Print page

Local community tailored to the needs of citizens

Article, 25.10.2016

Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who participated in the meetings on modelling the vision of local community (MZ) want to see a strong, modern, and financially stable local community, which will include all layers of society and be at service to citizens. At the same time, they are aware that their relationship to the local community has to change – the citizens need to be more actively involved in its work, in volunteerism and in providing support to the most vulnerable population.

Strengthening the role of local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina_MZ_Certification
Citizens engaged in the work of local community www.cerimagic.ba

Over the past three months first working meetings with the representatives of local authorities, local communities, civil society organisations, businesses and other stakeholders relevant to the work of local communities were held in 13 partner municipalities within the joint project of the Governments of Switzerland and Sweden „Strengthening the role of local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina“. Meetings were hosted by the selected local self-governments: Bijeljina, Gračanica, Gradačac, Gradiška, Ključ, Kotor Varoš, Laktaši, Petrovo, Sanski Most, Stari Grad Sarajevo, Tešanj, Žepče and Brčko District.

These meetings were attended by more than four hundred people, of which one third were women, and a large number of representatives of minorities and marginalised groups. The vision of future local communities was defined in the meetings, and citizens and their representatives were given the opportunity to directly propose future local community models, discuss the most effective forms of local community response to citizens' needs, and at the same time, to explore long-term solutions for improving the infrastructure and services at the local community level.

„Strengthening the role of local communities in BiH“ is implemented by the UNDP BiH in partnership with the BiH Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of Republika Srpska, the Ministry of Justice of the Federation of BiH, the Government of Brčko District and associations of municipalities and cities from both Entities. It includes 23 local government units and their 125 local communities, as partners in the first phase of the project.

Citizens being encouraged to take initiative and ownership and to be more actively involved in finding the form of local community that best suits them, is one of the most important results of the first phase of the project. Accordingly, the discussions in the meetings developed around these issues: the need to revitalise the role of local community and address the issue of their legal status, since under the current entity laws on local self-governments they are defined differently. Local community in the FBiH is a mandatory form of local self-government, in Brčko District it is defined as a citizen association linked to a particular territory, while in Republika Srpska it is not a mandatory form of association.

Strengthening the role of local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina_MZ_Certification
Participants at trainings on project cycle management and computer literacy © UNDP BiH

Thus, residents of local communities in the Federation believe that local communities should have a legal personality, that is, not only a seal but also an act of incorporation, a bank account and its own budget in order to apply for various projects, which would help the work of local communities. To this end, it requires financial stability and autonomy in decision-making, while citizens need to be educated for more active involvement in its work. Most local communities lack financial resources. Also, they are frequently facing the lack of willingness among its residents to volunteer.

According to some opinions, lack of financial resources is a reason more to reduce the excessive number of local communities in some municipalities. Due to lack of funding, citizens are not interested in doing any work with the local community and, as a result, there were some local communities where nobody wanted to be elected a president thereof. As concluded in the meetings, the common problems all local communities. Are face with are inadequate communal infrastructure, lack of social services in rural local communities, unemployment and insufficient involvement of young people and women, what are all very important factors for prosperity of the local community.

Similar concerns were reported in the meetings held in RS municipalities, where most suggestions were related to the status of the local community which is based on volunteerism. According to the citizens in RS, the status of local community needs to be changed, for currently it does not have any power. There is no (physical) space and contents for associations, and there is evident lack of well-kept sports grounds and facilities for young people. According to citizens in RS a better communication and trust between local communities and the municipality is required as well as reducing inequalities between rural and urban local communities.

As for Brčko District, local communities are functioning as citizens' associations, and this is the very thing that the citizens would like to see changed first. The lack of involvement of local communities in decision-making, numerous municipal and other problems, the marginalisation of the local community, the budget of local community are all the problems that need to be addressed by future local community models.

In addition, in September 2016, as a part of the project „Strengthening the role of local communities in BiH”, the project cycle management (PCM) courses titled „Project Proposal Writing According to EU Methodology“ were delivered as well as a training on Computer Literacy Diploma, an internationally recognised certificate of computer literacy. The training included 76 local communities of the first project cohort, with a total of 289 participants.

Regional meetings on modelling the vision of local community in BiH will be held in the forthcoming period in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Mostar, Bihać, Bijeljina, Trebinje and Brčko.

Start of page
Last update 27.11.2017