BUILDING THE CAPACITY OF CSOs TO IMPLEMENT INITIATIVES – MILESTONE TO THE SUCCESSFUL LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Within the framework of the project “Strengthening local participation and cooperation through partnership of Public Authorities and CSOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina – LINK 4 Cooperation”, financed by the European Union, training on project cycle management was conducted for the representatives of 22 civil society organizations, beneficiaries of grants of the grant scheme of the project. In the period from April 27-28, training was held in Kozarska Dubica for representatives of organizations from Prijedor, Novi Grad, Kostajnica, Zavidovići, Maglaj and Žepče, while in the period from 4-5 May the training was held in Mostar, for the representatives of organizations from Berković, Jablanica, Mostar, Ravno and Trebinje.
Both events began with a ceremony of signing contracts between the contracting authority and grantees, which will implement their project ideas in the next six months in cooperation with local authorities.
It is important to emphasize that the grant scheme of the project is co-financed from the budget of 12 cities/municipalities, ‘’LINK4Cooperation’’ project beneficiaries, and in this way the local government gave a direct incentive to the implementation of activities for the benefit of their citizens.
The goal of these training sessions was to build the capacities and to strengthen networking of civil society organizations (CSOs), whose project ideas were rated as the best within the framework of the Public Call for Project Proposals for the allocation of grants intended for the joint action of CSOs and local authorities. The training program included the definition of tools for the successful implementation of approved project activities and budgets, narrative and financial reporting, internal and external communication as well as the project visibility.
The project ”LINK4Cooperation” aims to strengthen the capacity of local authorities (elected leaders and civil servants) and organizations civil society (CSOs) in conducting participatory processes to jointly identify specific ones community problems and, thanks to this participatory approach, find the most optimal solutions for these problems.
LINK4Cooperation project is funded by European Union. It started on January 1, 2021 and will last until December 30, 2023. Its value is over 540,000 EUR.
The project consortium is formed of Local Democracy Agency (LDA) Mostar as the project leader with its partners: the Local Democracy Agency (LDA) Zavidovici, Local Democracy Agency (LDA) Prijedor, the Center for the Development of Herzegovina (CRH) and European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA), and associated partner ALDA Skopje.