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Rebuilding communities by involving the people
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"At the end of the day it is really not about the money, but about coming together."
In Breza, providing constructive activities for young people
Ignoring a cold winter rain, a group of teenagers kept running on the stadium track under their trainer's watchful eye. They were keen to make the most of Breza's newly rebuilt Youth Sports and Cultural Center. The center, with its covered sports hall and open stadium, now hosts a number of local sports and cultural clubs. These include football (soccer), volleyball, and handball teams, as well as folklore and acting classes.
“We are happy that our kids have something constructive to do in their free time … It keeps them away from drugs,” says Semso Sisic from Breza, a small industrial town near Sarajevo.
The Breza center is one of several reconstruction and development projects being implemented under the umbrella of the World Bank supported Community Development Project (CDP), with cofinancing from the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A key feature of the project is empowering the public through participation in decisionmaking, a new approach to reconstruction efforts in the country.
Letting citizens decide which priorities to choose
 Through community participation, citizens themselves decide upon their development priorities and reach a consensus on which projects to choose. The communities are then encouraged to take part in implementing the project. This is usually done by providing direct labor, and has the added benefit of creating local jobs.
“That's why we easily agreed that the Youth Center was a priority for our community, and willingly contributed our labor to its reconstruction,” explains Semso Sisic.
The Community Development Project focuses on the poorest municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina—those that are unable to invest (or borrow commercially to invest) in their own physical and social infrastructure, such as schools, medical facilities etc. It has identified 37 communities in the Bosniak-Croat Federation,and 39 in the Republika Srpska, the two autonomous regions of the country.
Amidst numerous needs, consensus prevails
 The process starts with a local consultant—who must reside in the given municipality—interviewing other citizens on their opinions about reconstruction priorities. After this initial survey is complete, the consultant organizes town-hall meetings and helps all participants to agree on the list of priorities. Given the crumbling infrastructure of the postwar period, choosing one priority among many needs is often difficult, necessitating this process of community involvement .
Osman Smjecanin, a local consultant for the project for the municipality of Trnovo, explains: “Usually, in the beginning everybody wants his or her own village to go to the head of the line. But through the process of discussion, people come to accept that not everything can be the first priority; that's when we start putting together the priority list.”
Communities contribute their labor and skills
 But even after the priority list is complete and funds have been provided—up to US$ 50,000 per grant—local participation continues. With CDP funding up to four-fifths of the project cost, municipal governments and villagers contribute the rest. As this project covers the poorest parts of the country, local people usually invest their own skills and labor. In Breza, the villagers' contribution was in removing parts of the old complex and cleaning the site.
Those involved in this project agree that it is precisely this kind of community involvement—whether it is in the form of money, equipment, materials, or labor—from decisionmaking through preparatory work to postproject evaluation, that differentiates it from many other projects. It is what makes people feel personally involved in the outcome.
In Sabici, using innovative ways to boost tourism in remote villages
 People in the remote mountain village of Sabici have used the funds under the project in an innovative manner. Unlike most other communities, they have sought to capitalize on their centuries-old tradition of healthy food and rural crafts by using this as a means to generate revenue from tourism. Targeting primary school students from Sarajevo and its surrounding region, they have developed a project called School in Nature.
As the result of this project, students have begun pouring into Sabici's pristine environment for one- to two-week-long excursions. While the students attend classes and workshops in rooms built and equipped under the project, the villagers feed them fresh milk, homemade butter and cheese, and other nutritous food.
People now demand that their voices be heard
But there is more here than meets the eye. "Although infrastructure has improved and the quality of life is better, the projects have wrought a vital change in the local leadership and the people," says Smjecanin, the consultant. People have learned to identify, discuss, and agree on priorities that benefit the wider community. "Now, during the discussions, ethnic, political, and other differences fade away and common interests come to the surface."
By the end of the process, people take a greater interest in municipality budgets and their distribution. By demanding that their voices be heard, and more transparency be introduced to decisionmaking, people not only better protect their own interests, but also strengthen local communities and make them more democratic, which is critical for rebuilding a war- torn country.
“People are tired of holding their future hostage to political maneuverings," says the World Bank's Maniza Naqvi, who is the project's team leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “At the end of the day it is not about the money, but about coming together and discussing common problems and priorities.” |
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