'Political campaign development' training in Montenegro

From 22 to 24 September and from 6 to 8 October, FMS, in cooperation with SDP Montenegro, organised two three-day trainings on "political campaign development". The trainings were aimed at members and supporters of the Social Democratic Party. The party is in dire straits and managed to win zero seats in the last parliamentary elections. The SDP is currently organising its 11th congress, which is to draw up a new strategy for the party's future and elect a new leadership.

The first weekend was dedicated to leadership and public performance. During the seminar, participants were informed about what leadership entails. Different elements and types of public performance were covered, after which the participants got to work themselves with an assignment on different techniques of public performance. The results were then presented to each other. It was concluded on how to develop a communication plan - how to best convey a message.

"Modern campaigning" was the topic of the second weekend. Participants were asked where the party stands now and what they want to achieve. Central questions were how to organise a successful campaign and what elements it consists of. The participants also got to work themselves by brainstorming a campaign plan. How do you reach different target groups, with the same message, but with different approaches so that the message actually comes across?

Participants were generally satisfied with the seminar and expressed their desire to attend more trainings like this one. They all expressed their appreciation that the agenda was not too packed with a variety of content, allowing them to follow the programme closely and absorb what they heard.

SDP concludes that it needs to work harder to strengthen its organisational capabilities. Seminars like this one are a good step in that direction. "We definitely need to do more work on this issue. Since we unfortunately have limited resources, we rely on the support of our international partners and hope to get more opportunities to teach young people the important political skills needed for successful campaigning."

FMS welcomes the cooperation with SDP and wants to continue it wherever possible. Despite the difficult times the SDP has faced in recent years, we recognise that with good ideas and inspiring examples, we can achieve a lot. We will certainly do our best to achieve improvement in political capabilities.