Monitoring and advocating for good governance in BiH municipalities

Overall objective

The overall objective is to improve standards of governance, levels of transparency and accountability in the work of local administrations, thereby contributing to democratic stability and sustainable development in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Project goal

The project objective is to improve governance and increase transparency in the municipalities throughout BiH, through monitoring policies and practices and a research-based advocacy. Moreover, by providing local leaders, citizens and civil society organisations with specialized knowledge on the mechanisms of how to keep their local authorities accountable and improve good governance, the project aims at building local actors’ capacities for more quality, effectiveness and efficiency of local administrations which is more inclusive, transparent and accountable.

Project results

The outputs and expected results of the proposed project are:

1) Established criteria for measuring transparency and accountability in the local governance of BiH municipalities for improved efficiency, transparency and better communication with local stakeholders;

2) Developed training manual for local leaders and actors (NGOs, media, citizens, etc) on how to promote participatory forms of democracy and increase levels of accountability and transparency;

3) Increased involvement of the local actors ( NGOs, citizens, etc) in their communities through training-based improved skills and knowledge of the good governance principles for increased accountability, legitimacy and transparency of local government actions;

4) Increased knowledge of local leaders on the mechanisms and forms to decrease corruptive practices, increase accountability and transparency in the local governance of their respective communities;

5) Developed policy recommendations for local administrations on how to improve local administration accountability and transparency levels and engage with citizens in a more active way to foster inclusive decision-making procedures.

Main activities

Research in municipalities on transparency levels in local administrations Development of training manual on good governance for local leaders, NGOs and citizens; Ten trainings for local authority representatives and NGOs, citizens, media etc., with special attention to municipalities that show weakest results on the transparency and openness scale; Development and dissemination of policy papers among the stakeholders for improved governance and accountability in local communities.