report

1. Dear friends,
As we move into 2014, and look back on the previous year, I can proudly say that we have exceeded
our personal expectations for the outcomes of the past 12 months. Being the first year of operation
where our Foundation has been operating fully staffed, we have been able to address regional issues,
work on worldwide collaborations and keep growing the IDEA brand.
What you will find on the following pages is a modest excerpt from the work that we have completed
over the course of a year, showcasing the various skills and capabilities within the team of the
Foundation. The entire body of work, among which, media, design, scripting, management and
coding has been done in-house, and it would not have been possible without the unlimited efforts of
my wonderful team at IDEA SEE.
I would hereby wish to express enormous gratitude for their support, and to the tightly knit and
effective Governing Board, whose support and guidance has been irreplaceable. Here is to an even
better and elaborate 2014!
Yours sincerely,
Marjan Stojnev, Executive Director of IDEA SEE.

4. Neither irony or
sarcasm is argument.

5. strategy
1

7. DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
As part of the establishment of the office as well as its regional presence, the staff of IDEA SEE
dedicated the first part of the year towards the visualization of its general development strategy.
Represented by a hexagon noting six crucial targets for the organization and the region [promotion
of argumentation, networking SEE debaters, increase in regional visibility, media and advocacy for
inclusion, social media governance and website development and improvement] the visualization
shows the planned steps along with the empirical data to back the individual directions and steps.
The strategy also serves to establish the design language for the joint efforts, visible in latter
platforms and publications.
7

9. Social Media Strategy
The internet has empowered people and not only given them access to information, but has also
given them a voice. Social media channels can be used effectively to monitor what people are
saying, respond and engage accordingly, build links for search engine optimization (SEO), get us
noticed and help drive traffic to a specific point. The tools used within social media can often be
relatively low-cost, although sometimes demanding on other resources. However, social media
actually needs a lot of investment in order to meet objectives that we set.
That said, the office set up multiple strategy documents covering a general IDEA Network social
media strategy, social media policy guidelines and guidelines for creating new social media
channels and how to maintain them. We see media as a powerful tool that can help in spreading
the debate outside the debate community and as advocacy tools that can help to achieve IDEA’s
goals for open society.
9

11. Google Adwords Strategy
Google is the largest search engine on the Internet, and to use online platforms for promoting
debate worldwide, one needs to use Google. Google AdWords makes IDEA Network efforts in
promoting debate a whole lot easier by bringing huge per click traffic through the use of proper
keywords. When these keywords convert to participation and engagement, the traffic driven from
Google AdWords is converted to important way of engaging new audience that we could not reach
without Google Adwords.
IDEA SEE created a strategy of using the IDEA Network Google Adwords grant for maximizing our
efforts in promoting debate worldwide, promoting IDEA Network publishing activities and IDEA
Network projects and programs, as well as promoting our goals and mission and vision.
11

12. Behind every argument
is someone's ignorance.

13. projects
2

14. Ivon Velickovski, President of Liberal party of Macedonia, arguing why
the local governments system is not fit for all Macedonian municipalities

15. DEBATES_MK
The Debates_MK project included 10 public debates that were organized in the period from April to
September 2013, by both Diversity Media and IDEA SEE as partners on the project that was
implemented in several parts of Macedonia.
Aiming at the improving of quality of local government, improvement and development of the
inter-ethnic dialogue in all spheres of the society, corporate social responsibility of the private
sector, in order to improve inter-ethnic relations and to promote and strengthen the social
activism all over Macedonia, the debates were jointly organized, filmed and documented.
The project was partially supported by CIVICA Mobilitas, a program of the Center for Institutional
Development – CIRa.
15

16. cParpttiicoinp agnotess o hf ethree Global Debate and Public Policy Challenge 2012-2013 actively
involved in one of many Digital Freedoms workshops during Budapest Forum

