Irina Pockova is the political and women rights activists. She is prominent leader at local level. She is the former Chairwomen of Women’s Chapter of SDA political party in Sveti Nikola and long standing political activists with social democratic political views.

She holds a master degree in economy from the University of Macedonia. Her particular focus is on finances and accounting and she was successful in using her expertise on policies and mainstreaming of gender budgeting.

She has been active in local government in Macedonia since 1985. She was Director of Public Revenue for the municipality of Sveti Nikola as well as President of the City Council. Since 2001 she has been President of the Sveti Nikole Women’s Citizen Initiative. She has consulted and cooperated with projects run by international agencies such as USAID. Her interests lie in gender budgeting and local economic development strategies. She has written books on investing and business opportunities as well as a textbook on taxes.

Teuta graduated philology at the University of Prishtina in 1991, while in 1995 obtained MA degree in Philosophy, from Ss. Cyril & Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia. She also holds PhD degree in Philology from the Ss. Cyril & Methodius University in Skopje. She was Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia in charge of European Affairs in July 2011 till March 2013. She has extensive political background as she was the first Albanian woman to be elected in the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia in 2002. She served as parliamentarian in several terms in 2006, 2008, and 2011. She was the Chair of Committee for Foreign Affairs, Chair of the Committee for Cultural Affairs, and member of the Delegation of the Macedonian Parliament to the Council of Europe, Head of the Macedonian Parliamentary Delegation to NATO. She is Vice-President of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), key political party of the Albanians in Macedonia. With renowned academic background she is one of the key founders and professors of the Southeast European University (SEEU) in Tetovo and professor at the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius.

Her international experience includes a number of significant assignments as Member of the Research Team of the Peace Institute, University of Hamburg, concerning the work of High Commissioner of Minorities in OSCE; Member of the Advisory Board of the Team tasked with research of the position of minorities in Southern Europe, CEI-Budapest; Member of the Bureau of the Steering Committee on equality of Council of Europe, Strasbourg; Member of OSCE team for observation of parliamentary elections in Albania in 1995; Member of the Delegation of the Republic of Macedonia to the 4th World Conference on Women Rights, Beijing; and Member of the Macedonian Delegation to OSCE, Vienna, working group on Human Dimension.

Savka Todorovska is a prominent leader of civil society in North Macedonia and one of most strong voices on women’s rights and gender equality. She is well known expert and trainer serving to empower women and women’s agenda. She has been an expert for social development – UNESCO certificate, trainer for organizational development of NGO – Delphi Star certificate, trainer for management – NMCP Holland certificate, Trainer for operators for SOS lines – SOS Belgrade certificate, trainer for trafficking in Human Beings – University of North London and IOM certificate, expert and educator for political empowerment of women – USAID certificate. She has also been a trainer for group leading – Center for mental health certificate, as well as trainer for women’s health – International Medical Committee certificate. Furthermore, she was a Women Can Do It Trainer – Norwegian People’s Aid certificate and a trainer for gender – Macedonia Centre for International Cooperation certificate. In addition, she was a trainer for Advocacy and Lobbying – MCIC certificate.