State, entities and cantonal authorities work in 2016 is highlighted in CCI reports on monitoring of performance of the parliaments and governments in the country.
As part of the project CSSP – Civil Society Sustainability Program, supported by USAID, CCI carries out monitoring of the work of cantonal, entities' and state parliaments and governments.
In its regular quarterly reports on the findings of monitoring legislative and executive authorities in BiH, CCI continuously pointed out at both positive and negative elements in the work of the institutions. Our work has continuously attracted great attention of the media which pass on the key messages contained in CCI's reports. Thus, in February 2017, our report on work of BiH Federation Government and Parliament which included our assessment that the previous year in BiH Federation was marked with almost constant problems within the ruling coalition, culminating in the blockade of the work of the Parliament which lasted for several months, drew a great deal of attention of the public. Despite their poor performance, the salaries and allowances to the representatives and delegates were regularly paid by the authorities' bodies. CCI pointed out that new decisions had been made on an increase of the allowances for separated life (from 600 to 800 KM a month) and a decision on a monthly allowance for working in the joint working bodies of both houses of FBiH Parliament.
This news drew a great deal of attention of the public, so that the media reported for days about this infamous decision of the Administrative Commission.
It is the fact that CCI was the first one to point out to this infamous decision and drew the public's attention to it, and although the chairman of the House of the Peoples of FBiH tried to justify making of the Decision with a need to equalize these allowances with the allowances of the representatives in the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament, the media and the public did not accept this explanation.
In response to this information, in mid-February, SDP (Social –Democratic Party) submitted in the parliamentary procedure the proposed Act on Amendments to the Act on Salaries and Allowances of the Authorities' Bodies of BiH Federation, based on which the payment of the allowances for separated life to the official in FBiH would be immediately suspended.
CCI published the reports on monitoring the performance of authorities in BiH for the year 2016.
The summary reportscan be downloaded from
The Council of the Ministers and BiH Parliamentary Assembly
“Alliance for EU integration”: a platform for civil society participation in BiH’s EU integration process The local NGOs – CCI and ACED – have recently launched a campaign to activate and mobilize non-governmental stakeholders in the EU integration process of BiH.
Delegation of the EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina will support this campaign encouraging civil society organisations, entrepreneurs, academia, activists, bloggers and similar, to actively participate in the “Alliance for EU Integration” – a joint platform bringing together non-governmental actors as a counterpart and complement to BiH’s governmental institutions – currently the only formal stakeholder in the EU integration process.
Through this initiative it is expected that an open and inclusive mechanism would be created for public participation in reforms related to the EU integration process over the coming years (the European Commission questionnaire and the negotiation process with the EU), which would be based on voluntarism and competence, and would focus not only on civil society but all competent interlocutors in BiH.
During the next 4 months the initiative will establish and empower participating stakeholders of the Alliance, a process that is intended to culminate with the final event in July 2017.
We encourage participation of all interested NGOs in order to expand the scope of the project and increase the participation of non-governmental stakeholders through additional funds and/or resources, which may be made available by the EU or other donors. For all details please contact TACSO BiH, or the implementing organizations CCI and ACED.
CCI organized parliamentary debates devoted to the reform process in BiH. The debates were initiated and organized by CCI in BiH Federation Parliament as well as in the parliaments of Zenica-Doboj and Tuzla Cantons.
These events served as an opportunity to present the cut-off and progress of the reform process in BiH, to point out at further course of reforms and at the roles of the governments and other relevant actors. About 120 participants took part in these parliamentary debates, namely, representatives of executive and legislative authorities, of trade unions, employers' associations, civil society organizations and the media.
These activities have been implemented by CCI as part of the
project „Reforms and Jobs“, with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of
the Netherlands in BiH. The main goal of the project is to contribute to
increased responsibility of BH authorities in terms of reducing unemployment
through active participation in initiating, making, implementing and monitoring
key economic reforms and new public policies contained in 2015-2018 Reform
Agenda for BiH. The
Project will offer periodical reports on the progress of implementation of
Reform Agenda, on the effects that the reformed public policies have on the
standard of living and will at the same time initiate and advocate a number of
activities that will contribute to creation of new jobs. More on the campaign
„Job to the People“ can be found on the website www.posaonarodu.ba.
