Direct democracy in the City of Sveta Nedelja
The City of Sveta Nedjelja is introducing direct democracy. Through an advisory e-referendum, citizens will be able to get directly involved in deciding on a project important for the city's development - from infrastructure issues to the budget items.

The first topic about which the citizens will be able to decide, is the location for building and arranging the new market. Two locations were offered, and the citizens expressed their opinion as to which place suits them.

All interested citizens will have to register in advance, in order to be able to vote easily on the website www.ereferendum.grad-svetanedelja.hr. After registration, City officials will approve their registration, and they will be able to vote.

All residents of the City of Sveta Nedelja can vote, but only the votes of adult residents will be taken as a result. Also, interested people/parties who do not live in Sveta Nedelja and have an interest related to this topic can vote (for example, interested investors on topics related to entrepreneurship or interested citizens of other local self-governments on the topics of tourist infrastructure). These votes will not be included in the main result, but they will serve the City administration to know what other interested groups outside the area of the city of Sveta Nedelja think about a certain topic.

 

 Association of Kosovo Municipalities

 

At the Request of AKM, the fines for delays in civil registration are also suspended
At the request of the Association of Kosovo Municipalities addressed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration (MIAPA) a few days ago, the deadlines for the administrative procedure for the registration / declaration of the facts of births and deaths which occurred from 13 February 2020 have been postponed and suspended until further decision, as a consequence of pandemic COVID-19.

This decision was issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration (MIAPA) following AKM’s request from the Mayors to mitigate the fines for citizens in this process during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The request of the AKM addressed to the acting Minister of MIAPA, Mr. Xhelal Sveçla states:

"After reviewing the situation in municipalities by the Collegium of Administrative Directors within the Association of Kosovo Municipalities due to the situation created by COVID-19 pandemic, in municipalities we have applications for late registration of civil status (births and deaths) by our citizens. As a result, we submit this REQUEST for release of citizens from the previous fines, according to Article 63, item 1.1 and 1.2 of the Law on Civil Status of Kosovo (Law No.; 04 / L-003) as well as based on Municipal Regulations for Taxes, Charges and Municipal fines where according to the existing Law and Municipal Regulations in force late registration after 30 days provides for fines for registration delays.

This request concerns the parties who request service for registration of Delayed Civil Status Facts, respectively births and deaths which have occurred from 01.01.2020 to 31.12.2020 in all municipalities of Kosovo*.

Our request is also based on the Decisions / Stands of the Bodies and Institutions of the Central and Local Levels at the national level regarding the measures for overcoming the World-Virus-COVID-19 Pandemic”.

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.
 

Independent research: The commitment of AKM is highly valued even in times of pandemics
In an independent research by four organizations on how the municipalities of Kosovo have faced the situation created by the pandemic COVID-19, out of 32 Municipalities participating in the research, the work, commitment and lobbying made by the Association of Kosovo Municipalities at this time of pandemic has been highly praised.

Communication for Social Development (CSD), EC Ma Ndryshe, Demokraci Plus (D +) and Syri i Vizionit, within the program "Active Citizenship and Responsive Municipalities in Kosovo" have conducted research on how Kosovo municipalities have responded and how they cope with the condition created by COVID-19 pandemic.

The research was conducted with an online questionnaire with 22 questions, which was sent to all 38 municipalities of Kosovo. Out of these, 32 municipalities responded, while 6 of them did not provide an answer to this research.

In this regard, regarding the work of the AKM, the questionnaire also posed the question: How satisfied are you with the communication you have with the Association of Kosovo Municipalities? The response of all municipalities participating in this research is superior to the work of the AKM:

“All 32 surveyed municipalities have highly appreciated that their coordination and communication with the Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM) has been continuous and very useful in harmonizing stands and addressing the requirements and needs of citizens in the relevant ministries and the Government of Kosovo. As a result of the requests of the AKM, the municipalities claim that they have achieved that some decisions of the Government are harmonized with their requests”
.
This research is supported by the Olaf Palme International Centre while this program aims to involve and participate citizens in decision making.


Kosovo municipalities are demanding a shortening of the second phase of measures against COVID-19
Taking into account the transition from the first phase to the second and the positive trends that are being developed, as well as the progressive steps that are being undertaken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Mayors estimate that there is a possibility and preconditions to look at the options of shortening the second phase of measures.

