Within the Local Works Capacity Development Activity, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is helping to strengthen local actions created by citizens to address specific issues, improve general living conditions in the community, city, and ultimately positive impact on the overall situation in the country.
Through carefully designed mentoring support provided to civil society organizations by the Institute for Youth Development KULT, with the support of USAID Bosnia and Herzegovina, within the Local Works activities, contributes to strengthening their internal organizational capacity. Mentoring support provided by the Institute includes several components such as: making recommendations based on organizational capacity assessment, developing a plan for improving organizational capacity with annual action plans, organizing thematically different trainings tailored to the needs of civil society organizations.
During the five-year duration of the program, it is planned to organize regular trainings aimed at strengthening the capacity of representatives of organizations operating within the Local Works, but also other interested civil society organizations, dedicated to capacity development. Training topics were defined programmatically, based on the needs of organizations, and some of them were selected based on feedback evaluation questionnaires completed by participants after each training. Thus, participants who participated in all trainings had the opportunity to learn more about project cycle management, advocacy and lobbying, practical advice for data collection and processing, policy development and creation, legal and organizational structures, financial management, monitoring and evaluation, etc.
In the past period, a total of eight three-day trainings and two one-day workshops were realized, which were attended by representatives of civil society organizations from different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the end of the current year, another training is planned, regarding procurement procedures, recognized as indispensable for representatives of the NGO sector, as such processes occur daily and are subject to frequent changes.
The goal of all trainings is to create conditions for organizational sustainability and capacity building that will lead to this along with other systematic and carefully planned processes. We spoke with some of the participants in the training and also representatives of partner organizations within the USAID/LWCDA activities that work every day to improve living conditions in their local communities.
The social education center for open education and lifelong learning AGORA operates in the Tuzla area and since 2020 has been participating in activities implemented within the Local Works. The motivation of the AGORA employees to continue working and acting despite the difficult situation due to the coronavirus pandemic is evidenced by the almost complete change in the concept of business and adaptation to new circumstances and working conditions. In that process, the mentoring and technical support of the Local Works project team was indispensable.
“Completing the questionnaire within the organization’s self-assessment led us to think differently about our organization and its work process. The trainings we attend are useful, and every training is different and adapted to the situations we encounter. Since we are a center that basically deals with non-formal education, in addition to the training itself, we are trying to learn something new when it comes to communication and presentation skills that could be applied in the center. In addition, we had the opportunity to meet people from different organizations from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are plenty organizations that do similar things and it is useful when we have the opportunity to share information. The topics covered so far have been very good, and I must point out that I am especially looking forward to the strategic planning training“, said Vedrana Dautović, Secretary of the Agora Center.
The Tuzla Active Communities Network, as an important benefit of the training, states the possibility of establishing business contacts and networking with other organizations of the same or similar activities.
“At each training, we meet a new organization that implements similar activities as we do or an organization with which there is a possibility of potential cooperation. After completing approximately 7-8 trainings I can say that we have learned a lot. I think it is very important that KULT always asks us for feedback, and they did the same with the choice of topics for trainings. Based on our daily needs, we have detected topics of interest and now, in essence, the answers to our requests are coming true. Given the experience and expertise, KULT knows what we need, so all we have been through are new things we need or we have realized what we need to work on more. We in the Network have many challenges in the administrative segment of the business because we are committed to field operations, which is why it can happen that the administrative part of our work is challenging to realize on time. By acquiring knowledge from training, strategic planning and new business systems, we are able to simplify processes and make it easier to arrive on time,” said Anita Šimić, Secretary General of the Tuzla Active Communities Network.
Although relatively young, the Association for Education and Development “Dignitet” Mostar gathers a team of people with more than 15 years of experience in the sector, and is actively working on improving their internal administration.
“We are happy because we have a partner who will also be a mentor, and based on our self-assessment and other evaluations, suggest a number of steps for improvement. Trainings are very useful because they contribute to the development of the organization. For example, project cycle writing is something we do very often, but I must point out that attending a training on this topic was very useful for us. The trainings we attend are a living process, based on discussions, and we communicate with each other and exchange useful information, which leads to the connection of communities. Communication of people gathered around a similar idea is a very good thing, and I can already see the potential future cooperation of Dignitet with other organizations. Through the acquired knowledge, we directly strengthen the organization, but through connecting with others, we indirectly contribute to the development of certain strategies as state documents in front of the non-governmental sector,” said Edisa Demić, president of the Dignitet Mostar Association.
Rowing Club “RAMA” Prozor Rama recently joined the activities of the Local Works, and representatives have so far had the opportunity to attend two trainings.
“The trainings so far have helped us to see some things we are doing that may be done in an easier way. We received information on how to coordinate the initial steps so that the final result is better and of better quality. For example, the last training was dedicated to writing projects, which is very important for us since we often do it in the association. Public procurement is something that we often encounter, so I can say that I am really looking forward to the upcoming training and I think that the information will be very useful in the daily work of the Association,” said Filip Šimunović, president of the Rama Rowing Club.
The USAID/LWCDA project team continues to provide ongoing mentoring support for the training component, and interested organizations and their representatives will have the opportunity to apply for a training on procurement procedures that will be held in Tuzla. All technical information will be published on the following LINK.
