On 17 December 2021, Praxis held a final conference and presented the report “Tomorrow Starts Today –support to increasing transparency of local self-governments, strengthening civic and child participation”.
The report was prepared within the project “Tomorrow Starts Today” which Praxis implemented in partnership with MAP in the period from December 2019 to December 2021 in Leskovac, Bujanovac, Kraljevo, Surdulica i Zemun. The project was supported by the European Union within the Civil Society Facility Programme 2018 – grant scheme for the Republic of Serbia.
The report presents the most important results of project activities, with the special focus on research that referred to transparency and accountability of the selected local self-governments, which was conducted in the period January-November 2020. The aim of the research was to determine whether local authorities have a proactive approach to informing citizens, and whether information is provided based on freedom of information requests, to analyse the process of adopting acts at the local level and the degree of consultations with CSOs and citizens, as well as the effects of (non-)involvement of CSOs in the process.
Despite the efforts invested in the previous years in public administration reform, local self-governments still face many challenges reflected mainly in the lack of capacity to implement the reform processes effectively. The most serious challenges refer to consistent implementation of regulations that guarantee free access to information of public importance, as well as to participation of citizens in the process of developing local policies, since there is almost no participation in the stated process. In addition, there is no proactive approach with reference to improving conditions and creating an enabling environment for the development of civil society at the local level. The role of media in the public administration reform process, as an initiator of public debate, is not sufficiently developed, while the reasons lie in financial instability and insufficiently enabling environment for reporting on specific topics.
At the same time, the reports provides an overview of the results of implemented activities, including activities aimed at strengthening capacities of the civil sector at the local level to monitor public administration reform processes and participate in the development of local policies, advocacy initiatives, informing local media about their role in the reform processes, meetings with relevant stakeholders for the purpose of strengthening cooperation and partnership of the public and civil sectors, as well as a series of activities directed at work with children for the purpose of developing their participatory role in the community and better social inclusion.
The report also gives recommendations for improving the PAR process at the local level with reference to the transparency of work of administrative bodies and civic participation.
You may download the report HERE.
