our goal is to raise the awareness of the local communities of the decentralization process and increase the level of cooperation among the municipalities. We place a special emphasis on the improvement of the women’s position in the rural areas and their involvement in certain political processes.

In the period 2009 - 2012

In the period from 2009-2012, ESE remained dedicated to its mission. Namely, in the respective period we implemented activities which are continuation and upgrade of the results and achievements from the previous period; however, we also introduced and used new concepts and approaches for implementation of human rights.

With joint forces and efforts, i.e. by uniting the efforts in several fields, we worked intensively on the strengthening of the capacities of local authorities in the municipalities of Kochani and Tetovo. Together we prepared the local action plans in the sphere of improvement of reproductive health and protection from domestic violence. As result of the joint cooperation, the local action plans were adopted and included in the municipal budget in one of the municipalities. In 2012, we conducted the monitoring over the implementation of the local action plans and municipal budgets in order to establish the extent of their implementation. In addition, in the two municipalities, we carried out a pilot survey to establish the level of participation of the citizens in the local budgeting process; the knowledge of the citizens about the process; the level of transparency and accountability of local authorities and range of other issues.  

In the course of 2010, 2011 and 2012, we took a range of activities for the integration of the concept “monitoring and analysis of budgets” both on national and local level. On national level, we conducted the monitoring and analysis of the program for active health care of mothers and children. Later, these activities were enriched with the activities for “monitoring in the community” in cooperation with four local Roma organizations. The activities for monitoring in the community, i.e. the results from the monitoring helped us to create a more successful strategy for advocacy with regard to the immunization of Roma children. The activities for monitoring and analysis on national level, in 2012 were expanded with the monitoring and analysis of the Program for early detection of malign diseases. Namely, we conducted monitoring and analysis of the activities for detection of cervical cancer and activities for early detection and prevention of breast cancer. With regard to the integration of the monitoring and analysis of budget into the work of ESE, during the respective period, ESE’s staff attended several international and domestic trainings for strengthening of its own capacities. In addition to the trainings, the activities in these fields were implemented with technical assistance from leading world experts in this area.

In cooperation with the Roma organizations “CDRIM”, Skopje and “KHAM”, Delcevo, we introduced programs for paralegal assistance in the Roma communities in the municipalities of Suto Orizari and Delcevo. With the assistance from paralegals, we provided assistance and support for protection in the spheres of health care, health insurance and protection of patients’ rights of the local Roma population.

Through work on promotion and improvement of health rights, i.e. human rights in health care, we took activities to raise the awareness about the need for respecting these rights among the practitioners (lawyers, health workers and health associates). In parallel, we worked on increasing the level of awareness about patients’ rights and their protection among the general population, and in particular among certain categories of vulnerable citizens.

As part of the already established practice for monitoring and reporting to the international bodies with regard to the women’s human rights, in cooperation with the citizen association Akcija Zdruzenska and several other civic organizations, we prepared the “shadow report” concerning the Convention for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. We conducted an analysis of the extent of implementation of the Concluding observations of the Committee for elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and we reported about the findings of the analysis in front of the members of the working group before the session of the Committee in 2012.

In the period 2013–2015

This period in ESE’s activities saw the establishment of methodologies and approaches initiated in 2010 as innovative and new. We intensively continued to enhance our work by applying new methodologies allowing for further improvements, and we began seeking for solutions to unify the methodologies and the different approaches into a single approach. Assistance and support offered to various vulnerable groups still was a significant part of our work and commitment to help those who needed it. Activities related to legal and judicial protection were taken one step beyond in ESE’s commitment to provide timely and suitable assistance and support to women victims of violence.

