Capacity Development for the Entity Associations of Municipalities and Cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The objective was to develop the capacities of the Association of Municipalities and Cities (AMC) of the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and the Association of Municipalities and Cities of Republika Srpska (RS). The overall objective of the project was to strengthen democratic processes in BiH and to contribute to the BiH’s EU accession progress. Project goals in short:

• to strengthen the AMCs in BIH, ensuring their independence, clear mandates and accountability to their constituencies – the municipalities and, ultimately, the citizens of BiH.
• to facilitate the development of strategic documents and services of the AMCs, enhancing the AMCs’ capacities as a service-provider to their members and strengthen the influence of municipalities on higher levels of government.
• to help the AMC to bridge the current lack of in-house expertise.

The project defined the suggested allocation of Project Fund resources (included in the overall budget) in the inception phase.

Planned outputs/results were:
Component 1: Institutional strategic development

• Updated strategic documents
• Increased resource mobilisation & self sustainability
• Recruitment of AMC-based staff for new services portfolio
• Training & management capacity of AMCs increased

Component 2: Lobby & advocacy

• Strengthened lobby & advocacy skills of AMC staff and AMC committees
• Enhanced relations between AMCs and key stakeholders (media, government, donors)
• Improved coordination between SOGRS and SOGFBiH

Component 3: Services development

• Upgraded services in the field of municipal finance
• Upgraded services in the field of legal advice
• Upgraded information & communication services
• Establishment of Units for EU Integration in each AMC