Effective and Sustainable Citizen Participation

The project “Effective and Sustainable Citizen Participation” is implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia with the financial support of the Open Society Institute.

The project lead is Center for Management, Development and Planning – MDP Initiatives (Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina), together with its partners Analitika (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Delta (Rijeka, Croatia) and the Citizen Information and Education Centre (Cetinje, Montenegro).

The project aims to strengthen democratic local governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro by supporting citizen participation in decision-making processes.  In particular, project objectives are:

- Develop fact-based, sound policy solution (protocol) to aid local governments in engaging citizens in decision-making processes at the local level.
- Raise awareness among key stakeholders about the importance, possibilities and good regional practices for active and meaningful citizen participation in local government decision-making processes.
- Strengthen the policy-making and advocacy capacities of independent NGOs and experts active in promotion and improvement of participatory practices at the local level in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro.

The main activity of the project is aimed at producing the protocols of engagement. Research is being undertaken to inform and support the creation of the protocols. Advocacy activities will accompany all project activities in order to raise awareness of the key stakeholders, i.e. representatives of governments at all levels and civil society organizations as well as to promote the protocols along with the research results. The policy research report, policy brief and protocols of engagement will be published either in electronic form, available for downloading from partners’ websites, or printed and distributed to the target audiences in each of the three countries. The web publishing and dissemination of produced documents should increase the availability of relevant information, analysis and data on the subject of citizen participation in all involved countries. Ultimately, they should provide for a sound policy-solution which will aid local governments in their attempts to engage citizens in decision-making processes.

Project activities will be realized in the period May 1, 2011 – May 1, 2012, with the total of 99,975 US dollars.

Budget amount for the activities of Analitika: 20.776,00 USD

Donor: Local government and public service reform initiative (LGI)