The vision of the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency Project is to strengthen the system of accountable and transparent local governance where democratically elected representatives effectively and jointly work together in defining development priorities according to the needs of the citizens.
The position of the councillors will be also strengthened to implement their democratic mandate and support municipal priorities. Citizens will receive accurate and reliable information from their elected representatives, and at the same time they will actively present their needs and priorities.
The key project objective is: Empowered municipal councils with increased knowledge that will actively fulfil their role of representation and control, which will make municipal government more accountable and more efficient in meeting the needs of citizens.
Expected outcomes:
1.Municipal councils become more autonomous bodies, better able to withstand the executive’s influence, by properly fulfilling their constitutionally assigned roles of oversight and representation
2.Municipal policies are designed in a participatory manner to better meet citizens’ needs through increased transparency and accountability of municipal bodies.
3.Improvements of the legal and institutional framework within which municipal councils function are initiated and sustained through a functional and institutionalized national network of councillors.
The project is open to all 81 municipal councils in the country and the design of project components and activities follows that logic. The components on networking as well as the e-knowledge platform will encompass all 1,347 councillors and the stakeholders with which they are structurally connected as potential beneficiaries.
Innovative tools will be initially implemented in 24 target municipalities, while at the same time looking for a way to their expansion.
However, due to limited time and resources, part of capacity building program through training will be implemented in 24 municipalities.
Expectations are that 250 to 300 councillors (at least 1/3 of which are women) will participate in the project, where 8 municipalities will be covered each year, starting from 2017.