17. Global Debate & Public Policy Challenge
The Global Debate and Public Policy Challenge (GDPPC) offers undergraduates across disciplines
and continents an opportunity to explore issues of global importance from different points of view.
Participants can become eligible to win a free trip to Budapest and a $10,000 scholarship.
GDPPC aims to attract a wide range of university students into the realm of policy advocacy. The
Challenge enables participants to develop their capacity to critically engage with issues of public
policy that affect them and their communities. GDPPC has counted among its participants,
students from China, South Africa, the USA, India, Ethiopia, the Philippines, to name just a few.
IDEA SEE is having one of the main roles in GDPPC among other partner providing website
maintenance, creating and maintaining registration and policy paper submission platform,
community management on GDPPC social media channels, online promotion of the project and
implementing email campaigns.
17

18. Representatives of “Solidarnost”, labor rights movement, Journalist union and
Association of employers debating labor rights in Macedonia

19. DEBATING CHANGE
A project implemented by Diversity Media in partnership with IDEA Southeast Europe and Radio
MOF, the media outlet of the Youth Educational Forum. The project aimed to provide a platform for
a series of twelve live radio debates on current issues facing Macedonian society.
The radio debates were held in Macedonia, both in and outside of the capital, with the partner
organizations championing the battle for a clear and critical ‘for’ and ‘against’ on these important
issues, live on air.
The project was supported in part by the National Endowment for Democracy.
19

20. Youth from Skopje attending a workshop part of the
“Youth and police – what are our rights?” project

21. YOUTH AND POLICE
The chief goal of Youth and police – what are our rights? Project was approximation of the work
of the police to the youth and creating critical awareness on the relationship with the police and the
authorities of the order with the aim to respecting the rule of law, breaking the stereotypes on the
relationship of the youth towards the police and vice versa, and induction to the Law of juvenile
justice and bigger respect of human rights.
The idea was to create a critical group of activists who will make impact inside their
micro-environment in the approximation of the relationship of the youth with the police and vice
versa. Also, informing of the general audience by creating adequate website and smartphone
application as well as raising the general awareness among the population on human rights and
freedoms and on the rule of law.
The project was implemented by Coalition All For Fair Trial and IDEA SEE,
supported by USAID.
21

22. Roma youth working on news articles as a part of the journalism
workshop within Romaverzitas and IDEA SEE media club

23. YOUNG ROMA MEDIA CLUB
Journalism basics, media literacy, writing for media, teaching photography and video, teaching
interviews, news as well as speaking in public through media is just part of the activities
implemented within Young Roma Media Club Project.
This activity is organized by Romaverzitas (Romaversitas operates a comprehensive training and
community programme for selected Roma university students in Macedonia) and implemented
by IDEA SEE staff experienced in media.
As a result, a group of 10 to 25 Roma students will be trained in media and will create several types
of media products in Romani and Macedonian language.
23

24. Students from University “Goce Delchev” from Stip debating in “UGD FM Radio
Debates” project implemented by IDEA SEE and student radio “UGD FM”

25. RADIO DEBATES UGD FM
A project implemented by Diversity Media in partnership with IDEA Southeast Europe and Radio
MOF, the media outlet of the Youth Educational Forum. The project aimed to provide a platform for
a series of twelve live radio debates on current issues facing Macedonian society.
The radio debates were held in Macedonia, both in and outside of the capital, with the partner
organizations championing the battle for a clear and critical ‘for’ and ‘against’ on these important
issues, live on air.
The project was supported in part by the National Endowment for Democracy.
25

26. Use soft words and
hard arguments.

27. platforms
3
3

29. 29
PUBLICATIONS STORE
Imagined to be a virtual storefront for the growing catalog of publications under IDebate Press, the
publications web store aims to present past, current and upcoming publications, both printed and
electronic in an easy to browse, download and ultimately purchase products of IDebate Press.
Aiming to be the world’s leading provider of books on debate, argumentation and critical thinking
skills, the store was developed under a joint platform with the main IDebate website, allowing for
rapid and easy maintenance, streamlining of the acquisition process as well as providing a path
towards a steadier revenue stream thus leading to increased network financial independence.
The store is presently administered by the IDEA office in New York City.