The Mayors demand that the measures be reviewed only in accordance with the situation, which is being viewed as a positive indicator for the review of the second phase measures that are being lifted from the risk of public health. In this regard, based on the principle and the current economic situation which has a tendency to have a significant decline, AKM believes that the second phase should be reviewed and shortened. The economic losses can already be huge.

On the other hand, municipal budgets consist of government grants, central capital investments and own source revenues. The main own source revenues of municipalities consist of: property tax, construction permits and municipal taxes.

These revenues have dropped significantly and if this trend continues with the second phase, businesses will be damaged first, whereby one day out of business leads to significant financial losses, this will also reflect on the municipal budgets.

Secondly, AKM thinks that with the further facilitation of the measures, the citizens will start to pay the obligations to the municipalities, which will lead to increase the collection of own source revenues and as a result of this, funds will be invested in projects that will improve the life of the citizens.

The mayors, on this occasion, request that the idea of ​​shortening the second phase and moving to the third phase be evaluated.


AKM Requests from the Ministry of Agriculture to review and evaluate the rejection lists for some agricultural farmers
The Association of Kosovo Municipalities has addressed a request to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, Mr. Besian Mustafa, to review the criteria and re-evaluate the lists of farmers who are on the rejection lists due to their non-recognition of some complaint procedures for subsidies.
The letter of the AKM, signed by the Vice President Mr. Xhafer Gashi states:

"As a result of the situation created by COVID 19 and the closure of markets, Kosovar farmers have suffered a lot of financial damage, as a result of this pandemic, their agricultural products have not been able to be placed in green markets, exported abroad , supply restaurants, hotels or other users of agricultural products. The consequences of the difficulties created by the situation with COVID 19 have affected the investments made by farmers, which have not resulted in profits for them.

Farmers of Kosovo municipalities, as provided by Administrative Instruction 03/2018 have applied for direct payments - subsidies which as a procedure are executed in municipalities, respectively in the relevant municipal directorates.

Municipal officials from their records and field visits this year have noticed a decrease in the number of applications in municipalities. Municipalities have also identified that a number of leading farmers even though very good farmers, for various reasons are now on the blacklist based on the reports of MAFRD inspectors.

Good farmers are professionals in their work, but they do not know enough about the bureaucratic procedures for exercising the right to appeal and are therefore on the ministry's blacklist. As a result, farmers are excluded more than for the applicant year.

Given the above arguments, we as AKM ask you to review the criteria and re-evaluate these lists in order to help farmers overcome the difficulties created for their activity with additional problems created as well from the consequences of pandemic.

Please also review possible errors caused due to cadastral and unintentional defects of farmers so that they do not follow as applicants, where a long-term exemption is foreseen as it is foreseen based on the black list.

We hope that this request of ours will be taken into consideration by you and that we will have a responsibility which will be in favour of the development of agricultural activity in the municipalities”.


AKM Representatives reported to the parliamentary committee for local government on the state the COVID-19 pandemic in Kosovo Municipalities
Representatives of the Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM) - Acting President of the AKM Mr. Xhafer Gashi and Executive Director of the AKM Mr Sazan Ibrahimi, attended the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Local Government, Public Administration, Regional Development and Media to report on the state of COVID-19 pandemic in Kosovo Municipalities. 

In this meeting, where representatives of the AKM participated at the invitation of this Parliamentary Committee, they elaborated on the situation in municipalities regarding the challenges, commitment and difficulties in the municipalities of Kosovo in this pandemic situation.   

In his speech in front of the Members of this Commission, Mayor Gashi said that “Kosovo municipalities have so far faced emergencies of various types such as floods, earthquakes, fires but COVID-19 pandemic was something new for the Municipalities. 

Since the beginning, i.e. from the second week of March, all municipalities were mobilized by creating an Emergency Local Headquarters where members of this staff were various municipal representatives and in most cases these headquarters are led by the mayor.

I think that the mayors and municipalities have done an extraordinary and substantial job in the battle to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Municipalities, being in the forefront of providing services and managing the situation with COVID-19 have faced and will face numerous challenges and difficulties in meeting the demands and needs of citizens and local businesses. Municipalities have made every effort to protect groups at greatest risk from COVID-19.

