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.

Neither irony orsarcasm is argument.

strategy

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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.

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

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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.

Social Media Strategy

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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.

Google Adwords Strategy

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Behind every argumentis someone's ignorance.

projects

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Ivon Velickovski, President of Liberal party of Macedonia, arguing whythe local governments system is not fit for all Macedonian municipalities

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.

DEBATES_MK

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caption goes hereParticipants of the Global Debate and Public Policy Challenge 2012-2013 actively involved in one of many Digital Freedoms workshops during Budapest Forum

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.

Global Debate & Public Policy Challenge

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

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.

DEBATING CHANGE

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

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.

YOUTH AND POLICE

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

YOUNG ROMA MEDIA CLUB

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

RADIO DEBATES UGD FM

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Use soft words andhard arguments.

3platforms

3

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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.

PUBLICATIONS STORE

Инспирирамеинформиранадискусијаод 1999-тагодина

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.

TWITTER DEBATE PLATFORM

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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.

TEXT DEBATING

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.

MOODLE SSO AUTHENTICATION

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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.

BIG ANIMAL RESEARCH DEBATE

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Fear not those whoargue but those who dodge.

4

publications

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Cover photo of the translated and adapted edition of 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.

ARGUING FOR ACTION

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Cover photo of the latest edition of Pharrajimos published in Croatian

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.

PHARRAJIMOS

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

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.

posters

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

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.

infographics

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The best way I know of towin an argument is to start

by being in the right.

cooperation

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1 2

3 4

1. Debaters are preparing for the upcoming debate round in Speech and Debate competition in Sofia, Bulgaria2. Debate training for young Roma students in Berovo, Macedonia3. Debaters preparing their debate case while debate training for young Roma in Berovo, Macedonia4. Debaters taking notes while one of the debate rounds during Zagreb Open 2013

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.

REGIONAL COOPERATION

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Nothing is as frustratingas arguing with someone who

knows what he's talking about.

3

media

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1 2

3 4

1. Winning team of Zagreb Open 2013 cannot believe that they won the tournament2. Viktor Prlja, from OK Communication Serbia, giving his speech during finals of Belgrade Open 20133. Debaters checking the pairings for the next round during Speech and Debate competition in Sofia, Bulgaria4. Debater cross-exanimating opponent in Karl Pooper debate tournament at Speech and Debate competition in Sofia, Bulgaria

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.

MEDIA

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The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory,

but progress.

events

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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

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.

ALLWEB TWITTER DEBATE

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

INTERNATIONAL ROMA DAY

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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.

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

ROMA HOLOCAUST PANEL DISCUSSION

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“ 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 Europebefore and during World War II.

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

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.

DEBATE TRAINING FOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN BEROVO

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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”

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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.

Vanco OrdanoskiVanco Ordanoski

Marjan StojnevMarjan Stojnev

Mite KuzevskiMite Kuzevski

Daniel JanevDaniel Janev

Filip DzukleskiFilip Dzukleski

Vasil GrozdanoskiVasil GrozdanoskiGoran IgikjGoran Igikj

Project CoordinatorsProject Coordinators

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executivedirector

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