Local Democracy Agency (LDA) Mostar in partnership with the Local Democracy Agency Zavidovici, Local Democracy Agency Prijedor, Center for Development of Herzegovina (CRH) Trebinje, ALDA – European Association for Local Democracy and ALDA Skopje as an associated partner are implementing a three-year project ‘’Strengthening local participation and cooperation through partnership of Public Authorities and CSOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina- LINK 4 Cooperation’’, funded by European Union.
The project promotes principles of good governance with a view to effective and responsive performance of the local government units in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project will empower the capacities of local authorities (elected leaders and civil servants) and civil society in implementing participative processes. Together they will identify concrete problems of the community that will find their solutions thanks to the participative approach.
The overall goal of the project is to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations involved in advocacy processes to become a trained and reliable partner for local authorities to create policies and reforms within BiH.
The purpose of educating citizens is to teach participants better leadership, management and planning skills. Trainers are certified by the Council of Europe (CoE) and use different modules to educate target groups.
The LINK4Cooperation project provides an opportunity to promote successful initiatives which originated from civil society organizations or informal groups, that have brought progress.
The installation of smart benches is planned in the third project year (2023), when the realization of at least one initiative is planned, using this way of mobilizing target project groups.
For the conception of this project, Local Democracy Agency Mostar (LDA Mostar) together with the project partners LDA Prijedor, LDA Zavidovici, Center for Development of Herzegovina, ALDA, and ALDA Skopje, have formed a diversified and complementary consortium of partners in order to maximize the impact of the action in each component. This valuable network has been shaped through various ties and relations built throughout the years: LDAs and ALDA are linked by a crossed and long term partnership and cooperation on different project and initiatives from more than 20 years; LDAs from Bosnia and the Center for Development of Herzegovina have joint contacts and previous work in different spheres, from local development, local communities initiatives, activities related to youth and other groups in the civil society, culture activities, and many others. The project has been co-constructed by the consortium taking into account the specific expertise of each partner focusing on promoting good governance at local level in Europe and in Western Balkans.