In 2013, 2014 and 2015 we continued to carry out activities for the purpose of improving Roma health (coverage of Roma children with vaccination and preventive health services, coverage of Roma women with preventive gynecological services and fulfilling the right to health care, health insurance and protection of the rights of patients); improving reproductive health of women (coverage of women with cervical and breast cancer screening); strengthening the capacities of civil organizations; and improving transparency and accountability of public institutions. Working towards achieving these goals, we used the following methodologies: social accountability – budget monitoring, community monitoring and social audit; legal empowerment – providing paralegal and legal assistance; and gender responsible budgeting. Practically in 2013, in addition to methodologies on budget monitoring and analysis and community monitoring, we began preparatory activities to apply the social audit methodology together with the Roma partner organizations.  After four years of hard work in applying methodologies on social accountability and legal empowerment, in 2014 we began with the process of strategic planning for their unification. More specifically, both approaches had a goal to improve the health of marginalized groups we had been working with, but having in mind to make them functional in the same environments and with the same target groups. The unification had a goal to increase efficiency of our work towards full use of opportunities and the benefit from this process. The cooperation with the Johns Hopkins University was of great significance to the unification of both approaches. In 2015 ESE in cooperation with experts from the Johns Hopkins University from Baltimore, USA, began a process of planning a survey on the impact of interventions for access to health rights of the Roma. However, once ECE drafted the questionnaire for Roma households (described in the section on Joining the concepts of social accountability and legal literacy and empowerment in this report), experts from the Johns Hopkins University offered to provide expert assistance both in the process of its finalization, and in the process of preparing a protocol for its implementation. Also, the process of entering Roma households to fill in the questionnaire was agreed to be used in order to measure the impact of both interventions ESE had implemented with partner organizations – social accountability and legal literacy and empowerment.

In order to overcome the problem with lack of relevant data on the health situation of the Roma population, including health determinants and access to health care, respect for human rights within the healthcare system, and the alignment of the domestic legislation with internationally stipulated standards for respecting and applying health rights, in 2013 the ESE team in cooperation with external experts carried out a research and prepared a study regarding these issues. Also on 8 November 2013, ESE in cooperation with the Roma partner organizations DCRIM, RRC, Lil and KHAM, organized a national conference on ‘The Health of the Roma – access, challenges and opportunities for improvements’. The goal was to present the basic concepts, used in the previous years by ESE and the partner organizations supported by the Open Society Foundation Macedonia, for improving the access to health services and the fulfillment of rights in the area of health care for the Roma.

Taking into account difficulties the Roma have been facing, ESE in cooperation with the Roma partner organizations including the Centre for Democratic Development and Initiative (CDRIM) – Shuto Orizari, the Roma Resource Centre (RRC) – Shuto Orizari, and the NGO KHAM – Delchevo, has been providing paralegal assistance and support to the local Roma population since 2011, in order to protect their health rights (rights of patients, rights to health care and rights to health insurance). In the period 2013-2015 we undertook a series of activities regularly implemented each year as an integral part of providing technical assistance and support to Roma partner organizations, including activities for institutional strengthening of the organizations, as well as strengthening the coordinators and the paralegals hired within the paralegal assistance programs, and improving the working method, the procedures used and data collection by paralegals. In 2013 and 2014 the team of paralegals was enhanced, first in the Village of Crnik, in the Municipality of Pehchevo, and later in Shuto Orizari. From 2012 until 2015 a total of 1988 Roma[1] were provided with paralegal assistance and support.

For the purpose of promoting human rights in the healthcare system, in 2013 and 2014 we continuously worked on renewal of the contents of both the Guidelines for Practitioners and the thematic webpage www.healthright.mk, as well as on building the capacities of legal experts and representatives of patients’ associations on the opportunities for strategic representation of certain cases of violations of the right to health and in relation to human rights in the healthcare system. 

In the period 2013-2015, at the Centre for Legal Assistance, the Psychological Counseling Service, and the Health Information Centre we continued to provide the necessary legal, psychological, and health information and assistance, including counseling and referral of clients to the corresponding institutions responsible for fulfilling their rights. Vulnerable categories of women. In this period we provided legal assistance to 605 women, and free legal representation at court to 11 women. Psychological support was provided to 136 women, and proper health information, advice and service was provided to 130 women.

Although envisaged as a pillar of the civil and legal system of protection, temporary measures for protection of victims of domestic violence were insufficiently implemented by the institutions with a legal mandate to initiate, impose, implement and monitor those measures. Therefore in 2013 ESE began activities to allow for significant improvements of the civil and legal system for protection, including proceedings in court cases to impose temporary measures for protection against domestic violence at four first instance courts in Macedonia. In partnership with La Strada and the Coalition for Health and Sexual Rights of Marginalized Communities, in 2014 ESE began to implement the USAID Women’s Legal Protection Project. This project was planned to be implemented in the period 2014-2017 and will result in improved implementation of national and international standards for court protection of women victims to discrimination and violence; improved national legal framework for protection of the rights of women; and more efficient provision of legal assistance to women victims of discrimination and domestic violence by civil organizations.