BH Federation Justice Ministry accepted CCI's initiative and included the preparation of the Public Servants Act in the Work Program for 2017.
The aim of this Act is to improve, in a systematic and comprehensive way, the area of human resources management and to solve the normative framework of public servants' relations and the issue of employment in the public sector.
The procedure of passing cantonal laws on state public
service in Canton Tuzla (CT) and in Una-Sana Canton (USC) is currently under
way, while this procedure is expected to be launched soon in the Central Bosnia
Canton (CBC) too. CCI sent written proposals and suggestions on the drafts of
these laws to CT and USC, and advocated, first of all, the employment of the
best ranking candidates, something that had been previously adopted, also upon
the CCI's initiative, in the Public Service Act of SC enacted in July last
year.
The project „Strengthening the Integrity of the Public
Sector: De-politicization for the Rule of Law“ has been implemented by the
Centres of Civic Initiatives (CCI) with
the support of the European Union; the project aims at contributing to the rule
of law and good governance in BiH, advocating professionalism and integrity of
the public sector, especially the appointment and employment procedures o in
the public sector.
To which extent are the civil protection services ready to respond to the needs of the citizens menaced by the floods or other natural disasters?
As part of the project „Improving the system for prevention and protection against floods in Bijeljina City and the Municipalties of Lopare, Sekovici, Sapna and Teocak“ supported by the Delegation of the European Union in BiH, CCI started the process of identification of the needs of civil protection services in order to determine and make a potential list of the needs in each of the local communities included in the project.
The whole process of identification of needs, i.e. making potential lists by municipalities will be complete by the end of March so that, having compared the prices, a final list can be made, and, in the segment of specialist training, select the certified trainers who would then propose and identify the persons for training in local communities.
In January and February the data were collected to determine the current capacities and the level of equipment available to the CP units in target municipalities/city. A questionnaire was designed that was sent to the addresses of responsible persons. The data requested in the questionnaire were a basis for analysis of identification of needs. More specifically, a goal was to determine which specialist training courses had been carried out as well as for which specialist training interest was shown, in order to be able to give a quality response when providing assistance to the citizens at risk from the floods and other natural catastrophes.
Also, the information about the current condition of technical means and equipment was sought and obtained. The respondents were asked to express which were the priority needs in terms of technical means and equipment necessary to respond to the Project goal of increasing the operability of CP in target municipalities through the procurement of priority equipment, making sure that CP is able to give assistance to the citizens primarily at risk from floods and from other natural disasters too. The needs that were expressed corresponded to the situation in the Assessment of Threat from Natural and Other Disasters. Local communities are oriented toward the potential danger and prevention against floods; they showed interest in getting boats, lifejackets, fishing overalls, communication means and other priorities in terms of what's needed.
The projects of cleaning parts of watercourses/drainage systems in the territories of municipalities were also nominated, primarily those that can cause torrent floods, in order to enable bigger water flow and give CP and municipalities' services time to react in the event of major rainfall and landslide rehabilitation at priority routes and in accordance with available project capacities. As a result, we expect cleaning of 5.000 meters of watercourses and drainage channels in all five local communities.
Also, during March CCI obtained the Analysis of Local Public Policies relating to the functionality of the system of protection and rescuing in five local communities with an emphasis on threat and acting in case of floods – the Analysis was developed by an outsourced expert. CCI further worked on identification and proposal of the new policies for improving the Civil Protection System. The revised local policies will help explain the responsibility between the local actors and will serve as a basis for future projects, supporting these five local communities to implement these policies, especially in the areas of strengthening the capacities of local Civil Protection units through training and provision of necessary equipment.
