Fortesa Asani

Researcher at MVDSI.
Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Contemporary Social Sciences.  

About Me

Fortesa Asani is a Research Assistant at the Max van der Stoel Institute. She completed her bachelor’s studies at SEEU and holds an MSc in International, Social and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Chevening Scholar for the 2022-23 cohort. In 2019 she was selected as part of the U.S. Department of States leadership program Community Solutions Program, where she received Executive and Professional Education from George Mason University and completed her internship at The Governance Lab ( based at the New York University).

Prior to joining MVDSI, she worked for several local and international non-governmental organisations like Democracy Lab, Women’s Forum Tetovo, National Youth Council of Macedonia, and Centre for Strategic Research and Documentation (FORUM).

Her research focuses on understanding the most pressing social issues like poverty and inequalities and how social policies can address and tackle these challenges.

News

  • February 2025: I was a guest speaker on the national TV Alsat M to talk about my academic journey (link)
  • November 2024: Organised the event: Philosophical conversation with Sead Zimeri – ” Philosophical tradition and the value system of democracy”.  
  • October 2024: Participated in the regional conference “Exploring Dimensions of Public Management, Policy, and Administration Across Diverse Sectors”, organised by the Faculty of Contemporary Social Sciences, SEEU, and presented the paper “The Role of Social Movements in Municipal-Citizen Collaboration: the Case of North Macedonia”.
  • May 2024: In collaboration with the Faculty of Contemporary Social Sciences (CSS), we organised the Festival “How can we transform our society? Perspectives from academia, civil society and public institutions”. 
  • April 2024: Maida Halimi (CSS Faculty-student) joined the SSG Public and Policy Research Cluster as an intern. 
  • February 2024: Attended the Publication Launch of “The Sustainable Development Goals: How to Accelerate Their Achievement in North Macedonia and Leave No One Behind”, and presented findings for the chapter What Matters is Social Progress in Reducing Inequalities. 
  • September 2023: Participated in the International Conference Social Work and Social Policy in Times of Global Crises