In the period 2013–2015 we prepared, submitted and presented shadow reports on three human rights documents. In 2013, within the process of the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council in Geneva we presented key areas of concern and recommendations for improving the health status of several vulnerable groups in Macedonia such as the Roma, people living with HIV/Aids, LGBT persons, women, persons with learning disabilities and victims of human trafficking. Also in 2013 in cooperation with Akcija Zdruzenska we reported about the situation of the position of women in Macedonia. In 2015 ECE began to draft a shadow report on the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN ICESCR) regarding the right to health, and submitted a special Report on additional issues related to the legal framework on protection of women victims of violence to the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. 

In the period 2016 - 2018

In the last three years, Association ESE has worked on attainment of its strategic priorities and commitments, but also has expanded its approaches and work methods in order to increase its impact and achieve maximum results. We have seriously and dedicatedly worked on capacity building of citizens, civil society organizations and public institutions pertaining to our field of operation. Nevertheless, equal attention was paid to internal organizational and institutional development, with special emphasis on expanding our team and improving visibility of our work.

Association ESE’s work on empowerment and involvement of citizens in the processes on planning, implementation and monitoring of legal regulations, budgets and services by applying social accountability and legal empowerment has resulted in increased number of civil society organizations (from three to seven) that benefit from technical assistance to implement these approaches. This increase is mainly due to expanded work on involvement of citizens in planning, implementation and monitoring to cover an additional social and economic right, i.e. the right to employment. Moreover, we have worked on capacity building for civil society organizations from Southeast Europe, which were provided training and expert assistance to apply these approaches in their respective work. From two CSOs that benefited from provision of this type of assistance and support, in 2018 their number was increased to 18 CSOs and included experience exchange. Also, we actively participated in European initiatives on promotion of Roma health. In parallel, we have worked on capacity building for public institutions to involve citizens and CSOs in the processes on planning, implementation and evaluation of legal regulations, budgets and services. As a result of ESE’s work and efforts in the past period, the Ministry of Health has committed to monitor implementation of its health programs by applying the social accountability methodologies, while the Employment Agency has committed to monitor implementation of its active employment measures, programs and services.

With a view to improve access to healthcare services for women and Roma, in 2016 Association ESE implemented the last round of preparatory activities for implementation of the integrated approach. For the first time, community members covered by our activities actively participated in our community work as animators. To facilitate work of community animators and local civil society organizations, we developed the Work Manual for Partner Roma Organizations and Animators on Implementation of the Integrated Approach and we finalized the survey questionnaire that will be used to assess situation and needs of Roma households related to their health status, social determinants that affect their health, access to healthcare services and quality of service they receive. In 2017 and 2018, Association ESE initiated implementation of the integrated approach, while in 2018 it increased coverage of Roma people with our activities. In 2018, ESE’s work on improved health status and access to healthcare services for women, mothers and children was raised to higher level. In particular, from partial analysis of individual issues and affairs, the subject of interest under our activities was expanded to more comprehensive and complete analysis of the issue that covers all previous issues we have worked on. Hence, in 2018 we established the group of professionals, practitioners and professors, tasked to identify reasons behind increased perinatal and infant mortality rates. This group provided assistance in collection of relevant data and development of analyses on separate aspects that affect this issue. Furthermore, in 2018 we initiated monitoring of overall budget allocations for promotion and protection of women reproductive health and impact of existing macroeconomic policies on access to healthcare and services for women, mothers and children. By advocating for promotion of state-of-affairs in the public health system, ESE has actively participated in work groups tasked with drafting amendments to the Law on Health Protection, work group tasked to develop the Program for Active Health Protection of Mothers and Children, as well as task forces of the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health working on reduction of infant mortality, promotion of women health during pregnancy, and promotion of children health and primary healthcare reforms.

In 2018, for the first time we implemented community monitoring and survey that covered 826 persons, of which 407 men and 419 women, from four towns across the country and established state-of-affairs in terms of access to and use of active employment measures and services provided by the Employment Agency in several settlements, with active involvement of local citizens.

Significant portion of Association ESE’s work was focused on delivering training to paralegals, as informal method for provision of paralegal assistance to Roma, sex workers, textile workers and other vulnerable groups. Hence, in 2017 the training for paralegals on healthcare, health insurance and protection of Roma patients’ rights was expanded to include more areas that were deemed necessary in day-to-day work of all 35 paralegals that provide their services as part of six civil society organizations.

