"We expect that the project’s implementation is the best way to promote the concept of rural development and raise public awareness of the potential and importance of the rural areas in Montenegro, improve the communication and dialogue between civil organizations, government institutions and citizens in the rural areas, facilitating the establishment of the future local action group, and help develop strategies and create traditional events in the rural areas," said Miodrag Karadzic, on behalf of DMEN.
According to Jovan Radulovic from NGO "Zupa in the Heart", the project plans to implement innovative activities that will have significant results for better organization of rural communities and their preparation for the European Union funds. "Apart from creating a visual identity that will ensure better visibility and promotion of the activities, the project is intended to promote the concept of the Leader, which has made significant results in the in rural areas in Europe, and which is only starting to take place in Montenegro. The project will promote the work performances of last year established by the Council for the Sustainable Development of Zupa, which will be a skeleton for the establishment of one of the Local Action Groups (LAGs) in the rural part of Niksic, said Radulovic.
The project anticipates that the potential LAGs will develop the pilot for the Development Strategy of Zupa, which will be used in the future for other rural areas in the process of forming local action groups and carry out the Development Strategy for the area of activities for this group. There planned a study tour, a conference with the participation of representatives of the state and local institutions from the Municipality of Niksic, the production of the documentary film, the arrangement of 23 kilometers of cycling path through Zupa, the organization of the Rural Communities Day and the two-day painting colony in Zupa. Ten painters would participate in the colony, after which an auction would be organized, and the collected funds would be used to purchase computer equipment for the school in Zupa.
"The two organizations implementing the project noticed that it is evident that we do not have a clear presentation of the resources from the rural communities in one place, and also the actors of development in them, starting with NGOs, associations, active individuals and producers. Within this project, we have designed a mapping of the Rural Resources in Niksic, which would be a pilot project for creating similar publications in other towns of Montenegro," said Radulovic.
Djordje Brkuljan from the Rural Development Network of Montenegro said that the civil society organizations, within the “Alter” project, had a maximum of 17,000 euros per grant, that they had five applications in Montenegro and that two organizations were supported.
The value of the project is €17,448, and the Rural Development network has provided almost 89% of the funds. The rest was granted by done by DMEN and "Zupa in the Heart".
Text by Svetlana Mandic, on July 6th 2018, read more at Vijesti
