Civil forum in Nish and Dolevatz - Serbia and Montenegro - FINISHED UP

published on 08 June 2009

The project was elaborated by Balkan Assist and financed after a tender by the Open Society – Sofia Foundation in 2001

Main Goal:
Stimulate citizen participation and public dialogue in the two towns: NISH and DOLEVAC through conducting open public discussions on issues of community significance.

Sub Goals:
- Carry out three parallel fora in the towns of Nish and Dolevac to discuss local community issues and search for common solutions;

- Formulate recommendations and address them to the respective responsible institutions, organizations or individuals;

- Elaborate projects for financing that partially or entirely solve the problems defined by the participants

- Improve the local capacity for formulating, reaching consensus and solving together common problems of local significance

Content and Encompass of the Project:
Based on the experience of Balkan Assist gathered from carrying out fora in Bulgaria the association developed the project in order to disseminate the Forum approach as an efficient citizen participation tool in neighbor Yugoslavia. The organization includes carrying out 3 parallel civil fora on issues selected by the participants themselves:

- Local government serving the citizens – Carried out in Nish, population of 200 000 people. Moderator – Jokitsa Jovanovich – Professor in Sociology and Psychology at the Free University of Nish.

- Problems of the disabled people in Nish – Carried out in Nish. The registered disabled people in Nish are 30 000. Moderator – Mirolub Marianovich – a leader of the disabled people organization in the town.

- Citizens and the local government – carried out in Dolevats, 15 km from Nish, population - 20 000 people. Moderator – Slobodan Jovanovich – a professor at the Free University of Nish.
Apart from the organization of all the 15 forum sessions in the two towns, Balkan Assist provided 500 for the implementation of one small project of each Forum.
The project started in November, 2001 and was finalized on June 8, 2002.

Partners of association "Balkan Assist":
Open Society – Sofia Foundation provided the basic part of the project financing.
Main partner in Nish is the organization “Center for research and analysis – Nish” and “Citizen Forum” in Dolevats.