Within the frame of the project ”Strengthening local participation and cooperation through partnership of Public Authorities and CSOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina – LINK 4 Cooperation” funded by the European Union, first Forum for sharing best practices of CSOs and LAs cooperation was held in Zavidovići on March 17th, 2022.
Forum gathered representatives of the international community and donors and was attended with more than 50 representatives of local authorities and CSOs from Berkovici, Jablanica, Kostajnica, Maglaj, Mostar, Nevesinje, Novi Grad, Prijedor, Ravno, Trebinje, Zavidovici and Zepce, who jointly identified specific challenges of cooperation and expressed readiness to find optimal solutions to strengthen cooperation.
The main event of the Forum was the launch of the ELoGE program of the Council of Europe in Bosnia and Herzegovina designed to support communities in their quest to improve their local government, to be implemented in 12 cities and municipalities. The aim is to conduct self-assessments of these cities and municipalities in accordance with the 12 principles of good democratic governance. The first ELoGE accredited platform in BiH, consisting of representatives of the project consortium, will be continuously available to cities and municipalities in the process of self-assessment in the coming months.
One of the main Forum highlights were three simultaneous workshops gathering representatives of local authorities and the representatives of the local CSOs with the aim to gather as much needed information of the quality and the level of the cooperation between these two sectors.
The Conclusions and Recommendation of the Forum are summed up in the following document.
The LINK 4 Cooperation project is funded by the European Union.
