Increasing the participation of youth and women in decision-making processes at local governance is a challenge in almost all the municipalities of Kosovo. To tackle this issue, Democracy for Development (D4D) institute in partnership with Center for De-Politization of Kosovar Society (CDKD) has continued with the next Agora discussion between municipal officials and citizens, nongovernmental organization representatives, and political subject representatives.
In this discussion held in the Municipality of Klokot, participants had the chance to be informed by the municipal officials about the work of the municipality during the last months, the opportunities for support by the municipality, as well as the spaces for participation of citizens in the Municipality’s decision-making processes.
According to the municipal officials, participation of youth and women in public discussions organized by the Municipality is at a satisfying level and their contribution during these processes is carefully considered by the Municipality. Nevertheless, they underlined the importance of increasing the participation of these two groups in decision-making, by offering various trainings and workshops for identifying key issues of youth and women, and then lobby and advocate for their solution jointly with the Municipality of Klokot.
On another note, the participants of this discussion underlined as a serious issue the division between municipal officials and citizens of the Municipality, stating that in most cases the citizens are having hardships in contacting their elected representatives and discuss about their problems, and as a result their issues are increasing on a daily basis.
A concrete idea to improve the cooperation between the Municipality and citizens is the development of an online platform through which the citizens could report their problems, and the Municipality of Klokot would review and address them according to their possibilities, which would contribute in returning the faith of citizens into the governing institutions.
