In 1800, the region of modern-day North Macedonia had a population of approximately 392,000. The population grew steadily throughout the 19th century, and reached approximately 800,000 by the beginning of the 20th century. During this time the region was under Ottoman control, and was something of an ethnic melting pot, with significant shares of the population made up of Macedonians, Greeks, Turks, as well as other Slavic groups. The early-1900s saw control of the region pass between various powers, as the Ottoman Empire fell and gave way to a power vacuum in the Balkans. Following the Second World War, North Macedonia became a part of Yugoslavia; the war's end would also see a baby boom, along with increased population growth throughout the second half of the 20th century.

The gradual dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s gave way to the establishment of an independent Macedonia in 1991. This time also saw much emigration from the region, both within the former-region of Yugoslavia, as well as abroad; international migration was largely driven by economic factors, especially due to those associated with independence, as well as those associated with the strained political relationship with Greece. Disputes with Greece over the terms "Macedonia", "Macedonians", and their cultural significance, resulted in Greece blocking the country's applications to join the EU and NATO. Non-membership of both these organizations prevented the country from obtaining the associated socio-economic benefits for decades, before a referendum was held in 2018 to officially change the name to the "Republic of North Macedonia". Since this time, Greece has withdrawn its objections to North Macedonia's accession to the the EU and NATO, and the relationship between the two has improved. North Macedonia became a member of NATO in March 2020, however disputes with Bulgaria arose in November of the same year, which have further delayed accession to the EU. Over the past two decades, North Macedonia's population has grown, although it has remained fairly constant at just over two million people.

Abstract

The STEP (Skills Toward Employment and Productivity) Measurement program is the first ever initiative to generate internationally comparable data on skills available in developing countries. The program implements standardized surveys to gather information on the supply and distribution of skills and the demand for skills in labor market of low-income countries.

The uniquely-designed Household Survey includes modules that measure the cognitive skills (reading, writing and numeracy), socio-emotional skills (personality, behavior and preferences) and job-specific skills (subset of transversal skills with direct job relevance) of a representative sample of adults aged 15 to 64 living in urban areas, whether they work or not. The cognitive skills module also incorporates a direct assessment of reading literacy based on the Survey of Adults Skills instruments. Modules also gather information about family, health and language.

Geographic coverage

Urban areas

Analysis unit

The units of analysis are the individual respondents and households. A household roster is undertaken at the start of the survey and the individual respondent is randomly selected among all household members 18 (in Macedonia case) to 64 years old (included). The random selection process was designed by the STEP team and compliance with the procedure is carefully monitored during fieldwork.

Universe

The target population for the Macedonia STEP survey comprises all non-institutionalized persons 15 to 64 years old living in private dwellings in urban areas of the country at the time of data collection. This includes all residents except foreign diplomats and non-nationals working for international organizations.

Persons 15-17 years old were not explicitly included in the sample frame due to the fact that they do not have the right to vote in the Republic of Macedonia. The sampling frame was electoral polling stations listing. This group of 15 to 17 year old persons is most probably living in a dwelling with a person who is 18 to 64 years old and therefore the 15 to 17 year old persons are likely present in the target dwellings.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Stratified 3-stage sample design was implemented in Macedonia, FYR. The stratification objective was to obtain an approximately proportional sample from two ethnic groups, Macedonian and Albanian. To meet this objective, the sample was stratified by seven ethnic groups based on the proportion of Macedonian voters in each primary sampling unit (PSU).

The primary sample unit (PSU) was an electoral polling station. The sample frame was a list of 1,280 electoral polling stations, which was updated at the time of the 2011 Elections in Macedonia.

The first stage units were selected by a World Bank survey methodologist. The sampling objective was to select 289 PSUs, comprised of 268 initial PSUs and 21 reserve PSUs. Although 289 PSUs were selected, only 268 PSUs were activated; none of the 21 reserve PSUs was activated during data collection. The PSUs were selected using a systematic probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling method, where the measure of size was the number of registered voters aged 18 to 64 in a PSU. Each PSU was uniquely defined by the sample frame variable 'PSUsmpID'.

The second stage sample unit (SSU) is a household. The sampling objective was to obtain interviews at 15 households within each selected PSU. A Macedonian survey firm conducted field listing within each selected PSU. The survey team expected the non-response rate to be in the range of 30% to 50%. In order to allow for a low response rate, a sample of 45 households was selected in each PSU using a systematic random method.

The third stage sample unit was an individual 15-64 (inclusive) years old. The sampling objective was to select one individual with equal probability from each selected household.

Total of 4,000 households in the initial sample were divided into Albanian strata (1,200) and Macedonian strata (2,800).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The STEP survey instruments include:

• The background questionnaire developed by the World Bank (WB) STEP team
• Reading Literacy Assessment developed by Educational Testing Services (ETS).

All countries adapted and translated both instruments following the STEP technical standards: two independent translators adapted and translated the STEP background questionnaire and Reading Literacy Assessment, while reconciliation was carried out by a third translator.

The survey instruments were piloted as part of the survey pre-test.

The background questionnaire covers such topics as respondents' demographic characteristics, dwelling characteristics, education and training, health, employment, job skill requirements, personality, behavior and preferences, language and family background.

In Macedonia, the survey firm implemented a partial Literacy Assessment design. The partial assessment required each selected person to attempt to complete a General Booklet comprising Reading Components and a set of Core Literacy items.

