The Consumers’ Organization of Macedonia together with two partner organizations Zenith and Creation, strives to improve the relationship between consumers and the business community by issuing the certificate “FAIR WITH THE CONSUMER”. This certificate can get a company which will accomplish the proposed six criteria with appropriate indicators for achieving the results.
The COM and partners organisations certified more than 43 companies and they can be find at the following link and platform: https://fersopotrosuvacot.mk/web/.
Within the Project “Development of Partnerships between Civil Society and the Business Sector” funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) ), which is implemented through ConWeb, a network of national consumer organizations in Southeast Europe consisting of the Center for Consumer Protection of Montenegro (CEZAP), the Consumer Organization of Macedonia (OPM) and the National Consumer Organization of Serbia (NOPS ). COM has organizes a training on 29.09.2021 for members of the certification bodies for awarding the certificate “FAIR WITH THE CONSUMER” by CEZAP and NOPS.
The Training held online through the ZOOM platform was attended by about 22 representatives of the three organizations: Consumer Organization of Macedonia (OPM), Center for Consumer Protection of Montenegro (CEZAP) and National Consumer Organization of Serbia (NOPS ).
Тraining was intended to reach out the objective of strengthening CSOs ’capacities for service provision to companies in developing and promoting their corporate social responsibility in the fields of consumer issues, and consumption-related environmental issues and to be established certification bodies by CEZAP and NOPS. Participants of CEZAP and NOPS had the opportunity to receive knowledge with objective of getting to know the essence of corporate social responsibility, especially in protecting consumer rights and interests, as well as in consumer-related environmental issues (eg energy and resource intensity of home appliances, provided information to consumers on environmental impacts of their purchasing decisions, or information on proper disposal or reuse of products at the end of their life cycle) as well in the domain of amicablly solving problems with consumers.
Mr.Risto Ivanov, PhD an expert in the field, explained to the future verifiers of the companies that will apply for certification. the benefits from the certificate, the certification scheme for companies, the role of the certification bodies how to check adherence to the criteria in practice, how to prepare a plan for improvement for the companies and how to prepare a verification report.
After the training, participants had a test and evaluation of test results and the participants received the certificate for becoming a verifiers of companies.
The participants in the training expressed their gratitude to the donors Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN), who fund this project and support this initiative.