The “Bell for Changes” conference, organized by the Civil Society Promotion Center and as a part of the Campaign for advocating the establishment of functional cooperation mechanism between the government and the civil society in BiH, gathered governmental, NGO, academic community and international community representatives with experts and the media.
One of the main topics of the conference was establishing the office of the Council of Ministers of BiH for cooperation with the civil society as well as a consistent implementation of the Rules of the Council of Ministers on the consultations about developing the legal provisions from 2006. In 2007, on the initiative of NGOs, the Council of Ministers adopted and signed the “Agreement of Cooperation between the Council of Ministers and the NGO Sector in BiH”. Unfortunately, most of the Agreement has not been realized yet, which particularly relates to establishing the institutions mechanisms for a functional dialogue between the Council of Ministers and other BiH institutions with the civil society.
The conference was opened by Denis Zvizdi?, the Chairman of the council of Ministers of BiH, who emphasized the importance of cooperation between the Council of Ministers and the civil society and emphasized that the basic goal of BiH is EU admission and that this can be achieved only if the Council of Ministers and the civil society establish a partnership that will create a basis for a strong legal and institutional framework of BiH. Zvizdi? emphasized the affirmative decision of the Council of Ministers in creating a new, revised Agreement that should offer at state level an optimal model of institutional mechanism for cooperation between the Council of Ministers and the civil society. “Only an affirmed civil society, in which the civil society organizations and state institutions cooperate, may improve the participative democracy and improve the legal and administration atmosphere for developing and improving the country” – emphasized Zvizdi?.
During the introductory addresses, the attendants also heard from Jay Singh, the Director of the Department for Democratization of USAID Mission in BiH and Massimo Mina, the Chief of the Subdivision for Social Development, Civil Society and Cross-Border Cooperation of EU Delegation in BiH. During the first part of the conference, the challenges and possibilities of practically implementing the Agreement of Cooperation between the Council of Ministers and the NGO Sector in BiH was discussed, while the afternoon session focused on implementing the Rules of Consultation in Developing the Legal provisions of the Council of Ministers of BiH.
The “Bell for Changes” conference was organized as a part of the Civil Society Sustainability Project and supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
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