The background questionnaire, the structure of the Reading Literacy Assessment and Reading Literacy Data Codebook are provided in the document "Macedonia, FYR STEP Skills Measurement Survey Instruments", available in external resources.

Cleaning operations

STEP data management process:

1) Raw data is sent by the survey firm 2) The World Bank (WB) STEP team runs data checks on the background questionnaire data. Educational Testing Services (ETS) runs data checks on the Reading Literacy Assessment data. Comments and questions are sent back to the survey firm. 3) The survey firm reviews comments and questions. When a data entry error is identified, the survey firm corrects the data. 4) The WB STEP team and ETS check if the data files are clean. This might require additional iterations with the survey firm. 5) Once the data has been checked and cleaned, the WB STEP team computes the weights. Weights are computed by the STEP team to ensure consistency across sampling methodologies. 6) ETS scales the Reading Literacy Assessment data. 7) The WB STEP team merges the background questionnaire data with the Reading Literacy Assessment data and computes derived variables.

Detailed information on data processing in STEP surveys is provided in "STEP Guidelines for Data Processing" document, available in external resources. The template do-file used by the STEP team to check raw background questionnaire data is provided as an external resource, too.

Response rate

An overall response rate of 66.9% was achieved in the Macedonia STEP Household Survey. Table 18 in "STEP Weighting Procedures Summary, Macedonia, FYR" provides the response rate by stratum.

In the search for democratic solutions to global conflicts over the last two decades, one model of post-conflict governance has prevailed. power-sharing. Consociational power-sharing entails the representation and participation of major societal groups in the process of governing. Governmance based on consociational principles has facilitated war-to-peace transition in some of the world's most deeply divided places, from Burundi to Lebanon, Kosovo, Macedonia, Northern ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Iraq. Yet, while consociational power-sharing has been heralded as a democratic and inclusive approach to managing ethnic difference, it faces a significant trade-off. For the system to stabilise and pacify divided societies, it must marginalise those actors who were not directly involved in the conflict. By making inclusion of the dominant groups in society central to democratic governance, power-sharing excludes other groups who align with alternative identities. Our project addressed this inherent dilemma in power-sharing of exclusion amid inclusion (EAI Dilemma). We have investigated the institutional bias in power-sharing systems in favour of large groups over “non-dominant minorities” who are not explicitly included in the settlement, such as non-ethnic collectives, women and migrant communities. This project sought solutions to this democratic deficit in post-conflict societies. from over 100 interviews with primarily, political elites and members of civil society across Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Lebanon and North Macedonia we identifed how power-sharing arrangements can be designed, refined and improved in ways that address the EAI problem.In 2009 the European Court of Human Rights ruled 14-3 that Bosnia-Herzegovina's election rules for its tripartite presidency, which allow only Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats, and Bosnian Serbs to stand for election, were discriminatory against other minority groups, namely the Roma and Jewish communities. This is because Bosnia's constitutional framework, alongside the presidential arrangement, is designed to accommodate and include the three constituent peoples but not members who prefer not to identify in terms of three ethnic groups. While this was thought necessary to end the 1992-5 war (Weller and Wolff 2005), it has forestalled the consolidation of democracy and has marginalised individuals and groups who do not identify with the three dominant communities. As Jakob Finci, the leader of Bosnia's Jewish community who took the case to the ECHR, noted in response to the ruling, Bosnia's institutional rules are "a problem of injustice that divides Bosnian people into first and second class citizens" (Balkanist 2015). Power-sharing, which entails the representation and participation of major societal (ethnic) actors in the process of governing, has been adopted in places as diverse as Burundi, Lebanon, Kosovo, Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Iraq and has facilitated a war-to-peace transition in some of the world's most deeply divided places. However, while power-sharing is often heralded as a democratic and inclusive approach to managing ethnic difference, it faces a significant trade-off. For power-sharing to create stability and pacify the divided groups, it must marginalise those actors who were not directly involved in conflict, who we refer to as non-dominant groups. As part of this project, we identify three kinds of non-dominant groups who were neglected in the original design of power-sharing institutions and remain on the sidelines of postconflict politics: non-ethnic minorities, re-aligned minorities, and micro-minorities. We refer to this institutional bias in favour of large groups as the "exclusion amid inclusion" (EAI) dilemma. We seek to answer the following research question: How can power-sharing arrangements best be implemented to account for the EAI problem? This research project is designed to confront the EAI dilemma and offer feasible and viable recommendations for its resolution. We seek to answer the following research question: How can power-sharing arrangements best be implemented to account for the EAI problem? We answer this question through a threefold methodological approach. We shall conduct 1) a macro-political analysis of power-sharing institutions to assess their ability to redress the EAI dilemma, 2) four comparative case studies (Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon and Macedonia) investigating the relationship between the inclusion of dominant groups and the exclusion of non-dominant groups, employing a "structured, focused" method of comparison (George and Bennett 2005), and 3) semi-structured interviews with politicians from parties that participate in power-sharing and from parties that struggle for legislative representation, community activists from the three kinds of non-dominant groups identified, and representatives of international organisations engaged in democracy promotion and conflict resolution. Overall, we assess the experiences of states engaged in power-sharing in order to develop a series of policy proposals for modifying the institutional framework to accommodate identity groups that have either been marginalised under the initial institutional design, or who have emerged during the period of peace. This is of timely relevance: our conceptual framework can be extended to societies beyond our comparative cases where peace is marred by episodic violence, frozen conflict, and/or active violent conflict between the dominant groups, but also affecting the non-dominant groups.