Kotor Bay, which covers three municipalities, exemplifies how municipal responsibilities have become increasingly complex and demanding. Because of its tremendous cultural value, the bay is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yet, despite wide recognition of its potential, there’s still no joint approach to promote cultural tourism. New forms of cooperation and partnership that support sustainable regional and local development, and which actively involve citizens to make development a concern for all, are needed.

Montenegro has an enabling Law on Local Self-Government but no official policy on promoting inter-municipal cooperation initiatives. With the start of the European integration process, municipalities must increase their own capacity to formulate and implement this kind of project effectively. Local and regional development requires the active mobilization and management of alternative resources through the establishment of partnerships with other municipalities, non-governmental organizations, and private companies.

Key Local Actor:
EXPEDITIO, established in 1997, is a non-governmental and non-profit association in Kotor. Since June 2003, EXPEDITIO has operated as a Regional Advocacy Centre, providing high quality services to local organizations in the Kotor region and fostering cooperation between the non-governmental, business and public sectors. Backed by its vision − “Quality Space for Better Life” − EXPEDITO encourages sustainable architecture, urban planning, environmental protection and public advocacy development in urban and rural Montenegro. Its vast experience and potential to promote cultural tourism makes EXPEDITIO a suitable local capacity builder.   

Working Method:
In January 2007, EXPEDITIO, with support from SNV, began a project to promote inter-municipal cooperation in the Kotor region. The project was financially supported by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Belgrade. Its main aim was to develop and test different forms of partnership between municipalities, non-governmental organizations and private companies. Its work emphasizes joint initiatives for cultural tourism that unite regional stakeholders in implementing inter-municipal initiatives. An inventory of existing services in cultural tourism in Kotor Bay was made, marking the first test of concrete collaboration between the communities.

SNV assisted EXPEDITIO to reach the three Kotor Bay municipalities of Kotor, Tivat and Herceg Novi. This teamwork, which involved creating working groups and carrying out demonstration projects, increased EXPEDITIO’s ability to get the municipalities involved. To build trust and joint implementation capacity that provides a basis for future collaboration, activities including a website of cultural events, a map of cultural and natural monuments, and a lecture/debate on branding were developed using interactive processes.

EXPEDITIO and SNV also acted to strengthen the ability of local-governments to work together as municipalities, ensuring as far as possible the equal involvement of all stakeholders and respect for their opinions.

Impact:
EXPEDITIO played an important part in getting the municipalities together and supporting cooperation. Joint collaboration with SNV boosted EXPEDITIO’s capacity to implement similar projects in the future. The municipalities also gained equally important experience in launching new initiatives to promote joint products. By finding joint solutions and beginning long-lasting collaboration with other stakeholders, the municipalities increased their awareness of the positive aspects of cooperation.

Three demonstration projects have been realized:

·         Website of cultural events in Boka Kotorska (www.kulturaboka.info)

·         Map of cultural and natural monuments in Boka Kotorska

·         Lecture and debate on “Branding of Boka Kotorska”

These small demonstration projects encouraged citizens’ involvement and built the confidence of municipalities to take ‘ownership’ of the processes involved so that they perceived them as their own products.

Along the way towards inter-municipal cooperation, substantial challenges were encountered and many tackled. Major constraints were the limited decisiveness of the municipalities and their complex bureaucratic procedures. To overcome these limitations, two documents were produced; a General Agreement on Cooperation that safeguards present and future cooperation regulations between municipalities, and a Memorandum on Inter-Municipal Cooperation, which is a legal and administrative framework to strengthen inter-municipal cooperation. These documents will stimulate further cooperation in various fields and help the municipalities feel that they are creators of the process.

The inter-municipal cooperation activities also received tremendous media coverage as they were the first ever projects in this field in Montenegro. This increased the desire to cooperate and create a permanent culture of dialogue that benefits municipalities and their citizens.   

Statements:
Ms. Tanja Rajic, Executive Director of EXPEDITIO: “It was very important to us to make the municipalities see the project as theirs, not ours.”

Ms. Tanja Rajic, Executive Director of EXPEDITIO: “We were ready to sacrifice the dynamics of the demonstration projects for the sake of getting all stakeholders equally involved.”