Successful cooperation between civic and government sectors in BiH – highway to EU integration

Helping the BiH Council of Ministers, entity governments, and the Government of Brcko District to achieve better and more productive cooperation with the civic sector is the goal of a two-year project entitled Capacity Building of Government Institutions to Engage in Policy Dialogue with Civil Society in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was officially launched in Sarajevo on March 7th 2013.


The project is funded by the European Union through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA 2011) to total amount of 969.200 EUR.


“This project will most surely enable the governments at all levels in BiH to better understand the needs of citizens and come up with a better way to engage the civil society in various reform processes. This is very much in line with recommendations of the European Union and the Enlargement Strategy which stresses the culture of acceptance and appreciation of the role of civil society. Civil society needs to be in a position which allows the civil society organizations to engage in dialogue and reaching of efficient policies” stated the Head of Operations Section for Economic Development, Natural Resources, and Infrastructures at the EU Delegation to BiH Martin Shieder.


Support to governments in forming  strategies on cooperation with civil society organisations, technical assistance for development of institutional mechanisms, civil servants training, and strengthening of budget policies concerning the support to civil society organisations are the main fields in which the project will operate.


“It is highly important to have the civil society participate in the process of creating policies and laws, because citizens of the whole society then become the participants of the entire process of reaching important decisions. True social cohesion between the citizens and government is very important. We are all witnesses to the fact that the responsibility for the condition in which our society is currently in is attributed exclusively to politicians and institutions, and this represents a way for inclusion of citizens and sharing of that responsibility. We need to learn that all of us are becoming active participants in creating our present as well as our future” stated Project Team Leader Goran Zeravcic.


The project represents the continuation of CIDI II project which was completed in November 2012 and it will be implemented by Kronauer Consulting together with company Eptisa.

Europa.ba