20 public debates were organized by CCI during the period April-June 2017 With these events CCI enabled direct communication between over 1.500 citizens and over 100 elected representatives in legislative authority institutions.    

In the debates, the elected representatives of legislative authorities at the levels of cantons, entities and states, presented their activities and work results, and discussed with the citizens the current issues in election units in which they were elected in last elections, all in the interest of finding  joint solution to important life issues. In that occasion, the elected representatives answered dozens of citizens' questions, listened to what the priority problems in their local communities were, and presented what had been done so far in that regard. In this way, the citizens were able to learn directly from those that were elected by them in the last elections, about everything that concerned them and that so far they did not have an opportunity to find out.  

In addition to this, this was an opportunity for the citizens to nominate certain topics, i.e. problems as priority for solution, so that the representatives in HNC Assembly were informed about the problems in the field of education, security and the problem of the essential list, that does not include a sufficient amount of necessary medicines, and the lack of the Law on Protection of the Families with Children in HNC.  The bad situation in health sector was emphasized as a problem to the MPs in the RS. The problem of getting a job along the party lines in public sector was singled out as a priority problem in USC, while in CT this was the politicization of higher education. MPs in BiH Parliament were drawn attention to the need of adoption, at the state level, of an important strategy, such as the Agricultural Development Strategy, Rural Development Strategy, tens of millions of EURO from EU IPA funds were lost because of non-adoption of these strategies. It is interesting that in parallel to presenting the problems, the citizens also offered a number of concrete solutions, and proposed the topics for some future similar meetings. They also expressed their opinion that this sort of communication was good and necessary and that it presented a first step toward solving of certain problems. The MPs accepted most of the suggestions made in these events and committed in public to initiating the solution to the said problems in their further work in legislative institutions.  

We would especially single out some concrete things that the MPs committed to. In the forum in Odzak, after a long time and a number of failed attempts, a long evaded promise was made that the representatives of parliamentary majority would initiate and support, in the Posavina Canton Assembly, holding of a thematic session on the subject of agriculture, which is of extreme importance for the citizens of PC.  Also, after the forum in Lukavac in which the MPs in the House of Representatives of BH Federation Parliament participated, and where one of the burning problems of the citizens in this area was discussed, namely, air pollution, the present MPs committed to a joint formulation of conclusions that would include all the agreed proposals from the forum. They also agreed to submit these conclusions together, regardless of them coming from different political parties and coalitions, in the form of an Initiative, to FBiH Parliament for consideration.  

A sentence that was uttered most frequently in these forums by the citizens may be taken as a general conclusion from all these forums. The representatives in legislative authorities coming from the same electoral unit should get together and start acting together, in order to do something useful for the citizens coming from the same place where they also live, that is to say, the interest of citizens should be placed before the interests of political parties. The citizens mostly added to this that it was them who elected the representatives to these offices and not the parties, and therefore, they have to answer to the citizens and act in their interest. Due to everything mentioned above, the citizens expect the representatives to start a number of joint initiatives in the forthcoming period.  

Of 20 forums held, 14 were recorded, and the clips will be broadcast on BHT1, every Sunday at 12:45h, starting from 19 May 2017 to 13 August 2017. The records of the broadcast forums are also posted on Inicijativa.TV and are available on the link:   http://inicijativa.tv/category/gradani-govore/.

These acctivities are conducted within the Civil Society Sustainability Project (CSSP) supported by USAID. 

Despite the moratorium against employment in public institutions, several thousand new employees and workers were employed in BiH in 2016, in most cases without transparent and valid procedures – show the results of CCI’s monitoring.

The report on monitoring the appointment and employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina public sector that gives an overview of regulations and practice relating to appointment and employment in public sector in 2016 was announced by CCI at the end of May. The results of monitoring the appointments and employment in public sector show that in as many as 75% of the interviewed public administration bodies and public companies there was new employment – of that , 81% at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 84% in the Republic of Srpska, and 62% of cases in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

The report was presented, among other, in three public events, on 05 May 2017 in the public forum in Sarajevo, on 30 May 2017 at the press conference in Banja Luka and on 08 June 2017 at the press conference open for the public, in Tuzla. The events caused a great deal of interest of the public and especially of the media.  

CCI continued advocating promotion of legislative framework governing appointments and employment in public sector, mainly aiming at creation of a more efficient, more economical and more accountable public administration in our country.   The most important positive fact is passing of the Amendment to the Labour Act of BH Federation, which, for the first time introduces the obligatory public competitions throughout the public sector, including public companies and institutions.  This Act provides for passing of a separate Regulation that can considerably improve the employment system throughout the public sector, and enable the employment and progress of the best candidates. In cooperation with BiH Federation prime minister and FBiH Labour Ministry, and in cooperation with its partners, CCI proceeded to drafting the said Regulation.  