Regarding the cooperation and coordination of municipalities with the central level, as I pointed out earlier, this was not something new for municipalities but also for central institutions and we can say that there was a lack of cooperation and coordination in the beginning phase of pandemics. We think that the central level has tried to manage the situation only from Pristina by bypassing the municipalities and taking decisions without consulting the municipalities or the Association as the legal representative of the municipalities. After the response of the Association, on behalf of the municipalities, this coordination has started to improve, especially after the establishment of the Inter-Institutional Group for Incident Management.  
 
The Association had daily communication with all mayors, municipal directorates and addressed the requests of the municipalities at the central level. Consecutively, after the first 10 days and up until now, we can assess that the cooperation has been correct and acknowledged by the municipalities as a consolidated cooperation.

In the Bulletin that you received earlier but also distributed now, you can see the requests of the municipalities to the central level where we can freely say that over 90% of our requests, channelled through the Association have received positive responses from the central level" said among others the Acting  President of the AKM, Mr. Xhafer Gashi.

The Director of AKM visits the Municipality of Decan

• The income from own source revenues of municipalities has decreased by 41%, compared to the previous year, with tax revenues declining by 45%. The most affected are the large municipalities - regional centres, where the average decrease is at 44-46%.
• The "loss" of own source revenues for the period compared to the previous year, exceeds BGN 159 million. The projected contraction of the planned annual revenues is estimated at 11%. According to the analysis, at the end of May this "loss" is expected to exceed BGN 200 million.
• Due to the lack of predictability in the implementation of anti-epidemic measures, it is impossible to limit expenditures at the same rate as revenues. Municipalities managed to limit their expenditures only by BGN 44 million at the end of April, compared to the same period in 2019. Reduction of expenditures for local activities and reduction of the volume of co-financing as of May is not expected, on the contrary - the forecasts are for growth of expenditures by over BGN 242 million, compared to the previous year (March - May).
• Municipalities make great efforts at local level to maintain employment in municipal enterprises, companies and activities, the operation of which for objective reasons were suspended, respectively - the ability to generate revenue.
• Pursuant to the recommendations of the health authorities, the municipalities spend about 0.4% of their income from own source revenues for the implementation of anti-epidemic measures. The costs for these new and unplanned activities for March and April 2020 exceed BGN 6 million, and by the end of June they are expected to reach BGN 18 million.
• The data shows a clear trend for long-lasting deficit in municipal budgets as a result of the imposed state of emergency and the restrictions to limit the spread of the coronavirus infection, which by the end of May is expected to exceed BGN 77 million.
• Considering the general situation in the country and the slowdown of the economy, the probability for overcoming the deficit in short term is minimal.
• The expectations that a large share of local tax revenues will be collected by the end of June are also overly optimistic.
• The percentage-based contraction of expenditure in the budgetary sphere would cause mass unemployment in the municipal enterprises most affected by the crisis. In parallel this would result in additional burden to the state budget for paying unemployment compensations. The employees in the local government sector are over 36 thousand people, whose salaries are financed with own source revenues.
• Last but not least both citizens and business expect that all municipal services are maintained, i.e. the current quality and quantity of services should be preserved during the crisis and in the post crisis period.

Sofia Municipality expands online administrative services
Over 70 administrative services will be accessible entirely online in four metropolitan regions - "Serdika", "Triaditsa", "Nadezhda" and "Bankya". In autumn this year the digitalization of these services will be extended to another 20 region of Sofia municipality. The new way of using administrative services, which does not require citizens to go physically to the offices of the municipality to file or get different types of documents, is part of the overall Digital Transformation Strategy of Sofia. The strategic document will be voted by the Municipal Council this week.

New services, which will be accessible online include: issuance of multilingual copy of the civil status registration act; issuance of certificate for legal constraint; reflecting the choice or modification of matrimonial property regimes; recognition of a child; completion and verification of documents for Bulgarian citizenship; a certificate of declared data; certificates for guardianship and custody; certificate for identification of housing needs; permits for placing movable objects; authorization for placing of advertisement information elements; certificate for facts and circumstances on territorial and urban device; allowing elaboration of projects to amend detailed spatial plans; certificate and a schemes concerning properties recoverable, located within the urbanized territories; certificate concerning the ownership of real estate property; certificate for the presence or absence of a constituent act of municipal property; registration of associations of owners in the municipal register, etc.

