Over the past three months first working meetings with the representatives of local authorities, local communities, civil society organisations, businesses and other stakeholders relevant to the work of local communities were held in 13 partner municipalities within the joint project of the Governments of Switzerland and Sweden „Strengthening the role of local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina“. Meetings were hosted by the selected local self-governments: Bijeljina, Gračanica, Gradačac, Gradiška, Ključ, Kotor Varoš, Laktaši, Petrovo, Sanski Most, Stari Grad Sarajevo, Tešanj, Žepče and Brčko District.
These meetings were attended by more than four hundred people, of which one third were women, and a large number of representatives of minorities and marginalised groups. The vision of future local communities was defined in the meetings, and citizens and their representatives were given the opportunity to directly propose future local community models, discuss the most effective forms of local community response to citizens' needs, and at the same time, to explore long-term solutions for improving the infrastructure and services at the local community level.
„Strengthening the role of local communities in BiH“ is implemented by the UNDP BiH in partnership with the BiH Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of Republika Srpska, the Ministry of Justice of the Federation of BiH, the Government of Brčko District and associations of municipalities and cities from both Entities. It includes 23 local government units and their 125 local communities, as partners in the first phase of the project.
Citizens being encouraged to take initiative and ownership and to be more actively involved in finding the form of local community that best suits them, is one of the most important results of the first phase of the project. Accordingly, the discussions in the meetings developed around these issues: the need to revitalise the role of local community and address the issue of their legal status, since under the current entity laws on local self-governments they are defined differently. Local community in the FBiH is a mandatory form of local self-government, in Brčko District it is defined as a citizen association linked to a particular territory, while in Republika Srpska it is not a mandatory form of association.