We are delighted to announce that the project “Building democratic participation in the City of Mostar” is in full swing and that preparations for the Citizen’s Assembly, that will be held in Mostar in July 2021, are underway.
Following an online survey where more than 1000 citizens of Mostar submitted potential debate topics, 20 thematic units with the highest number of votes were selected and first presented at the workshop with representatives of civil society and of the academic community from the City of Mostar, who were tasked to preselect 6 topics, that they consider to be the most pressing issues to be resolved in Mostar. During the second workshop organised with local representatives of the City of Mostar, city councillors together with the competent civil servants, chose 3 out of the 6 previously selected topics, considering the available resources and competencies to tackle these questions at the local level. Both selection procedures were conducted using a specifically tailored method. The top 3 topics are the following: 1. Cleanliness and maintenance of public spaces, 2. Creating new jobs and tackling unemployment. 3. Support for youth employment, assistance in starting own business.
In accordance with the conditions stipulated in the Mostar Citizen’s Assembly Rulebook, the project Oversight Team has been appointed. The Oversight Team will oversee the deliberative process and ensure that the deliberation on the chosen topic, complies with the Assembly standards and rules. While representatives of the Mayor, representatives of political groups/parties in the City Council and representatives of the local academic communities were delegated to the Oversight Team, the Project Team was in charge of selecting representatives of civil society that will be part to the Oversight Team, based on the applications received. The precondition for participation of civil society members was active engagement within the administrative borders of Mostar. Five representatives of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities will as well make up the Oversight Team.
In the next phase of the project, 5000 randomly selected households from Mostar will receive an invitation letter to vote for one of the three topics previously selected and to apply for participation in the Citizen’s Assembly, the first assembly ever organised in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in compliance with the model of deliberative democracy.
We kindly invite you to visit the project web site www.mostargradimo.ba for more details.
