4.6 Mission to Skopje women to be better orientated in the male-dominated working environment, recognise and overcome obstacles in relationships with colleagues, and identify opportunities which may lead to their professional self-development, at the same time encouraging gender equality in the working place. The Mission is implementing this project in co-operation with the Women’s Section in the MPU. The selection board composed of two Mission and two MPU representatives selected 24 mentors. Mentoring Training will be the next step of the selection process bringing together mentors and mentees to start the mentorship programme. From 27 to 29 November, the Mission, in co-operation with the Macedonian Police Union conducted a three-day workshop composed of two modules for the 24 selected mentors. The first module included gender-equality at the work place and served as a common starting point for a further two-day module which focused on mentoring skills. The workshop showed that the Mentoring Programme should bear in mind that mentors as well as mentees need continuous support. Whereas mentors are perceived as accomplished women and have pride in their achievements, they still need support in striking a healthy work-life balance. Additionally, awareness-raising for police decision makers on gender issues would have a direct positive impact on the Mentoring Programme success. The project will continue in 2018 with the implementation of the second phase which encompasses selection of mentees, pairing mentors and mentees and conducting mentoring work on increasing the capacities of both, mentors and mentees. Community Policing, Police-Public Relations and Crime Prevention By 15 September, the quantitative part of the 2017 Public Perception Survey on Democratic Policing was completed. It started on 22 August and included interviews with 2600 citizens and 500 police officers countrywide. The interviews were conducted by an external service provider selected by the Mission. The interviews with the police officers were fully supported by the Mission counterparts from the Section for Strategic Planning, Standards and Quality Control within the Bureau for Public Security. Co-operation with the commanders of police stations and police officers were assessed as very good, and the interviews were conducted efficiently, paving the way for the qualitative part of the Survey. By 4 October, the qualitative part of the 2017 aforementioned Public Perception Survey was completed. The survey included focus group discussions with citizens and focus group discussions with police officers. The organization of the interviews with the police officers was fully supported by the Mission counterparts from the MoIA. The main 94 aim of the survey is to provide a platform for assessing the Mission’s effectiveness in the area of democratic policing and to adjust internal police programming, with the ultimate goal to support the MoIA in fine-tuning the application of democratic policing principles within their Public Safety Programme. On 6 December, the Mission organized a workshop on the occasion of the “9th December – Police Prevention Day” in SIA Strumica. The workshop was attended by the mayor of Strumica, SIA Strumica and Mission representatives. The workshop in Strumica was followed by a workshop in Kumanovo, organized on 7 December. The event was attended by the Mission representatives, Mayor of Kumanovo, presidents of the municipal councils, representatives of the Public Prosecution Office in Kumanovo, the Ombudsman, NGOs, the Red Cross, the Education sector, State Education Inspectorate, Bureau for Educational Development, the Principals and all the associates from the primary and secondary schools. The main focus of both the workshops was on the Local Prevention Council (LPC) program, recognized as a tool for crime prevention and early identification instrument of local problems in partnership with local communities. On 14 December, the Mission held a roundtable in Skopje to promote an inter-institutional response for a safe Skopje. The roundtable was addressed by the Minister of the Interior, Head of OSCE Mission to Skopje and the Head of SIA Skopje. The roundtable was also attended by police representatives from the city of Skopje, representatives of local self-government, the religious communities and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. The primary purpose of the roundtable was to foster and encourage better interinstitutional co-operation between the municipalities and the police, with the overall aim to further enhance the safety of the citizens of Skopje. An Investigation Check List for the investigation and prosecution of incidents of hate crimes, developed by the Mission in collaboration with MoIA, was launched at a side event of the roundtable. Hate Crime On 27 April, the Mission conducted a joint workshop for police and public prosecutors in relation to the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. The workshop was attended by 12 representatives from the office of the public prosecutor and 12 representatives from the criminal police and analytics section of the MoIA. The aim of the workshop was to establish and identify areas of co-ordination and co-operation between the respective state agencies. The Mission outlined the various developments in the area of hate crimes relevant to both police and prosecutors. The workshop was attended