The DEMOS project, in collaboration with the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), has started monitoring the performance of municipal assembly members in Prizren, Malisheva, Istog, Gjilan, Rahovec, and Kllokot in order to increase accountability and engagement with citizens. The members will be evaluated for their representative, legislative, and supervisory roles over the course of the monitoring, which will last 10 months. The selection of municipalities was made with territorial size in order to ensure the inclusion of small, medium, and large municipalities, political diversity in order to ensure the inclusion of municipalities led by different political entities, and ethnic diversity in order to ensure the inclusion of non-majority communities in Kosovo.
They will be evaluated physically, but also through social media, for the meetings they will hold with local councils and citizens, including marginalized groups, for the requests they will address in municipal assembly or to executive, for legal initiatives that arise during the sessions, for the supervision of municipal project implementation, and so on.
Three prizes will be awarded at the end based on the evaluations: one for the most active assembly member, one for the most active woman assembly member, and one for the most active young assembly member. The evaluation will exclude the chairperson of municipal assemblies and the heads of parliamentary groups. The evaluation methodology has already been presented in all six municipalities during municipal assembly meetings.
Dëfrim Kafexhiu, chairperson of the municipal assembly of Rahovec, evaluates this activity of DEMOS as creative, efficient and productive to develop the role of the members of the municipal assembly. “By monitoring and evaluating the work of the assembly members, their political activity both inside and outside the Assembly, it will influence their motivation for the development of different methods in the representation of citizens and in the supervision of municipal processes in general”, he adds.
Melinda Iska, a municipal assembly member in Rahovec, has also welcomed the evaluation of her and her colleagues’ performance. “This monitoring will compel me to be more active in monitoring projects for the benefit of citizens, more meetings with various groups, with a special focus on women and health,” she stated.
Dafina Alishani, a municipal assembly member in Prizren, says she has noticed the activation of some of her colleagues and an increase in responsibility since the first days of monitoring their performance. “The more monitoring there is, the more push and motivation there will be to act for the benefit of citizens,” she estimates.
While Avdyl Aliu, a municipal assembly member in Gjilan, believes that monitoring and evaluating assembly members’ work will improve not only their individual performance, but also local governance in general. “By increasing the level of commitment not only in quantity, but also in quality, I believe it will also affect the performance of the municipal government for the responsible performance of works to fulfil civic and institutional needs,” he emphasized.
Throughout the years and through various activities, the DEMOS project has assisted municipal assemblies and worked with their members to improve their professional capacities and performance in terms of their mandate, role, and responsibilities.
Continuously, with the goal of increasing accountability and encouraging municipal assembly members to perform their functions, DEMOS will monitor, evaluate, and select the most active councilor for his/her involvement in representing citizens, community involvement, and decision-making and supervisory roles.
Civic engagement and active citizens will enable assembly members to better represent and delegate their demands, raise awareness and professionalism, and increase responsibility and accountability. This will also help to improve the relationship between the position and the opposition, as well as interactions between municipalities, municipal assembly members, and citizens.
The DEMOS project is co-financed by the European Union, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway, while it is implemented by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation.