Although local self-government units in Serbia had adopted local strategic documents even before the new Law on the Planning System came into force, this did not mean that local development was managed systematically in Serbia. Most local self-government units had adopted sustainable development strategies and sectoral multi-year strategies for specific areas such as education, employment, tourism, youth support, investment attraction, and social welfare service development, which covered a significant portion of their original competencies. However, due to a number of shortcomings in the processes of adoption, fulfillment, and monitoring of the results achieved by these documents, true planning did not exist.
With the beginning of the application of the Law on the Planning System and the decrees adopted based on that law, the obligation of cities and municipalities to engage in planning their development in a comprehensive, systematic, and methodologically uniform manner took on a completely new dimension. Binding mechanisms have been established for determining priority measures and activities of local self-government units (LSUs) and for effective and efficient resource allocation during the preparation and implementation of planning documents.
This actually means that local self-government units are required, in the process of preparing and adopting the development plan and public policy documents, to take into account, in accordance with the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030, the real economic and fiscal circumstances, and the opinions and attitudes of citizens and other users, while, on the other hand, the preparation of the budget must take into account the valid planning documents.
In cooperation with the Regional Development Agency „Jug“, CEVES and TOC prepared criteria and selected cities and municipalities that will participate in the inter-municipal cooperation process, held a series of discussions with decision-makers and officials in the local economic development offices in the selected cities and municipalities, and organized an online self-assessment of the organizational and professional capacities of cities and municipalities for planning in the sense of the Law on the Planning System and accompanying decrees, during the period October 2022 – July 2023.
With the support of RDA „Jug“, the first conference on inter-municipal cooperation in local development planning was organized in Niš. In addition to local self-government units from Nišava, Pirot, Toplica, Jablanica, and Zaječar districts, participants included representatives of competent state bodies (Ministry of European Integration, Public Policy Secretariat), the national association of cities and municipalities SKGO, international projects (EU PROplus), representatives of regional civil society organizations actively involved in local development planning, as well as representatives of all components of the „Sustainable Development for All“ Platform.
The findings and recommendations arising from these activities of the Economic Pillar of the „Sustainable Development for All“ Platform, in the form of a document Improving Local Economic Development Planning represent a significant contribution to improving the planning process and inter-municipal cooperation and are intended for all parties participating or interested in participating in this process.
