This Project is the continuation of previous support to the elected assemblies in Serbia – the National Assembly and local assemblies. The project will focus on the following key interventions: political dialogue, transparency and gender equality. These are foundational components of a democratic system that need to be enhanced in order for Serbia to continue to progress in the effectiveness of its governance system.
More concretely, this will be done by maintaining and expanding the space for political dialogue and by supporting a commitment by assemblies to being more transparent. Support for women’s political empowerment is a further critical area where progress has been made, but much is still to be done by the elected assemblies.
The project will have three outputs that will address the key interventions: 1) The National Assembly in Serbia fosters a culture and implements systems that ensure routine dialogue (cross-party dialogue between MPs and with civil society and citizens) and access to information in order to ensure better and more inclusive policy-making processes; 2) Local assemblies are transparent in providing information to citizens and civil society and empowered to better fulfil their democratic role and respond to citizen’s needs; and 3) Citizens and civil society organizations, especially women, engage more actively with parliaments at the central and local level as conveners of inclusive dialogue and by providing inputs to law and policy-making.
This project will focus on maintaining democratic space in order to limit the decline in democratic commitments and to support the ongoing transition to democracy.
The project will focus on two key interventions in order to address the development challenge:
Political Dialogue – Recognizing the challenges in sustaining inter-parliamentary dialogue between MPs and, separately, between MPs and citizens, the project will promote new methods and venues for dialogue to encourage inclusive inputs in decision-making. Some of these will be within the NARS and LAs, others may be external and organized with civil society and other key actors; and
Citizen Engagement – Supporting the NARS and LAs, to enhance their capacity to routinely and systematically engage citizens, with a particular emphasis on women, and develop new avenues for information and access to institutions required by citizens to be active participants in the policy-making process in Serbia.
This project started in January 2020 and will last until December 2023.