As the project goes on, everything else that will be done as part of it will be in consultations with and constantly communicated to the citizens who will be the key partners together with both local governances and Civil Protection and the business sector in target local communities. Also, all other social actors will have their place as far as protection against floods is concerned, and this project certainly aims at contributing toward it. The local authorities will formally receive the investigated and fact-based Proposals for Improvement of Public Policies that determine the area of protection and rescuing from natural disasters, with an emphasis on floods. Such proposals will include the Policy proposal with recommendations in terms of target legislative, based on expertise and positive experiences of the neighbouring countries.
At the same time, communication and cooperation of local authorities, civil and business sector and the Civil Protection will be improved, thus contributing to strengthening the perspective of using inter-sectoral dialogue in local communities, especially in the context of future protection against floods and development of local communities in a broader sense.
The fourth report „State of the Nation“ that gives an overview of independent monitoring of implementation and effectiveness of the Reform Agenda for BiH was published.
Monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of the Reform Agenda is part of the Campaign „Job to the People“ implemented by CCI with a goal of participation in initiating, making, implementing and monitoring key economic reforms as well as accelerating EU integration process in BiH. In addition to that, the purpose of monitoring is also to try to explain to the public, as simply as possible, the importance, principles, scope, effects and procedures of creating and implementing the measures contained in the Reform Agenda. The report is available both in the local and the English languages at: http://www.posaonarodu.ba/monitoring-izvjestaji
As part of the campaign „Job to the People“, CCI is
currently working on transformation and innovation of further monitoring of
reform processes in BiH. One of the innovations adopted so far includes the use
of social media as tools that will inform the citizens about the progress of
reforms, the implementation and effectiveness of the Reform Agenda.
The mentioned activities have been implemented as part of
the Project „Reforms and Job“ supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands in BiH.. The
goal of this project is to contribute to increased responsibility of BH
authorities in terms of reducing unemployment through active participation in
initiating, making, implementing and monitoring key economic reforms and new
public policies contained in 2015-2018 Reform Agenda for BiH. The Project will
offer periodical reports on the progress of implementation of Reform Agenda, on
the effects of reformed public policies on the standard of living and will at
the same time initiate and advocate a number of activities that will contribute
to creation of new jobs. More on the campaign „Job to the People“ can be found
on the website www.posaonarodu.ba.
Final Report on Monitoring 2016 Local Elections has been presented by the Coalition „Pod lupom“.
At the end of December Coalition „Pod lupom“ made public its evaluations of the local 2016 elections. A general assessment is that the elections were held in accordance with BiH Election Law and the implementing legislation, and mainly in democratic and fair atmosphere, except for Stolac Municipality where gross violation of the Election Law took place with forcible interruption of the election process. The findings and recommendations from the Final Report of the Coalition „Pod lupom“ are available for download at http://podlupom.org/v2/bs/clanak/konacni-izvjestaj-2014/124
The activities of Coalition „Pod lupom“ have been implemented as part of the BASE – Building Accountability and Systems in the Elections Project, supported by the Delegation of the European Union in BiH.
CCI assisted in founding the Economic-Social Council of Zenica-Doboj Canton.
After the social dialogue forum in Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDC) was held, CCI actively participated in mediation and negotiations in Zenica-Doboj Canton Government, aimed at revitalization and re-establishing of the Economic-Social Council (ESC) of ZDC. These activities resulted in reaching an agreement on establishing the Economic-Social Council for the area of Zenica-Doboj Canton, which was signed in February 2017 in Zenica. The agreement was signed by the representatives of cantonal labour ministry, The Association of Independent Trade Unions in BiH – Cantonal Board and FBiH Association of Employers – a group of employers from ZDC. Signing of the agreement was attended by, inter alia, the representatives of CCI and the director of the Association of Employers of FBiH.
We have been implementing these activities as part of the project “Strengthening the Understanding and the Capacity of Social Partners in BiH in Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining” which aims at contributing to strengthening the social dialogue and collective bargaining in both entities and at increasing the social cohesion and development of BH society. The Project was supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in BiH.
Kontakti
cci@ccibh.org