Projets spécifiques en Bosnie-Herzégovine
Nearly 40 representatives of municipalities of BiH, mainly newly elected mayors, followed on 15 November the invitation of Council of Europe, the Association of Municipalities and Cities from RS and FBiH to the launch of the Leadership Academy Program, which will be implemented in 2017 in the country. The launching event “The Leadership Role of Elected Officials in Local Self-government Bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina “which aimed to present the work of Council of Europe in the field of Good Governance and the tools developed by the Center of Expertise to support the work of local authorities, was the first of five activities of the Leadership Academy Program and was followed by a training of local trainers from 16-18 November at the same venue.
Ms Lejla Resic, Minister of local self-government of RS and Mr Tony Pavloski, Head of Council of Europe Office in Sarajevo highlighted the important role of local authorities and a good leadership based on European standards and democratic values in their welcome remarks. Mr Aco Pantic, Secretary General of the Association RS and Ms Vesna Travljanin, Director of the Association FBiH, stressed both in their introductory remarks the good cooperation with Council of Europe in the past and expressed their satisfaction, that the cooperation will be reinitiated after some years of break, at a very timely moment after local election in October 2016. Mr Pantic welcomed also the fact that several female candidates did succeed in, what he called, a very hard competition during the elections and that three of them were present at the launching event.
After a short presentation of Council of Europe’s Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance, ELoGE and the different tool kits available for local authorities, the participants got a first taste of the style and innovative character of the Leadership Academy Program, when they were invited to discuss interactively about priorities, strategies and challenges in fictive municipalities with fictive mayors and peers. The interactive session proofed to be a new experience for most of the participants, and was considered by one participant as “excellent, a method I have never experienced before and I want to learn more about.”
