Brčko: More availability for sports

At the citizens’ forum organised in the local community of Ilićka within the project “Strengthening the Role of MZs in BiH”, the laying of artificial grass on the local football field was voted priority. Through the MZ Project and with the support of the Brčko District, the idea became a reality.

According to the President of MZ Ilićko Damjan Dundžić, the field is operative and in constant use – whether it is children that use it the most and who are there every day, or the youth of the Football Club Ilićka 01 who have their trainings there and recreational football players who come for evening slots.

“Citizens had the opportunity to present their ideas through the citizens’ forum, and most of them supported the placement of artificial grass and regulating the field. There is an elementary school nearby with more than 400 students, and parents love to know that their children are on the playground, and not the streets,” says Damjan Dundžić.

During the project implementation, the local community of Ilićka got engaged to fence the playground and adequately protect it, and raised additional funds through cooperation with sponsors:

“The field is fenced and protected, everything works and the management of the field is going better than I expected. For additional security, we plan to set up video surveillance,” he added.

On decision-making through the citizens’ forum, Dundžić says that everything was at the highest level:

“I find this to be a way to hear ideas that can’t be channelled otherwise, and at a time when few care about the opinion of an ordinary person who gets a voice this way. Citizens identified problems at the forum, they could take the floor and present their suggestions, which were then written on flipcharts, and everything was top notch”, says Dundžić.

Through the project “Strengthening the Role of MZs in BiH”, the existing sports field in MZ Bijeljinska cesta was reconstructed and a volleyball court improved. Žikica Novaković from MZ Bijeljinska cesta says that this jointly implemented project proved to be a bullseye:

“The playground is almost never empty, and is always available to everyone. In the morning, there are mostly parents with smaller children, then slightly older children gather, in the evening the youth come, play volleyball, hang out, so all the effort paid off in full. The pandemic disrupted a lot of things and unfortunately many activities could not take place, but young people cannot be stopped – as soon as the situation improved, they started playing volleyball, organised some tournaments...”, says Žikica Novaković.

According to Nebojša Jokić, what is in common for both projects is that they were delegated and voted by citizens, and many beneficiaries were included:

“The value of the project of laying artificial grass in MZ Ilićka was BAM 38,134.00, and the Brčko District of BiH participated with BAM 17,990.70, with the local community investing additional funds for fencing the terrain, some with their own funds, and some with the help of donations, and the field is used every day”, he says, adding that there is also interest in using the renovated volleyball court:

“Many children from the settlement and further, as well as recreational players, use the field in MZ Bijeljinska cesta, which also came out of citizens’ forum. Considering that Brčko is a city of volleyball, the proposal was to reconstruct a volleyball court in the residential area Eš, co-financed by the MZ Project with BAM 16,943.60 and the Government of Brčko District with BAM 9,456.72”, says Nebojša Jokić, stressing that he finds both projects a very useful extension to sports facilities in the mentioned MZs.

"Strengthening the Role of Local Communities – MZ in BiH" is a joint project of the Government of Switzerland and Sweden worth 14 million BAM. Implementing partner is United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in BiH in partnership with the BiH Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of Republika Srpska, Ministry of Justice of Federation BiH, the Government of Brcko District and both entity associations of municipalities and cities.