Description
Due to an inefficient collaboration between public administration and citizens, in many communities, especially in the southern Romania, the process of local strategies development is facing many problems because the lack of citizens` involvement in identifying the real problems. The project's objective proposed by Qvorum Institute and Bene Merenti “Local development is the community responsability. Get involved!” is to stimulate the involvement of citizens, NGO’s and representatives of private and public sector in the county level decision-making process within Giurgiu county. This goal is reached by raising the structured dialogue skills for 180 representatives from civil society, private sector and local public administration within 2 communities (urban and rural) from Giurgiu county, in order to create the community led local development strategies. Two civic initiative groups will be activated for implementing the actions for the 2 community local development strategies mentioned. The results will be disseminated on a national level, starting from the 2 communities and spreading towards 1030 interested factors from a national level.
Summary of project results
This project approached the problem of active citizenship in local communities, focusing mainly on the inefficient collaboration between public administration and citizens. The project implemented by Qvorum Institute and Bene Merenti, promoted under the name “Ideas for community”, aimed at stimulating the involvement of citizens, NGOs and representatives of private sector, in the county level decision-making process, in order to create the community led local development strategies. This concept of Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) has been piloted in two local communities from Giurgiu: an urban community (Giurgiu municipality) and a rural community (Oinacu commune). The first stage of the project aimed at activating and mobilizing local actors. Through training sessions, 204 citizens (representatives from three sectors: public administration, citizens and the private sector) have been informed about the concept of CLLD, the topics related to the mechanisms of local decision-making process, and concrete tools that can be materialized into concrete actions and local initiatives. Next, two Civic Initiative Groups were founded by people participating in the training sessions: Giurgiu Civic Initiative Group and Vlăsceanu-Oinacu Civic Initiative Group. Through a facilitation process and civic mentoring sessions, the 2 civic groups developed an action plan with concrete measures that can be carried out to solve communities' issues, followed by the elaboration of the community-led local development strategies. In order to raise awareness and also to manage to find solutions to the problems identified in the action plans, the two civic groups organised 23 actions targeting the local decision-making process (petitions, requests for public information, participation in public consultations) and 17 actions that implied the involvement of citizens from the 2 communities (community actions, advocacy campaigns). The 2 civic groups were able to actively engage 138 citizens in their actions. For a better dissemination of the projects’ results and good practices, 32 relevant stakeholders from other communities and organisations were trained in the CLLD method, so that they can replicate it in other communities.
Summary of bilateral results