Mayors of the six municipalities hit by the floods in May signed today at the EU Delegation in Sarajevo a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the occasion of beginning the fourth phase of the project “Strengthening Local Democracy”.
This project is implemented by UNDP and funded by EU.
Head of Operations Section for Social Development, civil society and cross-border cooperation at the EU Delegation Natalia Dianiskova at the signing ceremony said that the value of the previous three phases of this project was five million euro, and the value of the fourth phase, which begins today, is two million euro and is focused on municipalities affected by the devastating floods (Bijeljina, Doboj, Domaljevac -Šamac, Maglaj, Šamac and Žepče).
According to her, the focus of fourth phase of project is to rebuild social infrastructure and services to citizens and to strengthening relations of civil society with local authorities.
“We will not define the needs, but the municipalities together with civil society”, said Dianiskova.
She pointed out that by supporting projects such as this, the European Union is showing its commitment to strengthen cooperation between civil society and local government, but also improves the situation at these municipalities directly in the field.
Program Coordinator of the UNDP Slobodan Tadić expressed his satisfaction that this program helps municipalities affected by floods.
According to him, representatives of municipalities and NGOs gathered in Sarajevo today will cooperate in order to normalize the situation in the municipalities affected by the floods, and on the other hand will promote the democratic values that the project promotes.
(Source: Fena)
