Moderator: Emil Atanasovski

Emil Atanasovski is responsible for managing Westminster Foundation for Democracy regional Western Balkans programme. The Western Balkans Democracy Initiative (WBDI) works with eight parliaments, public institutions, political parties and civil society organisations across six Western Balkan countries to improve advancement of women political participation, engaging young people in politics and persons with disability in political processes. WBDI also supports work on modernising political parties in the Western Balkans. Emil  oversees the work of individual WFD country offices in Albania, BiH, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo. He has implemented work for the foundation in the Western Balkan region for nearly eight years. He has close to 20 years of experience in the field of international development with a specific focus on parliamentary strengthening, political party and electoral support and has managed multiple democracy assistance programmes in Europe the Middle East and South-East Asia. Before joining WFD, Emil worked for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for nearly seven years in North Macedonia, Pakistan and Iraq where he principally managed projects aimed to support the development of national and regional parliaments. In addition, Emil has extensive experience on electoral assistance and election monitoring programmes and has worked for OSCE/ODIHR and UNDP.