GAP Achievements

Another joint success of GAP and partner municipality Plan for attracting investments made by Vukosavlje through cooperation with GAP

Vukosavlje municipality was established under the Dayton Peace Accord. The newly formed municipality is mainly inhabited by the returnees. According to the mayor, Amir Zahirović, municipal administration has been left on its own, without knowledge or experience in administration and no money for education and advancement. MAP Module II training completed in municipalities of Vareš, Novi Travnik, Vitez and Olovo

 Municipal Action Plan (MAP) process is built around a simplified version of the EU-standard project cycle management methodology. Training introduced concepts of problem analysis, stakeholder analysis, log frames, performance measurement and monitoring, and similar related ideas as well as the knowledge necessary to implement the MAP program.
Eight months effort resulted in completion of Local Environmental Action Plans in GAP partner municipalities of Goražde, FoÄa, Rogatica and Travnik
Citizens and local governments’ perception on environmental issues at the local level is somewhat limited but these issues are slowly turning into serious municipal level problems. Sometime, they are often too late to be easily resolved.
MAP Project “Plan for attracting investments†completed in Kakanj and Vogošća municipalities
In the last two months, GAP Sarajevo team and STTA expert worked with municipalities of Kakanj and Vogošća to prepare a “Plan for attracting investments†at the local level. It takes a great deal of effort to attract investments, beginning with the development of an investmentâ€friendly atmosphere in the municipality and continuing on to the promotion of the municipality as an attractive investment location.
Improved Capital Planning: New Kindergarten in Srbac
“This smile has no priceâ€, states Zeljka Novakovic, director of this April reconstructed kindergarten in Srbac, pointing at a smiling face of the twelve-year-old Bojan Tadic. Bojan and his friend Misa, both children with disabilities, are curiously watching the colorful walls of their new playroom, decorated with characters from famous cartoons. Around them happy children crowd celebrate opening of the kindergarten, the project completed in partnership with USAID, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN).
“[The] local administration finally created one place for all service delivery!â€
a citizen exclaimed in the comment book at the new Citizen Service Center (CSC) and Urban Permit Center (UPC) in Ilidža, a large municipality bordering Sarajevo. Before the Government Accountability Project (GAP) assisted the Ilidža municipal government to construct and equip these centers, services were dispersed across four separate locations, allowing government officials to work with little accountability, and permitting low-quality customer service delivery. To promote good governance and streamline bureaucratic processes, GAP partnered with Ilidža to establish the CSC and UPC, which opened on May 13, 2009.
Municipal Government in Bosnia Sees Increased Transparency, Effectiveness
In municipalities across Bosnia-Herzegovina, citizens have had to cope with slow government processes and complicated departmental systems for years. These burdensome inefficiencies create opportunities for corruption and often force citizens to spend extended periods of time carrying out simple processes, like acquiring birth certificates or registering to work.
Achieving the Rights of Local Self-Governance
On April 14, 2009, the Constitutional Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) declared that the right of municipalities in FBiH to local self-government had been violated by several articles of the Law on Forests in the FBiH. In the verdict, the court asked the Federal Parliament to work with the Municipal Association to change the provisions violating the rights of the municipalities within 6 months.
Achieving the Rights of Local Self-Governance
On April 9, 2009 the Bosnian municipality of Visoko opened its first modern and highly functional Citizen Service Center (CSC) and Urban Permit Center (UPC). This achievement was made possible by the joint effort of Visoko’s municipal staff and technical and monetary assistance from the Governance and Accountability (GAP) project. Already, these two local centers have resulted in a dramatic improvement in the level of service delivery to Visoko citizens. Whereas before it was common to hear people complain of wasting time at the municipality in long lines, or waiting for the right person to come back from a work break, now the necessary information is readily available, and often just a mouse click away!
GAP Awards First Round of Capital Projects
BAM 2.3million awarded For the past five years, the Governance Accountability (GAP) project has facilitated the creation of a capital improvement planning (CIP) process in 35 partner municipalities across BiH. The purpose of this campaign was to encourage and improve participatory mechanisms for citizen participation in community planning by engaging civil society, community groups, and NGOs in planning and monitoring capital improvement projects.