30. Инспирираме
информирана
дискусија
од 1999-та
година

31. TWITTER DEBATE PLATFORM
Recognized as a communication tool for rapid exchanges, Twitter offers a unique framework with
an advantage towards concise, short and precise renditions. What it lacks, however, is a
structure that would allow the juxtaposition of attitudes.
As part of the communication and development strategy, IDEA SEE developed a set of tools that
harvest, analyze and display tweets organized around specific hashtags. Launched during the
regional AllWeb conference, the initial deployment of the platform allowed for an informed
discussion over Twitter as well as provided a case study for future usage.
31

33. 33
TEXT DEBATING
Supported by the Digital Debating initiative, text based debates completes the array of tools that
would ultimately [adding to vBate and Debatabase] allow full participation of debaters from all over
the world in a communication method best suited to their abilities and requirements, be it audio,
video or text.
Based on an elaborate and fully custom Drupal structure, Text Debating is designed to integrate
with existing and future services within the IDebate ecosystem, and to provide a customizable
platform for text based argumentation in anything from quick debates to elaborate tournaments
such as the annual World Online Debating Championship, organized by IDEA.
The system is built in such a way that would allow it to both source data as well as provide
feedback back to individual systems, including tournament organization and
speaker/team/school activity.

35. MOODLE SSO AUTHENTICATION
During its development work on the IDebate ecosystem, the staff of IDEA SEE were presented with
a challenge to integrate various systems into a single sign-on environment, with a crucial service
being Moodle, a distance learning platform used with various IDEA programs.
The development suite allows the implementation of a Moodle site as a Bakery slave to an existing
Bakery master, where Bakery is a SSO (single sign-on) solution developed for Drupal, allowing for
multiple websites to share the authentication information coming from the Bakery master.
The completed tools were authorized by the Moodle community and published on GitHub.
35

37. BIG ANIMAL RESEARCH DEBATE
The Big Animal Research Debate was a unique public debating project that will took place between
14 and 17 October 2013, during the UK's National Biology Week. During The Big Animal Research
Debate, over 30 student debating societies from universities across the UK and Europe joined
forces to debate a single topic: “This House would ban all forms of animal research.”
The project, administered by IDEA UK, required an elaborate web based platform that would
showcase the various societies, map their efforts and present a unified picture of the happenings
during BARD. Fully designed and developed by IDEA SEE, the website features interactive mapping
and result display.
37

38. Fear not those who
argue but those who dodge.

39. publications
4
4

40. Cover photo of the translated and adapted edition of Arguing for Action

41. ARGUING FOR ACTION
Authored by IDEA UK, the manual “Arguing for Action” was translated to Macedonian and adapted to
local issues. The material was published in print and online edition and was promoted by IDEA SEE
in cooperation with Youth Educational Forum, Open Society Macedonia and USAID.
Behind every move towards equality, human rights, and improving people’s lives, somewhere
there is a great advocate at work. Whether it’s introducing free school meals for low-income
families, building a skate park, saving a local library, or levying a cap on international carbon
emissions, all progress, big or small, is the result of smart, committed, passionate people
convincing those in a position of power to make a change.
This manual is intended as a guide for young people who are thinking of taking on that challenge,
on behalf of their peers and their communities.
41

42. Cover photo of the latest edition of Pharrajimos published in Croatian

43. PHARRAJIMOS
As part of the activities within Croatia’s presidency with the Roma Decade, IDEA SEE translated to
Serbo-Croatian, edited and published the book “Pharrajimos: The Fate of the Roma During the
Holocaust”.
The book was promoted in September during the panel discussion on the topic “Roma and the
Holocaust from the Second World War”. The Roma Holocaust is still unknown to the general public,
therefore, the main objective of the discussion and the book adaptation to SEE region, was to raise
awareness of it, to tell the untold story of the “forgotten holocaust”.
The book offers to the readers’ chronologies of the Pharrajimos in the Third Reich and in Hungary
and general background on the Roma in Europe before and during World War II.
43