Starting of the procedure for drafting the Law on Public Servants in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) is also a considerable result. Namely, FBiH Justice Ministry formed the Work Group for Preparing the Pre-Draft of FBiH Law on Public Servants; CCI's representatives are also the members of this group. This Law can promote, in a revolutionary way, the area of human resources potentials management and significantly improve the framework of public servants relations in FBiH, including all public servants.  

Apart from the aforementioned, we would like to emphasize a successful mini-campaign in Canton Sarajevo (CS), in cooperation with trade unions, representatives of parents' councils and academic community, which can significantly contribute to the de-politicization of managerial and leadership positions in the education sector. Namely, the campaign resulted in a significant improvement of laws on primary, secondary and higher education in CS in terms of composition, responsibilities and the procedure of appointment of school and management boards, the procedures of appointment and dismissal of principals, university presidents, etc. 

Also, in Canton Tuzla, a negative campaign was launched directed first of all against anti-reform and anti-constitutional activity of Canton Tuzla Assembly during passing of the retrograde Public Service Laws (30 April 2017) and the Higher Education Act (16 March 2017) of Canton Tuzla (CT). This campaign too, received significant support of the expert public, citizens and the media.

These activities are implemented by the Centres for Civic Initiatives (CCI) with the support of the European Union as part of the project „Strengthening the Public Sector Integrity: De-politicization for the Rule of Law“ aimed at contributing to the rule of law and good governance in BiH, by advocating professionalism and public sector integrity, especially the procedures of appointment and employment in public sector.

CCI started the activities on promoting the level of equipment of the civil protection units in 5 local communities. 

The first Public Announcement (tender) for procurement of the equipment for enhancing the capacity and technical equipment of the civil protection units in the Bijeljina City and the municipalities Sapna, Teocak, Lopare and Sekovici was ended at the end of May.  The equipment that will be procured in the next 60 days under this tender was defined as priority equipment by the local self-governance units and the civil protection units themselves. The purpose of the procured equipment is to enable raising of the level of fitness of the civil protection units for acting in case of danger. More specifically, the rescue boats, professional fire protection suits, pumps and special pumping pipes, modern communication means, population alert systems, drones, generations, uniforms for civil protection units, etc. have been procured.  

At the same time, the Public Invitation is currently open for the needs of carrying out the infrastructural works in the mentioned self-governance units, in order to repair over 5000 meters of flood channels and drainage systems, and for repair of two landslides in Teocak and Sapna municipalities.  

In the continuation of the project, all the activities will be performed in consultations and constant communication with the citizens, who will be the key partners, along with local administrations and the Civil Protection, as well as with the business sector in target local communities.  Also, all other social actors will have their roles in the protection against floods, and the aim of this project is to certainly contribute to that. Local authorities will formally receive the studied and elaborated proposals for improving the local policies determining the field of protection and rescuing from natural disasters, with an emphasis on floods. These proposals will include the Policy proposal with the recommendations for target legislation, based on expertise, as well as the positive experience of neighboring countries. At the same time, the communication and cooperation with the local authorities, civil and business sector and Civil Protection will be improved, thus contributing to enhancing the perspective of using the inter-sector dialogues in local communities, especially in the context of future flood protection and in the light of the development of local communities in the broader sense.   

The Project „Improving the System for Prevention and Protection against Floods in the municipalities Bijeljina, Lopare, Sekovici, Sapna and Teocak“ is supported by the Delegation of the European Union in BiH.

Recommendations for improving of the election process made by „Pod lupom“ Coalition were presented in 6 BiH towns.

The Coalition presented the report on monitoring the Local Elections in 2016 at the public forums that were held in Travnik, District Brcko and Cazin. Additionally, regional conferences were held in Livno, Bijeljina and Bihac with the representatives of local election administrations and political subjects. These events, in which the Final Report on Monitoring 2016 Local Elections and the recommendations of „Pod lupom“ Coalition for improving the election process were presented and where the irregularities in BH elections were discussed, gathered over 300 participants. 

The participants of the above events had an opportunity to see an exhibition of photographs taken of election irregularities and to directly contact the MPs at the state level and the members of BH CEC by sending illustrated postcards with the recommendations for improving the election process.   

The activities of „Pod lupom“ coalition are supported by the Delegation of the European Commission in BiH through the project BASE (Building Accountability and Systems in Elections).

CCI become a member of UNCAC UN Civil Society Coalition is a global network of over 350 civil society organisations (CSOs) in over 100 countries,

committed to promoting the ratification, implementation and monitoring of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). 

New technologies in the election process. Coalition „Pod lupom“ created new online base for monitoring of election proces.

The online base of  for application, accreditation, assignment, reporting and evaluation of observers was on several occasions rated, by relevant actors, as the most comprehensive and the best in the domain of citizens', non-party monitoring of elections. 

This online base was presented in April and May as an example of good practice, at the events that took place in Washington and Belgrade, where the new technologies in the election process were discussed.