:: PROJECT
Mon – 31 Support for democratic dialogue and development of the civil sector in Ulcinj
:: DONOR
German Foreign Ministry / City of Wülfrath
:: REALISATION / BUDGET
01.09.2004 – 28.02.2005 :: € 15.000
:: SHORT DESCRIPTION
1. Background
Ulcinj is one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic Coast . The old city has been founded in 5 th century B.C. Ulcinj is located right next to the Albanian border. Today the Municipality of Ulcinj amounts to 26.435 inhabitants, 78% of them are Albanians. During the war in Kosovo, the town has become a haven for around 30.000 Albanian refugees from Kosovo. At this moment, there are still 620 refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina , as well as 996 IDPs from Kosovo living in Ulcinj. Montenegrins, Roma and ethnic Albanian citizens are living peacefully together in this town. However, the events in the Balkans had a negative influence on Ulcinj regarding to the inter-ethnical relations.
The project was developed within the partnership between the City of Wülfrath and the Municipality of Ulcinj . Thus, this partnership gives an opportunity for upgrading democratic structures and stabile development in Montenegro through friendly relations and cultural exchange. In the previous period, within the partnership, the highly necessary projects for renovation of the high school, primary school and the library were successfully implemented, as well as the providing of equipment for the music school. Delegations from Wülfrath, lead by the Mayor, have several times visited Ulcinj, and in year 2003, the Mayor of Ulcinj has visited Wülfrath.
All the measures were conducted in cooperation with German Charity Organization HELP- in Montenegro – including German Manager.
2. Project description
2.1 The objectives of the activities are to support the democratic and inter-ethnical dialogue and the development of the civil society in Ulcinj. This is going to be accomplished by conducting series of workshops and other events in which the citizens, representatives of NGOs, journalists and politicians are going to participate.
The strengthening of the civilian sector is an important component of society life and at the same time a condition for social changes, which should contribute that in Ulcinj modern and adequate forms of living and working, which correspond with the requirements of today`s life, originate. This requires the inclusion of a wider social class into planning and decision processes.
2.2 Project activities
2.2.1 Selection of the project participants
The first step should be to recruit individuals who are interested in socio-political matters and to motivate them to take action in the social life and motivate others therefore. For this purpose an assistant of the local partner of HELP in Ulcinj, the Nansen Dialog Zentrum (NDZ), will contact local organizations with which they used to work together in former projects. Furthermore, the public should be informed about this activities by the local media and interested circles of people should be gained for collaboration in that way. In that manner approximately 40 persons should be gained for further project activities.
2.2.2 Training
An important aspect of this activities is to enable people, who were identified in the preparatory phase, to fulfill their allocated role with the help of corresponding training strategies. The realization of the training is in charge of the local partner ( Nansen Dialog Center ), within two workshops with twenty participants each. The participants should become familiar with the main issue “Participation of citizen”. A brief description of these workshops is attached (Participation of citizen in the local communities).
The participants for two training strategies for Advanced will be established from the group of participants of the first two workshops. The aim of the first strategy is to qualify up to 15 specially dedicated and motivated persons for the organization of workshops, round tables etc. This group of people will then be at the disposal of other interested citizen and will teach them those methods, if required. Within a process of interactive exchange of experiences, the principle that people should have the courage to take responsibility for their aims and actions should be explained as a principle element.
The main issues of the second training strategy are “capacity building” and “advocacy” and the transfer of basics of the strategic planning.
This group of people (or just a part of them) should finally be able to motivate interested citizen for further dedication and support them to take influence on local decision processes.
2.2.3 Public events
An increasing number of interested citizens in Ulcinj should be reached by the organization of public events and lectures or by the support of public events, other associations, groups, public interest groups etc. The issues of the lectures and events are on the one hand dialog capability, conflict management, communication and participation of citizen and on the other hand also local issues. They citizens should also become familiar with the activities of their representatives of local administrations as well as with the laws and advocacies of this bodies and the local development plans, so that they can establish a panel for the exchange of opinions among citizens and representatives of the Municipality.
Especially events, which deal with the question of local self-government, must be underlined. The concept of participation of citizen in the local self- government of Montenegro and especially in Ulcinj, is still relatively new. So the citizen themselves as well as the local administrations get familiar with this concept. Items like participation, the meaning of it and all types of participation, the institutional and the non-formal form, have to be explained. Beside the factors, which make a participation possible, also the obstacles, which means development and power interests, which handicap an extensive participation of citizen in the decision processes at the local level, have to be discussed
2.2.4 Media
Media act an essential part in each modern society for the forming of a public opinion. Hence, the role of the media has to be specified and the local media have to be involved for a strengthening of the civilian society in Ulcinj, due to the fact that only with the help of the civilian society a huge resonance among the population can be found. For this reason the individual project activities, especially all public events and the guests who have been invited to come should be announced via local media.
2.3 Results
After completing this project activities a group of extremely dedicated citizen should be able to work out an action plan, in which further activities of dedicated citizen, respites, responsible persons, necessary sources as well as other necessary details are defined.
As a result of this activities a net of socially active citizen and representatives of non-government organizations and local media will grow, which will open relevant issues of the Municipality to the public and at the same time involve the public into decision processes. In that way, the Municipality of Ulcinj will show lively discussion culture concerning economic, social and religious topics.
3. Project realization
HELP will realize the activities in cooperation with the local partner. The overall responsibility for the realization and the coordination of all activities with the local partner lies with HELP.
The local partner of HELP is the Nansen Dialogzentrum (NDZ) in Montenegro , a non-government organization, which made it its business to easy the transition process by supporting the dialogue. The NDZ was founded in 2000 and it is part of a network of similar centers in 9 different places on the territory of the former Republic of Yugoslavia .
The objective of NDZs activities is to add to the creation of a transparent civilian society, which is based on democratic principals. The inter-ethnic dialogue is considered as a condition for the reconciliation and the restoring of the broken relations between the ethnic and religious groups.
The total costs of this measure amount to € 15.000.
