The establishment of PEP International as an independent organisation was basically initiated and encouraged by Sida Stockholm, Department for Eastern Europe and Sida Balkan Representative during the early days of reconstruction in Kosovo 1999-2000. The main intention by establishing the organisation was to explore the experience of the current Director of PEP and to develop and implement a strategy to strengthen the democratic process on the Balkans and beyond. Particular focus was to be placed on the involvement of citizens and their relationship with their local authorities. Thus the concept idea has been developed over the last decade mainly by early experiment with a “community base approach”, the AMPEP Project in Albania and Macedonia 2001-2004 where few basic ideas were tested and later only as AMPEP in Macedonia until end of 2007 where the basics for the PERA project in Bosnia & Herzegovina 2008-2011 were formed. Current members of PEP originate, in addition to Iceland, from a number of different countries including Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Greece, Macedonia, Sweden and UK.
The basic philosophy for the PEP approach is; that by strengthening the social capital within a number of villages they will become capable of; organising themselves, identifying their common community problems, prioritising issues to be solved, organising and planning a solution to their problems and presenting their demands on the local authorities to help solving their problems. This would increase the pressure on the local governments to pay more attention to the needs and preferences of their citizens and ultimately lead to increased democratic involvement of citizens in the decision makings. This would directly provide a stronger base for improved policies, more strategic orientations and better governance in the countries targeted by PEP.
PEP International in cooperation with Sida launched the PERA project in Bosnia & Herzegovina in September 2008 with the aim to establish procedures and practices that would strengthen the democratic communication between villages and their local governments.
The official opening of PERA was launched by formally handing over to Sida the inception report for PERA in December 2008. This picture shows Audunn Bjarni Olafsson the Regional Director of PEP formally handing over the Inception Report to Anders Hedlund, the Country Representative of Sida. This completed the documentation guiding the implementation of PERA for the project period.
The project was based on a set of democratic principles in line with the BiH governmental strategy on local governing to increase the involvement of citizens in the decision making. The timeframe for the direct implementation of the project was 3 years plus the preparation, evaluation and reporting period, thus it covered the period from September 2008 until April 2012.
• Structured communication is established and sustained between village councils and Local Governments.
• Measurable positive changes on issues of local governing are verified and documented in the villages.
• Projects of public service nature are completed through the cooperation of villages and local governments within the targeted areas.
• The targeted local governments are actively disseminating the practices established by the project through their municipal association.
• In all 20 municipalities, 2-3 contact persons were assigned to the project to secure constructive communication with the targeted villages. This has led to a much better understanding among the municipalities of the potentials and resources within their villages.
between villages and their authorities. This has increased optimism and reduced the apathy and distrust recorded among citizens in the targeted villages at the beginning.
• In 93 villages, projects of public service nature have been prioritised and planned in open meetings in the villages, which then selected the work groups, and implemented in direct partnership with the Local Government. The whole process has increased the transparency and communication between villages and their municipal authorities. Direct and formal communication practises have been established and in many municipalities functioning mechanism is now in place to secure better communication with the villages.
• The municipal associations have publicly identified the PERA project and the partners involved as major contributor to the development of Local Government strategies on the involvement of citizens in the decision making processes. Practices established through PERA are now being referred to as constructive and productive tools to strengthen the communication with citizens.
In addition to these direct results related to the original objectives PEP International initiated in September 2011 a Villages Gathering in Sarajevo with the aim of establishing a foundation for continued cooperation and communication between rural villages in Bosnia & Herzegovina. This meeting highlighted the success of the project as more than 130 people representing almost all PERA partner villages and municipalities met and expressed their interest and commitment to continue building on their experience and to form a nationwide network of villages organisations based on the groundwork established by PEP.
The basic characteristic for PEP International is the Research and Development orientation of the organisation. PEP is constantly developing a measurement system that can follow if intend influence has been achieved.
A baseline study structured mainly as an opinion poll is carried out prior to any direct field activities. The baseline study is carried out through a random selection from three control groups; villages directly targeted by PEP, neighbourhood villages supposed to be effected by the local government involved and external villages totally out of PEP influence.
The baseline study is then follow-up by repeated studies with at least a year interval and maintained the same area focus and included the same questions as previously applied. Due to the nature of the PERA project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly the division of the country, interviews were held with 1.837 persons in 2010 and in 2011 with 1.835 persons. The University of Sarajevo was offered a chance to include a number of its students in conducting the final study in 2011. 16 students from the Faculty of Political Sciences, Faculty of Economics and Faculty of Public Administration participated both in the direct study in villages as well as processing the data from it. Students were very happy for this opportunity and claimed to have gained valuable experience on how to apply study methods through a multidisciplinary approach and also to have gained a better understanding on the situation in rural parts of BiH.
The study orientation of PEP has also inspired students from the University of Iceland and the University of Gothenburg who are currently using the PERA project as a base for their Master studies on; the correlation between the increased social capital in villages and environmental awareness and actions and the role of participation and social capital in democratic development.