Mayors from Czech Republic share their know-how with Bosnia and Herzegovina to support the development of local municipalities

Thanks to momentum built over the last year, the municipalities of Maglaj and Mrkonjic Grad committed to become members of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, an international coalition of local governments that share a long-term vision to combat climate change and move to a low emission, resilient society. The Covenant of Mayors is the world's largest movement for local climate and energy actions. It gathers 7,000+ local and regional authorities across 57 countries who pledge action to support implementation of the EU 40% greenhouse gas-reduction target by 2030 and the adoption of a joint approach to tackling mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Strengthening of good governance standards

“Know-how exchange not only resulted in embedding fresh, innovative ideas into projects currently developed by participating municipalities, It also helped them to see the long term consequences of their decisions and take in account standards required by the European Union. I am glad to see some new relationships with civil society stakeholders have been created as well. Municipalities have been reassured about their international business potential and learned how to profit from sustainable development solutions,” says Iva Svobodová from People in Need.   

Working together, the project partners aimed to strengthen good governance standards in the three municipalities through expert cooperation on sustainable development planning. In particular, the cooperation focused on enhancing the quality of technical documentation and public awareness about the benefits of waste/wastewater management systems and renewable and energy efficient solutions. A crucial element of this cooperation was the exchange of experience between mayors from the Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The representatives of Bosnian municipalities visited several Czech municipalities, for example Knezice, first energy self-sufficient municipality in the Czech Republic, to see examples of good governance in practice. They also hosted Czech mayors and experts in their cities in order to discuss plans for future construction projects like biomass central heating or wastewater cleaning station.

Exchange of the experience with transition

“As the Czech Republic has undergone a long process of political and governance transformation earlier, similar to that of Bosnia and Hercegovina, we have gained practical experience to hand over in countries that are still in the process. We can see in our projects that this cooperation works very well. And we are happy that we can participate in improvement of the development in this region,” says Vladislav Vik from People in Need.

The main purpose of the Experience Sharing Round Table, which takes place 17.-18. 10. 2018, is to present and showcase projects, developed at local level in during previous six months and share them with invited municipalities. The main participants of the projects, the municipalities of Maglaj, Mrkonic Grad and Livno, will share practical experience with project planning in above mentioned areas, which was enhanced through the project. Czech Experts will present case studies on good governance practices. The event organizers want to engage all participants in discussion about sustainable economy and role of development projects in it.

The project was funded by the Czech Development Agency and implemented by the Czech non-governmental organization, People in Need, in partnership with the Association of Local Authorities of the Czech Republic. 

Contacts:

Iva Svobodová, Programme Support Officer - Bosnia and Herzegovina, People in Need, +387 603 047 330, iva.svobodova@peopleinneed.cz

Vladislav Vik, Desk Officer - Balkans, Georgia and Armenia, People in Need, 

+420 778 531 399, vladislav.vik@peopleinneed.cz