Citizens budget

Residents of Haskovo have limited opportunities to participate in policy-making and decision-making processes at the local level. For most of them, civic participation is limited to voting in elections, and local initiatives are the responsibility of local authorities. In small settlements, these attitudes are supported by limited access to information, health and social services, and opportunities for communication with institutions. Most citizens do not have the knowledge and skills to implement their ideas for solving local problems or modernizing the region, how to seek funding from national and European programs, and local measures are implemented sporadically and usually with very limited scope. With this project we plan to overcome this deficit by actively involving citizens in solving problems and implementing initiatives at the local level. We plan to implement on the territory of the whole Municipality of Haskovo Citizens Budgets Program (CBP) - a universal tool that enables citizens to participate directly in the proposals, decision-making and implementation at local level. In the course of the project we plan to go through the following stages of the CBP implementation: development of a platform for civic participation, collection of proposals from citizens, verification of eligibility of proposals by a multidisciplinary advisory council, public voting for the selection of citizens' initiatives, conducting campaigns for their implementation and assessing the impact of the program. As a result of the project implementation the interaction between the municipal administration and the citizens will increase, and the Municipality of Haskovo will achieve open and responsible management, which directly corresponds to the needs, desires of the citizens and their vision for the development of the municipality. The implementation of the Civil Budget Program will create opportunities and will put into practice partnership management with citizens and businesses.

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