A New Approach to Local Development Management in BiH
16/07/2010
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Local development strategic planning was at the focus of the conference titled “Towards better Local Development Planning in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Methodology for Integrated Planning and Good Practices”, organised in July, 2010 by the BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, the RS Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, the Federal Ministry of Justice, both entity Associations of Municipalities and Cities with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the UNDP in BiH.
The event gathered 180 participants – 100 mayors and representatives of local governments; 80 policy-makers from state, entity and cantonal level institutions, representatives from non-governmental organisations and the international community in BiH, who engaged into a multi-angle discussion on the challenges and good practices in the domain of local development planning and management. The event provided an opportunity for representatives of 24 BiH municipalities and the municipalities of Šentrupert, Slovenia and Kutina, Croatia to share a kaleidoscope of good practices from local development planning and management.
A new local development planning tool was presented and shared with participants during the conference – the Methodology for Integrated Local Development Planning (MiPRO), which is meant as a blueprint for local planning in Bosnia and Herzegovina and as a practical guide for each step of the local planning process. It consists of two parts: It consists of two parts: the theoretical (conceptual) part and the practical part with a toolkit. The theoretical part of MiPRO describes the main principles and features on which local strategic planning process rests, while the practical part of guides and leads local planners through each step of the strategic planning process, explaining the elements, providing advice, exemplifying results and providing good practices and solutions. MiPRO for the first time in Bosnia and Herzegovina sets a systematic approach to development problems at the local level.
At the end of 2009 MiPRO was officially approved by both entity governments and both associations of municipalities and cities, who recommended its application to local governments in BiH as a useful tool that enables a systematic and integrated local strategic planning with full participation of citizens and special focus on socially excluded groups.
The event also provided possibilities for local governments, together with representatives from cantonal, entity and state level institutions, to discuss topics of importance to sustainable and integrated local development and quality of life for local communities.
During their work in thematic groups the conference participants agreed that MiPRO was a useful and quality tool for local strategic planning which, in addition to enabling a systematic and inclusive approach to planning, contributed to better coordination and represented a pre-condition for effective implementation of local priorities.
In addition, the participants concluded that local development strategies should be seen as a roadmap for budgeting and preparation of projects to be funded from domestic and international financial sources. However, in this respect, the need for further strengthening of development function of local governments, in terms of organisational and human capacities, was underlined as one of the key factors for successful development planning and management. Furthermore, the issue of vertical alignment of local development strategies with higher strategic documents and targeted channelling of financial support to local priorities was recognised as another key aspect that would enable local governments to assume their role of drivers of development.
Effective implementation of projects that originate from local development strategies and identified jointly with BiH citizens in local communities will enable more successful and efficient resolution of problems they encounter on a daily basis and bring prosperity in their localities.
More detailed conclusions and recommendations could be found here:
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