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News / Success Stories

Participatory Budgeting in Veliko Gradište

  • Veliko Gradište, 2 October 2020

From the construction of the water supply system to the mobile library on the lake, these are just some of the initiatives of the citizens of Veliki Gradište for which the municipality allocated funds after the budget became the topic of public discussions.

Through its participation in the Municipality Support Packages provided within the Swiss PRO Programme, the Municipality of Veliko Gradiste improved the transparency and public participation in the work of local administration by introducing an innovative approach to engaging citizens, and particularly youth, in public discussions on the municipality budget.

After publishing the Draft Decision on the Budget at the Public Budget portal, the Finance Department of the LSG Veliko Gradiste organised numerous discussions on budget within various tourist events and engaged directly with the citizens, while collecting completed surveys on priority projects for financing during the next budget year.

On the weekends, the representatives of LSG were on duty at the stand that was made especially for that occasion and was set up in the center of the city in order to engage a larger number of citizens. In addition, workshops with high school students, meetings with representatives of civil society organisations and local communities, gatherings in the villages, as well as working breakfast with the private sector were organized.

As a result, out of 137 projects proposed by citizens a total of 36 were included in the municipal budget for 2020. Already eight of them are implemented, and now citizens enjoy more walking to the lake, feel safer in the town square and have more space for recreation.

The report on the whole process can be found at the Municipality webpage.