44. A selection of posters created in-house for various IDEA events

45. posters
A strong visual presentation and a slightly forgotten art, we use specifically designed posters to
highlight both the programmatic activities of IDEA SEE as well as present a strong statement that
goes further than the initial event and the idea behind it.
As presented, we have accompanied all of the public events during last year with appropriately
designed graphic printed solution.
Among those, a number of public debates on marginalized groups, the celebration of International
Roma Day, as well as a number of partner events.
45

46. A selection of infographics created in-house for various partner and IDEA events

47. infographics
One of the less known aspects of IDEA SEE is the capacity for data visualization. Initially targeted at
debate and argumentation events (ranging as back as WUDC 2011), our team initiates data mining
procedures to harvest numerical and contextual data, analyzes this data and visualizes the
produced output.
This relates to easily understandable data and data relations.
Among others, we have produced infographics and visualizations for several WUDC
championships, local grassroots movements (#protestiram) as well as traditional annual data
visualizations for Argument and Engage, as organized by YEF.
47

48. The best way I know of to
win an argument is to start
by being in the right.

49. cooperation
5

50. 1 2
3 4
1. Debaters are preparing for the upcoming debate round in Speech and Debate competition in Sofia, Bulgaria
2. Debate training for young Roma students in Berovo, Macedonia
3. Debaters preparing their debate case while debate training for young Roma in Berovo, Macedonia
4. Debaters taking notes while one of the debate rounds during Zagreb Open 2013

51. REGIONAL COOPERATION
IDEA SEE is actively involved in debate and media capacity building among the NGO’s in SEE region.
So far we have visited and started initiatives for cooperation with Open Society Albania, Kosovo
Debate Association, ONAuBIH from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Sofia Debate Association from Bulgaria,
Croatian Debating Society, Open Communication and Juzne Vesti from Serbia.
Several activities, project applications, partnerships and workshops are scheduled for 2014, like
possibility of establishing a Debatabase and microsite in Albanian language, discussed with the NGO
FOL from Kosovo as well as cooperation with ONAuBIH from Bosnia and Hercegovina and Juzne Vesti
from Serbia in the media component partnering on Art and Advocacy and Media workshops in
Macedonia, Bosnia and Hercegovina and Serbia.
51

52. Nothing is as frustrating
as arguing with someone who
knows what he's talking about.

53. media
6
3

54. 1 2
3 4
1. Winning team of Zagreb Open 2013 cannot believe that they won the tournament
2. Viktor Prlja, from OK Communication Serbia, giving his speech during finals of Belgrade Open 2013
3. Debaters checking the pairings for the next round during Speech and Debate competition in Sofia, Bulgaria
4. Debater cross-exanimating opponent in Karl Pooper debate tournament at Speech and Debate competition in Sofia, Bulgaria

55. MEDIA
IDEA SEE is actively present and involved at debate and argumentation events and happenings in the
region of Southeast Europe giving support to the activities through complete media coverage.
News, interviews, announcing events, projects and informing on debate, producing photographs,
photo news and reportages as well as producing videos are part of the media services and
knowhow of the staff of IDEA SEE.
Among others, Belgrade Open in Serbia, Sofia Open and Bulgarian Forensics League in Bulgaria and
Zagreb Open in Croatia were fully covered through different types of media by the IDEA SEE team.
55

56. The aim of argument, or
of discussion, should not be victory,
but progress.

57. events
7

58. Mite Kuzevski, Media and Online Community Manager in IDEA SEE, talking about Social
Media ROI and NGOs while panel discussion on Social Media at AllWeb conference