As of 2021, a centralized system for selection, ranking and enrolment in first-grade in schools is expected to be launched. It will enable parents to get acquainted with the schools, admission criteria, to submit documents and to enrol their child entirely online.
 

Two air control stations are already located on the territory of Ruse municipality, and in the near future two additional stationary monitoring facilities will be placed. This was announced by the municipal administration of the Danube city. Automatic measuring station "Vazrajdane" located in the central part of town displays data in real time on the municipality website and on the two information boards at Svoboda Square and Kotovsk Street (https://www.ruse-bg.eu/pages/595/index.html). The station meets the criteria and is part of the National system for air quality control. It measures levels of ozone, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, benzene, fine dust particles and other. A mobile station is currently located at Bulgaria Boulevard in Ruse.

The municipality reported that the mayor of the city Pencho Milkov had a recent meeting with the Minister of Environment and Water for the replacement of the mobile station with a new one that provides data in a real time and can be integrated to the information system for monitoring the air quality in Ruse. Bulgarian municipalities are working together under LIFE Program to implement integrated projects for air quality improvement. The new monitoring stations will complement the database of existing ones that are part of the National environmental monitoring system, as well as the system of mobile stations.

Shumen citizens now may receive up-to-date information about the air quality in the city. This was made possible through the online system of the Environment Executive Agency. The platform is available on the municipal website (http://www.eea.government.bg/kav/reports/air/qReport/81/01).

Through it, in real time, people can check the air quality in the city, including the average values of fine dust particles for the last hour, day or year, depicted in graphical form. The system shows the levels of ozone, nitrogen and sulphur dioxide in the air, temperature and wind direction, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and solar radiation. Measurements are performed through the automatic station, located in the yard of Sofia University branch "Joan Ekzarh Bulgarski". In the last month, data shows that there was no increase of the average 24-hour norm of 50 micrograms of fine dust particles in the air on Shumen’s territory.

 Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia


Post pandemic session of the SOS Presidency

The 7th session of SOS (Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia) Presidency took place on 20 May 2020 in the Cultural Centre of the Municipality Hoče-Slivnica. The mayors discussed about the preparation of provincial legislation, operation of municipalities during and after the epidemic, lowering the voting age to 16 and the approval of documents for convening SOS annual assembly.
 
Dr. Aleksander Jevšek, President of SOS, summed up for the Presidency the content of the session of the expert group for the preparation of provincial legislation on 14 May in the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia. He expressed a satisfaction about the process of establishing the provinces, which continues despite the change of government and the declared coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, he emphasized a key issue of this project, that refers on provincial financing. Present mayors agreed on the fact that the provinces must have their own financing source. Additionally, he announced that in the further steps, competent ministries will prepare an assessment of the financial consequences in the frame of transfer of tasks. An assessment will represent a basic for preparation of provincial legislation. The municipalities will be acquainted with the draft law at the end of June 2020.

Moreover, the SOS Presidency got acquainted with the operation of municipalities during and after the pandemic. As a highlight was presented the issue of drawing on the European funds. Mayors warned on that funds, which are often provided by municipalities for European projects are returned to municipal budgets with a delay.  Mayors also pointed out the emergency of state to accelerate the implementation of prepared and on-going projects.
 
Members of the SOS Presidency were also informed about the possibility of lowering the voting age to 16. The number of countries which have already adopted voting age to 16 is increasing from year to year. Mayors have agreed on lowering the voting age to 16 due to supporting the youth activation in politics on local and parliamentary level in Slovenia.
 
The session was closed with approval of documents for convening SOS annual assembly on 3rd of June in Municipality of Medvode, where Minister for public administration Boštjan Koritnik will discuss more about future, development and financing of municipalities.
 
 
Municipal endeavours regarding the third anti-corona law package proposal
On 20 May, a press conference on the current situation regarding the COVID-19 epidemic took place in Cankar Hall in Ljubljana, the country's capital. Representatives of the Slovenian government presented the main measures of the third anti-corona package, that mitigate the consequences of the epidemic. All measures are gathered in draft law, which introduces provisional measures in the areas of labour, public finance, the economy, agriculture, forestry and food, scholarships, subsidised student meals, higher education, infrastructure, and public procurement. On 25th of May, the Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia (SOS) reacted on a law package proposal with official letter to the National Assembly, in frame of which the association provided following amendments for proposal.

