Building a stronger partnership between government and the civil sector key to community development
The City of Trebinje and the Municipality of Ravno have been long-term partners of the “Center for Development of Herzegovina (CRH)” in the implementation of a large number of projects. These two communities are also territorially dependent on each other and share many good things, but also those that can disrupt normal life such as fires and other natural disasters. Both Trebinje and Ravno are located in the hinterland of Dubrovnik and the Republic of Croatia, so they are among the areas sensitive to all the changes brought by emergencies such as the one with the pandemic that has complicated labour mobility. Tourism and agriculture are also determinants that define, perhaps more, the economy of Ravno than Trebinje, but certainly economic branches important for both of these communities located in the very south of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The fact that they are in administratively different systems should be an additional reason for their current and future cooperation because there are many parts of their life together and outside the complex political apparatus of BiH. Precisely because of that, it was quite pragmatic to map these two communities among the 12 where the “Link4Cooperation” project will be implemented.
On the other hand, CRH has not cooperated more intensively with the Municipality of Berkovići so far, and this local community has imposed itself as a challenge both for the processes that will take place through this project and for building a stronger partnership between government and the civil sector in general.
Due to all the above, the part of the consortium that will be coordinated by CRH is only seemingly unbalanced, but if we take into account that the project “Link4Cooperation” is a practical model of “learning process from everyone” then it is possible to guess why the applicant and CRH chose these communities. Trebinje is the most populous (30,000 inhabitants) and most developed community in the eastern part of Herzegovina and, as such, one of the most developed in the Republika Srpska. On the other hand, the other two “members” of the consortium have noteworthy agricultural resources. Ravno is a pioneer in the process of consolidation of agricultural land and that process is coming to an end, while other much more developed agricultural communities in the region have not even started consolidation. Trebinje has a developed non-governmental sector, and Ravno and Berkovići have yet to work on creating a more favorable environment for the development of civil society. And there are more than enough reasons to involve these communities in the ”Link4Cooperation” project, funded by European Union.
City of Trebinje, Republika Srpska, https://trebinje.rs.ba/
Mirko Ćurić, Mayor
Municipality of Ravno, FBiH, https://ravno.gov.ba/
Andrija Šimunović, Mayor
Municipality of Berkovići, Republika Srpska, https://www.opstinaberkovici.com/
Nenad Abramović, Mayor