59. ALLWEB TWITTER DEBATE
IDEA SEE in cooperation with IAB Macedonia organized twitter debate during AllWeb conference in
Skopje, Macedonia. “NGOs should invest more time than money to have better Internet presence
and marketing” was the topic of the twitter debate.
IDEA SEE staff also took participation in a panel discussion on Social Media and return of investment
from perspective of international NGO network.
ALLWEB is an Internet marketing and online PR conference held in Macedonia since 2012.
59

60. Celebrities from Roma community teaming up with Roma students
to debate on education on International Roma Day

61. INTERNATIONAL ROMA DAY
61
Public debate on the topic “Non-formal education is more valued on the labor market than formal
education”, screening of the documentary films “The laboratory of success – Romaverzitas” and
“Roma, participants in the National Liberation War”, authored by the famous Roma journalist, actor
and showman Ramush Muarem - Cirko, creation of a comic book entitled “Non-formal vs. Formal
Education“, designed by Roma students, and discussion on the topic of discrimination and
inclusion of the Roma community were part of the activities which IDEA Southeast Europe and
Romaverzitas organized for the celebration of 8th of April, “International Roma Day” in 2013.
The side of formal education in the public debate, was defended by the student of German
language, Elvis Bajram, and the actor Bajram Severdzan – Dr. Koljo. Facing them, on the other side,
the negation team, in defense of formal education, was led by Fikrija Tair, a student of economics,
coupled with Ramush Muarem – Cirko.

62. Promotion of the book “Roma and the Holocaust from the Second World War”,
translated in Croatian by IDEA SEE and panel discussion on Roma Holocaust

63. ROMA HOLOCAUST PANEL DISCUSSION
63
“ Roma and the Holocaust from the Second World War” was the topic for the panel discussion
organized by IDEA Southeast Europe event that gathered the panelists Mr. Ljatif Demir, professor of
Romani language, literature and culture of the Roma people from Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb and
St. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje and Mr. Ramush Muarem – Cirko, journalist (BTR TV).
The discussion focused on the Roma genocide during the Second World War, one of the greatest
losses suffered by the Romani people in Europe, the Romani Holocaust or Samudaripen. The Roma
Holocaust is still unknown to the general public, therefore, the main objective of the discussion was
to raise awareness of it, to tell the untold story of the “forgotten holocaust”.
At the event IDEA Southeast Europe promoted the Croatian translation of “Pharrajimos: The Fate of
the Roma During the Holocaust”, book that offers readers chronologies of the Pharrajimos in the
Third Reich and in Hungary and general background on the Roma in Europe
before and during World War II.

64. Debaters preparing their debate case while debate training
for young Roma in Berovo, Macedonia

65. DEBATE TRAINING FOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN BEROVO
IDEA SEE, in partnership with the local NGO “Roma Information Center” organized introductory
debate training for young Roma students in Berovo.
Over 20 Roma youth participated the training and had the opportunity to learn what debate is,
debate formats and topics, public debate as well as argumentation.
This activity is part of IDEA SEE plans to motivate and help opening Roma debate clubs not only in
Berovo but in other smaller towns in eastern part of Macedonia as well in towns in SEE region
where Roma population is situated.
65

66. Kire Vasilev, political scientist, talking about struggle of the youth in finding job in Macedonia during open debate
discussion “Youth and opportunities for employment in Macedonia”

67. 67
YOUTH AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Open debate discussion on the topic “Youth and opportunities for employment in Macedonia” and
premiere of the documentary movie “Why not me” were part of the activities of the public forum
organized by the European Youth Network “Mladiinfo” in partnership with IDEA SEE.
The 30 minute documentary, part of “Mladiinfo” project with the USA Embassy in Macedonia,
opened the discussion focused on youth employment opportunities by presenting successful
examples through six personal stories.
Panel discussion and debate with the public on the topic followed after the screening.

70. Vanco Ordanoski
Marjan Stojnev
Mite Kuzevski
Daniel Janev
Filip Dzukleski
Vasil Grozdanoski
Goran Igikj
Project Coordinators
board
chairman
executive
director
media
director
graphic
designer
frontend
developer
backend
developer
development
director