In accordance with Article 6 of the third anti-corona package and 86th Article of Local Self-Government Act SOS warns on involvement of improved provisions regarding to incompatibility of the function of mayors (and deputy mayors) with membership in the bodies of associations of municipalities.  According to SOS its unacceptable to disable compatible functions, that represent a general practise on European and global level. A good example are Austrian federal states, which are led by mayors. 
 
SOS has warned also on the provisions of Article 5 of the anti-corona package, which defines the increase of borrowing money for municipalities until 31st of December 2020, otherwise municipalities could not execute demanding investment projects. In this way SOS suggests an amendment of the 10th Article of Financing of Municipalities Act that would provide borrowing money for municipalities in sustainable way, that means without time limit.
 
The last proposal of SOS addresses amendments of the 79th Article of 3rd anti-corona package. Some municipalities oppose the provision that municipalities are financial intermediaries. Provisions of the 79th Article should define that funds in the amount of exemption from payment of parents for kindergartens that present public service shall be provided from the budget of the Republic of Slovenia. Public and private kindergartens with a concession claim the amount of exemption from parental payment directly from the budget of the Republic of Slovenia.
 
In this way SOS supports and encourages municipal endeavours regarding to most likely, the last anti-corona law package proposals in the frame of the Act Determining the Intervention Measures to Contain the COVID-19 Epidemic and Mitigate its Consequences for Citizens and the Economy.
 

 

         

Association of Albanian Municipalities


 

Riding the Waves’ of Psychological Impacts: How Public Services are Responding & Adapting to COVID-19

Is the education system prepared for the test of time?

Preschool education is among the latest functions decentralized to municipalities in Albania. Since December 2019, Albanian municipalities exercise greater managerial control over the function of preschool education. They have also started financing it from their general revenues.  The function is implemented – funding as well as operations – with responsibilities divided between the national and the local levels.

Municipalities need to comply with many standards and requirements in all relevant areas of the preschool education function set by the national government. Some municipalities comply with most of the standards while others lag.

Out of 61 municipalities, 22 don’t have psychologists. For others, 34 out of 58 municipalities have employed at least one social worker. At the moment, the service isn’t offered at kindergartens, which aren’t part of the primary school buildings. Also, the standard ratio pupil/psychologists are reduced at the primary level and therefore there are little chances that the existing psychologists will be used for the preschool system.

Added to the above challenge is the demand for psychologist service in pre-school remains low due to the perception of parents that this is a service for ‘sick children’. Such a perception is stronger in rural areas. Even if there is a demand, most parents are reluctant to recognize signs of ‘unusual children behaviours’. The lockdown and quarantine of some people have also made it difficult to reach and engage parents.

Responding & adapting in action: Our roles

With the lockdown and closure of schools, ‘the time has come for the trio of parents-kindergarten- teachers-psychologists to not only work but to work in the best way possible,’ says Lira Gjika, a pediatrician in Tirana, the capital of Albania.  Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a survey prepared by the Bashki të Forta (BtF) project showed that there were only 23 municipalities that provided psychological-social service for preschool children. This shows that decentralization in Albania is still a work in progress.

Three key factors influence the success of social services to preschools in Albania.

Case 1: The role of coordination

Addressing the challenge requires better coordination. This is where Bashki të Forta (BtF) comes in. On the one hand, this needs to happen between branches of the national government that are key to providing services to school-age children and municipalities. On the other hand, it’s also crucial that municipalities work with civil society organizations and specialized institutions to provide volunteer support during the COVID-19 pandemic in 5 municipalities (e.g., Lezhe, Kurbin, Kukes, Vlore, and Elbasan). 

The support of Bashki të Forta (BtF) has made it clear that establishing preschool education as a de facto shared role has created many frictions and overlapping responsibilities. For this, the project has been supporting stakeholders in two ways.

First, it’s about designating a responsible authority that can provide the services at the most immediate (or local) level. This simply means that the national government should be doing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level (i.e. the principle of subsidiarity).

