Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local Government
4
Large Cities
0
Capital Cities
0
Regional or State Governments
0
National Government
0
Other Institutions
0
Local Government
4
Large Cities
0
Capital Cities
0
Regional or State Governments
0
National Government
0
Other Institutions
0
Community
Capital
Sarajevo
Population
3 301 000
Language
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
Currency
MARCO BOSNIOHERZEGOVINO
Indexes
Democracy
102
Hybrid Regime
Democracy
Democracy
102
Hybrid Regime
Democracy
Corruption Perception
101/180
High
Corruption Perception
Corruption Perception
101/180
High
Corruption Perception
Human Development
75
High
Human Development
Human Development
75
High
Human Development
World Happiness
69/153
High
World Happiness
World Happiness
69/153
High
World Happiness
Global Peace
81
Medium
Global Peace
Global Peace
81
Medium
Global Peace
Global Terrorism
88
Very Low
Global Terrorism
Global Terrorism
88
Very Low
Global Terrorism
Legislation Regarding the Regulation of Participatory Budgeting Experiences
There is no legislation on the state or regional level. The only legislation that is assigned to Participatory Budgeting is a municipal budget for the respective year on the local level. The PB itself is implemented by the decision of the Mayor and his office, that is the executive, not legislative body of local government.
Outstanding Innovations
The innovation of PB in the 4 municipalities was focused on increasing the inclusivity of the whole process. The innovation takes place beside the usual approach when the citizens propose their ideas, discuss them with fellow citizens and vote (on-line) for the ideas that should be implemented.
Increasing Participatory Budgeting inclusivity was enabled mainly by involving students into the PB process and promotion. The most active students in the municipality that are members of their school councils were trained and encouraged to play an active role in following tasks:
- They promoted the idea of PB among their fellow classmates in school both in formal and non-formal way;
- They undertook a kind of analysis based on mapping of marginalized groups and their needs;
- They proposed their own ideas as well as the projects that should fulfil the needs of social marginalized groups;
- They helped to reach the people that have no connection to the Internet to involve them in on-line voting;
- They were supposed to do a door-to-door campaign, especially in distant, rural parts of their municipalities. This experiment was evaluated by an external company called “GovLab”. The result of the evaluation can be found on the website of the PB in BiH: www.pbbih.com
Initial Reference for the Adoption of PB in the Country
No information available
Subsequent Reference for PB Dissemination
No information available
Impacts of COVID-19 Disease on PB
- PB have been suspended: 100%
- PB continued to function normally: 0%
- PB have undergone changes/adaptations: 0%
Main Trends of PB in the Country During the Pandemic
We can state that the pandemic has had considerable impact, but it was not the only reason to stop the PB in BiH. The PBs were just the first pilot cases done with external support of the Czech State development aid of 2018. In combination with severe cuts and very unstable financing from the state budget triggered the end for these PB experiments.
Additional Information
What is worth to mention about BiH is that there are other participatory and deliberative mechanism introduced by Law on self-government in here. There are representative bodies (councils) elected on local communities’ level (“Miestny zaiednice” in orig.) with maximum of several hundreds of people living in there. These local communities’ councils are also part of the budgetary procedures of the municipality, but their role is only advisory not decisive. Due to this PB is reflected as a complement focused directly on the broad public.
