LOCAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Building Trust between Local Authorities and Local Community

In the period from 1 July 2002 and 1 July 2004 , Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) carried out the project “Building Trust between Citizens and Local Authorities”, with the main aim to monitor the work of municipal authorities in Serbia . Along with this, the aim was increasing the awareness and level of political culture of citizens, who should become an active factor in the control of the work of the elected bodies in local communities.

Preliminary research of the situation within municipalities showed that several obstacles existed on a necessary way of decentralization of local authorities. First of all, there existed a 50-year-long legacy of the centralistic model and the absence of independence and autonomy of any kind in the work of local authorities, and than unwieldy bureaucratic apparatus in municipalities.

Local administration, according to our strong belief, must become citizens' public service. For that reason, CeSID's aim was to help in creating an optimal and most efficient model of the work of local authorities. This means, above all, to improve the communication between authorities and citizens, as well as to increase citizens' participation in activities of local communities.

The representatives of CeSID's 16 local and 5 regional offices were involved in the project, and the activities on the project covered 92 municipalities in Serbia .

The project was realized through the following activities:

1. Public-opinion researches: the aim of the research was mutual identification of the attitudes of citizens and local administration bodies, towards each other, as well as the identification of the biggest and most urgent problems in certain local communities.

   In the course of the project, twelve public-opinion researches with more than 20.000 interviewees participating were conducted. The researches dealt with the problems of local communities in Serbia , the question of citizens' trust in political institutions, electoral participation and abstinence, citizens' political activism, citizens' attitudes towards municipal administration, attitudes of municipal administration employees towards problems in communication with citizens, etc.

2. Monitoring the work of municipal administration: The process meant monitoring the efficiency of the work of municipal administration and the level of achieving citizens' rights before local government bodies. In this way, CeSID obtained concrete data that represented some qualities of certain municipal services, but also of the whole municipalities. That kind of data enabled the comparative analysis and made the process of making recommendations for better functioning of municipal governments easier. Within this project, CeSID monitored procedures and observed the work of departments for keeping voters' registers, departments for issuing citizenship certificates, birth certificates, departments for keeping registry files, etc.

3. Educating citizens and local authorities in order to improve mutual communication: The education of citizens and municipalities' representatives was carried out through organizing educational panels and public meetings.

   Through the educational panels, CeSID's volunteers informed citizens about some new legal regulations, which regulate the position of the units of local self-government, about new institutions in the field of local self-government, as well as about the ways of citizens' participation and controlling local authorities. In order to increase citizens' participation in a decision-making process at the local level, Civic Forums were formed, bodies that gather at one place prominent individuals and representatives of civic associations and organizations (unions, non-governmental organizations, employers' organizations, professional associations, the media, local self-governments, youth organizations, pensioners' associations, and other representatives of the civil society) existing in local communities. The purpose of forming Civic Forums is to create some space for considering the issues relevant to the life of the local community, making recommendations, giving some advice and opinions on the most important issues. Civic Forums would, we strongly believe, represent a vehicle for consistent monitoring and control of local authorities and a powerful stimulus to the development of local communities. During the realization of the project nearly 50 Civic Forums were formed.

   The public meetings represented places where citizens and representatives of local authorities and administration met and talked about problems of their local communities. At these meetings CeSID's local team volunteers presented the findings of the public opinion researches, i.e. citizens' perception of some urgent problems of the local community and made recommendations for better functioning of municipal authorities and administration.

   In the course of conducting the project, more than 700 educational panels and more than 500 public meetings were held in 92 municipalities in Serbia . It should be pointed out that the realization of the project in 92 municipalities (out of total 163 in the Republic of Serbia , without Kosovo and Metohija) included 80% of the citizens of Serbia.

4. Printing brochures and pamphlets: During the realization of the project a series of brochures and pamphlets were printed, and they enabled citizens to acquaint themselves better with their rights and ways of achieving rights in the procedures of which local authority bodies are in charge.

5. Seminars: In the course of the implementation of the project, several seminars for CeSID's volunteers and members of the lecturing team were held with the participation of eminent legal experts, political scientists and sociologists. These seminars served as practical training and preparation for conducting activities within the project.

Taking into account the interest that was shown by citizens and local authorities, we can state that the project Building Trust between Local Authorities and Local Community achieved its goals:

• The findings of the public opinion researches, carried out within this project, influenced the formation of a list of priorities in the course of solving problems of local communities
• A great number of people (nearly 25 000) got acquainted with the regulations of the Law on Self-government, with some changes promoted by the Law, as well as with new institutions that could be formed in the local community
• At public debates dialog was established between the non-governmental sector, citizens and authorities at the local level aiming at more efficient local communities' problem-solving.
• The cooperation between representatives of the civil society at the local level was established, and that was institutionalized through Civic Forums/Councils in about 50 municipalities.
• CeSID's team dealing with local self-government was formed, and from this project whole series of projects handling certain segments of local self-government originated.

European Commission Delegation in Serbia and Montenegro , Embassy of Great Britain in Belgrade , Embassy of Finland in Belgrade , Royal Netherlands Embassy, The Olaf Palme International Centre, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Freedom House supported this project.