Second, it’s also important to make the roles and responsibilities of the various institutions clearer among local authorities and local education offices and regional directorates. This happens by setting broadly accepted administrative standards.

Case 2: Not everything comes for free

The services have a price tag – they need to be financed! Municipalities used their limited resources to provide the service. Bashki të Forta (BtF) has been working to raise awareness through policy briefs and organizing conferences with key stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Education Sport and Youth, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, as well as the Ministry of Finance and Economy.
There are several ways of addressing the financing issue.

The most obvious one is increasing funding – the COVID-19 pandemic shows that there is money as long as there is a political will. This is also necessary given standards and legal requirements for preschool education.

Another way is setting a financial baseline for each requirement based on preschool education standards as well as for contribution from its revenues that local self- government units should provide for this service. It involves identifying and aggregating all related to pre-university education by different line ministries or different municipal budget programs that should be a priority.

On top of all, municipalities need to prepare and develop cost-effective service improvement plans by optimizing existing resources.

Case 3: Delivery matters

For Zurie Lita, who is the Director of the Preschool Education Department at Kukes municipality, the role of a psychologist is critical. ‘Children like to hear the reassuring voice of a psychologist,’ says Zurie.

That is why strategies like coordination, financing, and having in place professional service providers are important areas. Yet, ‘culture can eat all these strategies for breakfast’ (!) if we don’t pay attention to other barriers to delivering the services.
A good example is the traditional way of offering psychological services mainly for clinical cases that fails to overcome cultural barriers. The collective counselling proved to be effective during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the psychologists weren’t well prepared to provide the services.
‘We need to understand the concerns of parents and explain to them why it’s necessary to get the support of professionals,’ says Oliana Moriseni, who is the Vice Mayor of Lezha municipality.

Bashki të Forta (BtF) has played a role in making demands match well with supply through different channels of delivery. One way has been using municipal web applications in which parents apply for psychologist services by filling in an online request (e.g. in Durres municipality).

A second one is for teachers to address parents through the regular exchange using different online tools like WhatsApp/phone. Parents report their observations and jointly they decide to go for psychologist advice which is offered through video and WhatsApp/phone (e.g. Shijak municipality).

A third way is through face-to-face service. Specialized organizations, in cooperation with municipalities, provide the service for already recognized clinical cases or based on demands from municipalities or another agency (e.g. Lezha and Diber municipalities).

The way forward: transformation

‘At the moment, being close to people today is the best service you can provide. But, being close to children is the best investment you can do for the future,’ says Genta Drabo, who is the Director of ZVAP Maliq, an agency responsible for education at the local level.

Kindergartens will start opening on 1st June 2020 in Albania. Young people sense the anxiety of their parents and worry about their health and that of other family members. Children need to be reassured in an age-appropriate way.

Our examples above illustrate shifts in three areas:

(a) from a case-based approach (mainly clinical) into a group/collective mentorship by professional psychologists; (b) service targeting both parents and children; and (c) the role of teachers as active observers to assure emotional well-being of children.

Along with these shifts, technology has helped bring this ‘new’ service more to the forefront. The pandemic is an opportunity that has allowed people to reach the municipality more easily than before via technology.

Ideally, psychologists and social workers should be hired by municipalities. Bashki të Forta (BtF) is working with municipalities towards the formulation of service improvement plans that take the need for psycho-social assistance into account. It’s, therefore, crucial to invest and stimulate transformations of a service delivery model along with the above shifts. The main role of Bashki të Forta (BtF) has been to facilitate the response and adaptation to the pandemic and prepare the ground for the transformation of services beyond the pandemic.

Social services, like the psychological support to preschool children and their parents in the light of the current crisis, is the best example of how timely transformation of public services can be critical for the resilience and long-term performance of the services.  A more resilient service means a less affected and above all healthy citizens!

From: Arbër Kadia , Valbona Karakaçi , Jacques Merat , Zenebe B. Uraguchi – Bashki te Forta
 

 

 

Ongoing Activities

• NALAS e-Academy: Introduction to Gender Mainstreaming at Local Level

 

Upcoming Events

• RCDN Webinar: Financial aspects of managing water and sanitation services during COVID-19, MS Teams platform.