Every year, efforts to secure data and information to monitor implementation of healthcare programs and public procurements in the public health system, as well as work in the field of fiscal transparency, allowed us to assess the level of proactive and reactive transparency, as well as transparency of public procurement procedures. In that, we gradually increased the number of covered institutions, i.e. public procurements that are subject of monitoring. After long string of years dedicated to work in the field of transparency and accountability, this strategic period was marked by significant achievements. More specifically, ESE’s efforts resulted in acceptance of five measures aimed to promote fiscal transparency, access to public information and transparency within the Open Government Partnership Action Plan for the period 2016-2018 and five measures aimed to promote fiscal transparency and access to public information within the Open Government Partnership Action Plan for the period 2018-2020. In that, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia tasked the Ministry of Health to finalize and publish annual reports on program and budget implementation of its preventive and curative programs and to pilot the social accountability methodologies. Hence, with technical assistance and support from ESE the Ministry of Health developed these reports and made them publicly available. Moreover, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia adopted a list of document and information which public institutions should regularly publish on their official websites, while the Bureau of Public Procurements introduced possibility for publication of contracts awarded under public procurement procedures.

Association ESE has made significant contribution to increased public awareness on the issue related to free access to public information, in particular by marking International Right to Know Day and cooperating with the Commission for Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information. Furthermore, we regularly developed and published information under the “Fiscal Transparency Macedonia” campaign, which are available on the specially designated namesake website. Association ESE went one step further and increased public visibility of its work and achievements. Only in the course of 2018, ESE developed a total of 1,184 articles aimed to increase public awareness on the importance of fiscal transparency and the need for priority-based budgeting, the right to employment and access to active employment measures and programs, as well as all other issues pertaining to our field of operation. Contents posted on social media related to all three areas of operation have been visited ca. 2.1 million times, while contents posted on all three thematic websites have reached 12.5 thousand people.

In this strategy period, Association ESE continued its work on access to justice and legal protection for women who have suffered violence, in particular by monitoring criminal and litigation proceedings related to violence against women. As regards securing more detailed information, we conducted an in-depth analysis of 33 criminal cases on domestic violence completed in 2017 and 2018. Judges from basic courts were involved in development of the advocacy and joint strategy aimed to address problems identified. In parallel to these systemic efforts, ESE’s Legal Aid Centre provided free legal assistance and advice to more than 500 persons who have suffered violence and secured psycho-social support to more than 100 women who have suffered domestic violence. Free attorney representation was secured for 15 women who have suffered violence in several court cases. Every year, ESE organizes activities to celebrate the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women, whereby 2018 was not exception therefrom and relevant activities included organization of campaign that featured many public figures. Photographs of public figures bearing messages of support for women who have suffered violence reached 35,000 people. In 2018, together with Akcija Zdruzenska, La Strada and Coalition “Margins”, Association ESE submitted shadow report to the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and participated on the 71^st session of CEDAW Committee, thereby contributing to increased international pressure on our state to implement international standards on protection of women human rights.

We have launched three separate initiatives aimed at systemic changes and data collection that underlined the need of and benefits created by informal modalities for legal aid provision. Namely, we developed the cost-benefit analysis on three different modalities on provision of free legal aid, as well as analysis of costs for legal protection and access to justice for women who have suffered violence. In 2018, these efforts were complemented with data collection and analysis of the right to exemption from payment of court administrative fees and other charges in litigation lawsuits for women who have suffered violence. As partner organization to the Coalition “Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities”, renamed as the Coalition “Margins”, in 2017 and 2018 Association ESE promoted the rule of law and equal access to justice as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In that regard, we established a list of indicators for collection of data on implementation of this development goal in our country, as well as data from CSOs that work on access to justice, in order to ensure continuous and unified data collection practices.

This three-year period brought about changes in terms of internal organizational and institutional development. In particular, ESE’s team was expanded with three new staff members, including one assistant for provision of legal and psychological assistance, one assistant for budget monitoring and analysis, both of which were recruited in 2017, and one assistant for public relations and communications, recruited in 2018. Moreover, we have made changes to several internal documents, and in 2017 we worked on development of the strategy for the next three years. As regards institutional changes, we developed internal rulebooks on conflict of interests and advocacy, and we mapped all work processes.