GOV-WADE - Governance Project in Municipal Water and Environmental Development

The Governance Project in Municipal Water and Environmental Development (GOV-WADE) in the region of north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina was designed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The project promotes good governance in water and environmental sanitation. The total Swiss grant contribution of 3.2 million CHF will be followed by considerable financial contribution of selected municipalities for joint infrastructure projects. The 3-year project started in September 2006. The project will be implemented by the Association for Protection and Improvement of Environment (UNA-SANA) in Bihac and coached by Skat. The project will focus on 6 municipalities, which were selected based on a comprehensive survey conducted in the bridging phase in the first half of 2006. Additional 11 municipalities will also benefit from the project.

The main project objective is to increase capacities of local authorities and civil society in improving practice in governance and management at municipal level and advocating for enabling environment vis-à-vis superior levels. The project will support institutional and organizational development in selected municipalities, strengthen capacity of local civil society actors and improve inter-municipal cooperation in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina, in both entities.

The present project is a continuation of the previous assistance of SDC in water sector in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina, that had started in 1997 as emergency assistance to municipal waterworks, and later evolved into the program promoting the river basin approach. The program succeeded to demonstrate functioning of bottom-up regional cooperation within the Una river basin and achieved positive results in improving water supply, promotion of waterworks associations, development of municipal environmental services and infrastructural capacities, introduction of geographical information system, establishing of water protection areas and advancing environmental awareness. The new project will use benefits and lessons learned from the previous programs.