United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in cooperation with the Association of Municipalities and Cities of BiH Federation initiated in January 2013 implementation of the project “Support to development of more effective, knowledgeable and service oriented local government in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH)”.

As a result of projects activities and efforts, the FBiH Government, at its regular session held on 13 March 2014, passed a Decision for introduction of the Methodology for transparent financing of civil society organizations’ projects as per EU standards (LOD Methodology).

The LOD Methodology has been created  for the purpose of defining clear procedures for transparent allocation of funds to civil society organizations (CSO) from the budget of all level of governments.

These activities are one of the components of an EU funded project “Reinforcement of Local Democracy III – LOD III”. Ambassador Peter Sorensen, Head of the EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative has also supported the implementation of this Methodology.

In the Decision, the FBiH Government recommends to local governments (cantons and local self-government units) to introduce and implement the Methodology, stressing that additional funds are not needed for implementation of the decision. FBiH Ministries of Justice and Finances have been appointed to monitor implementation of the Decision.

The adoption of this Decision is a result of several months of activities of the Association of Municipalities and Cities of FBiH and LOD III project that had consultations with relevant FBiH Ministries and provided recommendations that led to positive acceptance by the FBiH Government.

This represents another important step in strengthening partnership between governments at all levels and CSOs. It is expected that future funds, allocated for CSOs activities, will be used more efficiently for the benefits of people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. LOD project continues cooperation with Association of Municipalities and Cities of FBiH on accomplishing defined objectives, and in the near future we can expect delivery of a series of trainings for representatives of local self-government units in FBiH on LOD methodology implementation.

Reinforcement of Local Democracy III – LOD III is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNDP BiH), and funded by the European Union (EU) from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) in the amount of 2,000,000 EUR. The project supports strengthening of cooperation between local governments and CSOs in BiH, and all through developing capacities for project based allocation of budget funds to CSOs for resolving issues in local communities.