The Centre for Advanced Economic Studies CEVES organized the Thematic Group „Serbia 2030 – How to Achieve Local Community Ownership of Their Economic Development“ in the past year. The Thematic Group was formed as part of the programmatic activities of CEVES and the Youth Centre of Timok, within the „Sustainable Development for All“ Platform supported by the governments of Switzerland and Germany and implemented by GIZ.
Within the Thematic Group, in the period October 2021 – June 2022, consultative meetings were held with representatives of state bodies, public utility companies, business associations, local self-governments, civil society organizations, as well as independent experts dealing with this or related topics, but also at the local level, where discussions were held in the local communities of Knjaževac, Pirot, and Sombor, with representatives of the economy, local self-government, and civil society organizations (CSOs). We spoke with representatives of the Ministry of Economy, the Republic Secretariat for Public Policy, NALED, the National Coalition for Democracy, SKGO, etc.
The main goal of the consultative process conducted within the Thematic Group was to identify and define the obstacles faced by local communities, as well as the mechanisms available to local actors to improve and affirm participation in planning and implementing the economic development of local communities.
The result of the Thematic Group's work is a document with proposals for changes in public policies and improvement of practices related to local community ownership of their local economic development..
Although, according to the Constitution and legal regulations, local self-governments and their bodies, institutions, and companies should primarily be responsible for the development of local communities, the implementation of legal competencies to involve local actors in shaping their future is not at all simple in practice. This discrepancy between regulations and practice necessitates a detailed analysis of the nature of the obstacles that prevent local communities from fully realizing ownership of local development. The aim of the analysis resulting from the Thematic Group is to find answers as to why and how the room for maneuver in implementing adopted public policies and regulations that empower local self-governments to independently determine the directions of their own development, in consultation with citizens, the economy, CSOs, and other interested actors, is narrowing in practice.
The result of the dialogues held, i.e., the proposal for the next steps in the process of empowering local communities to take ownership of their development, can also be presented as support for the creation of a modern Serbian economy and human-centered living environment, in line with the United Nations' Agenda 2030, which defined 17 planetary sustainable development goals (SDGs) and committed 193 signatory countries, including Serbia, to engage in achieving these goals and adapt them to the needs of their citizens.
