Centre for Security Studies and our partner organisation Saferworld from UK have committed to implementing three Community Safety Plans in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project is designed to support community safety at the local level, but at the same the project is designed to support National Community-Based Policing Strategy by establishing better links between the police, local government and local communities. The Community Safety Plans will be used to facilitate debate on crime, policing and community safety issues in the regional, entity and national media. As such, the sites in which the Community Safety Plans are taking place are intended to provide momentum for replicating community safety projects across the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with the National Community-Based Policing Strategy. The project is in the initial stages of the implementation and is deemed to be completed in mid 2008.
The initial phases of the site selection have already been completed. Chosen local communities, according to the selection criteria, are located in Brcko District, Bijeljina and Mostar. Focus groups with local residents have been carried out enabling further identification of safety and security problems in those areas.
Simultaneously, this project has been unofficially approved and ratified in accordance with the activities foreseen in the framework on the National Community-Based Strategy. Further planned activities are municipal-level seminars which are going to provide an opportunity to brief the participants on the project and raise awareness of the comprehensive nature of human security
Implementation of Safer Community Plan in Brcko District, February 2008
Within the framework of the Community-Based Policing Project, being implemented under the auspices of Saferworld organization from London, UK, CSS has improved and strengthened local capacities in the local community of Grcica, Brcko District. Local citizens have organized and formed a Security Forum, which has become active during the project implementation, and remains so during the first phases of the Safer Community Plan implementation. This local community has recognized and prioritized security-related problems, and has actively lobbied for the solutions. In January 2008, local administration finally put forward a plan of action which suited the needs of the citizens, and the first and second phase of the Safer Community Plan will soon be finished. The Security Forum remains as an official and active body, soon to be incorporated into a wider Municipal Forum, envisaged as part of the National Community-Based Policing Strategy.
Implementation of Safer Community Plan in Mostar, May 2008
Within the framework of the Community-Based Policing Project, being implemented under the auspices of Saferworld organization from London, UK, CSS has improved and strengthened local capacities in the two local communities of Town of Mostar, MZ Podhum and MZ Brankovasc. There, local administration, local police and citizens have organized to form a two Security Forums, which have become active during the project implementation. These two local communities have recognized and prioritized security-related problems, and have actively started to lobby for the solutions with the local administration, in cooperation with the local police. The Safer Community Plans of both Forums are a long-term initiative, and will get incorporated into the larger Municipal Security Forum, envisaged as part of the National Community-Based Strategy.