The Center for Civic Cooperation Livno and the Association of Citizens “Grahovo” from Bosansko Grahovo in the period March 2 – 11, 2021 held online meetings in 10 municipalities/cities, the area where the project “Together for local development” will be implemented in the next 5 years. The project is part of the Snaga lokalnog program implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the support of the United States Agency for International Development/USAID.
Meetings were held in Posušje, Široki Brijeg, Glamoč, Grude, Ljubuški, Bosansko Grahovo, Drvar, Livno, Tomislavgrad and Kupres.
Representatives of local self-government, local communities, civil society organizations and local private/public companies participated at the meetings. The goal of the meetings was to formally unite the four actors in the Local development network in each of the ten municipalities/cities. Local development networks will serve all actors of society and contribute to better cooperation, partnership, exchange of information and joint action in order to initiate local development, solve local problems and community needs.
“Stakeholders of local development, municipal administration and development departments, local communities, associations or civil society organizations and local businesspersons are invited to join the Local development networks in their municipalities/cities by signing a Memorandum of Cooperation which symbolizes official membership in the Network and enables the exchange of information, education, application for grants that will be available within the project “Together for Local Development” as well as other projects,” said Zulka Baljak, Executive Director of the Center for Civic Cooperation and introduced the participants to the activities and goals of the project. Also, she introduced the part of the project related to entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and social enterprises and the support that will be provided through this project for four business plans with which associations will be able to apply.
With a five-year support within the project “Together for Local Development”, we will work capacity building of civil society organizations that will be leaders of Local Development Networks in each of 10 municipalities/cities and ultimately strengthen drivers and leaders of local development.
With many years of work in the NGO sector and experience in local communities, Ivica Sivrić, from REDAH (Regional Development Agency for Herzegovina), an agronomist and activist, spoke about the possibilities of locally guided development through examples and experiences in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The project and the Local Development Networks are an opportunity to create a foundation of development at the municipal/city level that will, through cooperation and partnership, result in positive changes in the community. Five years is a sufficient period for the process of creating a favorable climate and trust, which is inevitable. People are the basic resource, and through networking, cooperation and partnership, by working together and efficiently, we can create social capital and start the development of the local communities”.
“Nowadays, many calls for project proposals are available, and there will be more and more of them in the future, and we must be ready, organized and trained to be competitive in applying for projects!”, said Danka Zelić, President of the Association of Citizens “Grahovo” and pointed out that the project “Together for Local Development” and the Local Development Networks are an excellent opportunity that community actors must recognize and use and participate in the development of the local community.
In a period of three months, CGS and Association of Citizens “Grahovo” conducted a survey in 10 municipalities and interviewed four groups of local actors in order to get more information on the current situation and needs, as well as starting points of cooperation. The main conclusion of the research is that local development stakeholders individually do not have enough capacity and resources to initiate local development, but by joining the network mechanism in municipalities/cities and thus uniting capacities and resources at their disposal, they can jointly initiate locally driven development.” said Ivona Mišković, project and media coordinator of “Together for Local Development”. She also added that a website, which will serve as a service and instrument to citizens, local actors and local development networks, for information exchange, promotion and as a database will soon be available for the public.
The analysis of the answers is presented in the brochure “Mapping the resources and capacities of local development stakeholders” which you can download HERE.
Within the project “Together for Local Development” training for members of the Local Development Network on topics of their choice will be organized in the coming period.
All interested local development stakeholders from the ten mentioned municipalities/cities (West Herzegovina Canton and Canton 10) can contact the Center for Civic Cooperation via e-mail: cgs-li@tel.net.ba or by phone: 034/202 -770 for more information and instructions on joining the Local Development Networks.
