JOINT EUROPEAN UNION-COUNCIL OF EUROPE PROGRAMME SUPPORTS LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT REFORM
Major Progress in Civil Service Modernisation in Kragujevac, Užice, Čačak, Nova Varoš, Bajina Bašta and Priboj
Six local self-governments in the Šumadijski, Pomoravski and Zlatiborski Districts – Kragujevac, Užice, Čačak, Nova Varoš, Bajina Bašta and Priboj – recently finished the one-year process of transforming the work organisation of local civil servants and its alignment with the modern principles of human resources management. To mark the occasion, an online meeting was held with representatives of the media in those local self-governments on 15 July 2021.
These municipalities and cities have improved the work of local administration through their participation in the Council of Europe Programme “Human Resources Management in Local Self-Government – Phase 2”, which is jointly financed by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (MPALSG) and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) as its partners. These six local self-governments are among the 50 Serbian self-governments that received the so-called “support packages” through this Programme, which includes direct support and mentoring by human resources experts to help them modernise the human resources management and professional development aspects of their civil service system.
“The local self-governments with which this Council of Europe Programme has cooperated have made a huge step towards modernising their civil service system. Local administrations have a huge responsibility in terms of applying regulations at the local level and providing quality services to citizens. It is therefore essential for local administration and employees to have appropriate knowledge and skills to perform highly demanding tasks. And the Programme “Human Resources Management in Local Self-Government – Phase 2” has worked exactly towards strengthening local administration capacities”, said Vesna Kahrimanović, Programme Coordinator.
The Programme involved performance measurement in the field of human resource management at 70 local self-governments in total. Out of the municipalities and towns that participated in the Programme, 50 saw an increase in performance by 20 percent. On the other hand, while those local self-governments that did not have CoE support did improve their performance, the percentage was significantly lower.
The contribution of this Programme to human resource capacity building in municipalities and cities and its significance for public administration reform in general was addressed by Ms. Ivana Savićević, Assistant Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and head of the Human Resources Management Department.
She pointed out capacity building of local administration staff to prepare them to respond to all demands of citizens and businesses was the core task of this segment of public administration reform. “Strengthening the human resources management function at local administrations involves strengthening expertise and competence and training human resources to improve the level of service provided to end users, i.e. citizens and businesses. What this Programme has achieved as its contribution is that it has shown in the 50 local self-governments that a sound human resource planning system, selection and recruitment of competent employees, their training and professional development can bring about to improved organisation and functioning of local administrations.”
A major component of this Programme is working towards implementation of new quality standards of civil service professional development in the system of professional development for employees at local self-government units, and significant results have been achieved in this regard. This issue was addressed by Ms. Jasmina Benmansur, Assistant Minister and head of the Professional Development Department at the MPALSG.
“While the project has involved the implementation of a large number of activities, it is important to note they have all contributed towards the attainment of the overarching goal of reform in this field, which is to give employees at local self-government units equal access to the right to professional development and equal quality of professional development as any other civil servant employed at a ministry or Government’s service, which was not the case in the past.”
She also highlighted that, in 2020 alone, the Programme supported 92 local self-government units in adopting their special training programmes for 2021, with the aim of improving civil servants’ personal and professional capacities on issues tailored to specific needs of distinct categories of employees in those cities and municipalities.
Marko Tomašević of SCTM said the Programme had supported local self-government units in their efforts to improve human resource development, i.e. organisational and functional performance of local administrations, adding that continual professional development of employees contributed to improved productivity in their work, with the ultimate goal of creating an administration that is fully oriented towards citizens and businesses.
Two current CoE competitions for the award of grants to local self-governments
The Council of Europe currently has two open competitions for technical assistance and grants to local self-governments, one of which pertains to improving internal work organisation, while the other pertains to professional development. The first competition is open from today (16 July) and is worth EUR 450,000; it will see 15 municipalities and cities receive funds of EUR 30,000 each. The second competition is for the award of EUR 2500 to a total of 50 local self-governments (EUR 125,000 in total) for the organisation of professional development of employees at local self-governments and is open until 17 July.
The Programme “Human Resources Management in Local Self-Government – Phase 2” is jointly financed by the European Union and the Council of Europe and is implemented by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities as its programme implementing partners.
For more information contact: Suzana Miličić, Kontakta PR&Media Consulting; suzana.milicic@kontakta.rs, +381652004712