On Saturday, 31 July 2021, the first Mostar Citizens’ Assembly was officially closed.
During the four consecutive weekends, a representative group of 47 randomly selected citizens learned about, consulted and made recommendations on the cleanliness of the city and the maintenance of public space in Mostar. With joint effort and dedicated work of citizens of Mostar 32 recommendations were developed. These recommendations provide guidelines to competent city authorities on how to answer the question: “How can the City of Mostar improve the cleanliness of public space and make it more pleasant?”. The final recommendations of the Mostar Citizens’ Assembly can be found here.
The Mostar Citizens’ Assembly, during the month moth of July consisted of following activities:
10-11 July 2021 – the first session of the Mostar Citizens’ Assembly was held where participants learned about deliberative democracy and the topic of the Assembly.
17-18 July 2021 – the second session was held where the participants had the opportunity to learn from local and international experts and listen to the opinions of local actors. Also, the process of making recommendations began.
24 July 2021 – a total of 26 recommendations were formulated, which received the support of more than 80% of participants.
31 July 2021 – following the opinion of City Councilors on recommendations and analysis of comments and suggestions on preliminary recommendations, the participants of the Assembly formulated the final recommendations. In the final version, 32 recommendations have been formulated which will be sent to the City Council of the City of Mostar, the Mayor and the city administration for consideration and further action.
The Mostar Citizens’ Assembly was realized in accordance with a specially developed methodology that ensures transparency and inclusivity and enables citizens to learn about the topic from relevant experts and from the experiences of other cities, as well as to hear the views of local actors and political representatives.
The Assembly provided an opportunity for citizens to become more involved in policy development and decision-making at the local level, and for local authorities in Mostar to genuinely address citizens’ recommendations on issues of interest, introducing a deliberative democracy approach.
You can find videos and photos from the Assembly at https://mostargradimo.ba/media/
The Citizens’ Assembly was organized within the project “Building Democratic Participation in the City of Mostar” implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2018-2021. The aim of the project is to create opportunities for citizens to get involved in the deliberative process and increase their contribution to the decision-making process at the local level. In return, this process will encourage dialogue at the local level and contribute to the revitalization of democratic processes in the city of Mostar.