The City of Novi Pazar is one of the 50 local self-governments that, participating in the Joint European Union – Council of Europe Programme “Human Resources Management in Local Self-Government – phase 2”, successfully improved human resources management and enabled adequate professional development for local civil servants. In July 2022 Novi Pazar was awarded by the Programme a 30.000 € grant in order to purchase IT equipment for the local service centre and improve human resources capacities.
Tobias Flessenkemper, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade and Aleksandar Jovanović, Programme Manager, visited Novi Pazar on 20 July and met the Mayor, Nihat Biševac, to discuss about the improvement in human resources management that this local self-government achieved after four years of actively participating in the Council of Europe Programme, and present these results to the media.
Flessenekemper stressed the importance of the work done with municipalities like Novi Pazar for the Council of Europe, which aims at developing democratic culture, raising the independence of local self-governments and ensuring the respect of national minorities.
Aleksandar Jovanović explained that Novi Pazar is one of the 15 local self-governments which were awarded the grant within the Programme, and informed that further visits in other cities and municipalities will be organised in the coming weeks.
Nihat Biševac stated that raising the human resources capacities will improve local services for the citizens: through the grant, the municipality “will enhance the functionality of the electronic office and the security of the information system. In this way we will raise the quality of the services we provide for the citizens”.
A plaque providing information on the successful participation of Novi Pazar in the Programme will be installed at the entrance of the City Hall.
The Programme “Human Resource Management in Local Self-Government – Phase 2” is jointly funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities.
