The Norwegian Government has supported The Norwegian Association of local and regional authorities, Kommunenes Sentralforbund (KS), who support their sister organisations in The Federation (SOGBIH) and Republika Srpska (ALVRS). Their main acitivities are, among others, councillor training programmes and training of municipal staff, and great efforts have been done to put local government on the agenda among the leaders at the municipal level in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In his speech, Mr. Braathu highlighted the importance of good local governance in order to achieve trust between the local leaders and the local inhabitants. The town and its inhabitants are the most importants participants in the local community. Moreover, success or failure have an enormous impact on how the municipal is evaluated by external actors. Braathu said that because of this, one can assert the local level as maybe the most important level considering governance. He continued by congratulating the good results in the trainings of public services at the local level, and expressed content with the fact that 6 municipalities in RS already have implemented ISO standards. Braathu was certain that this project will contribute to further enhance the standards and capacities among the people involved.
He wrapped up his speech by stating that in the future the Embassy will continue to have as its main priorities to assist the local level of the society, and claimed that “your success is our success”.