Starting in 2001, BOSPO has become actively involved in raising citizen awareness on the importance of activism and start-up civil initiatives in advocating for solutions to problems at the community level.

In the past years, through a number of public advocacy projects, BOSPO has published several manuals for citizen activists and local government representatives, organized a series of public meetings and training sessions on advocacy-related issues, and financed implementation of over 20 successful advocacy campaigns and 5 good-governance mechanisms on community level.

In 2005 and 2006 BOSPO continues it active engagement on raising citizens’ awareness on importance of activism and initiation of citizen’s advocacy efforts through three advocacy projects.

The project „Empowered Citizens Building Good Governance“ covers the municipalities of Banovici, Zivinice, Vlasenica and Milici, and its overall objective is to build skills and opportunities for activists in order to bring citizens and government officials together in solving community problems and building just and progressive society in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Main activities of the project are oriented toward:

• Building skills of citizens-activists and local government officials through organized training sessions, in order to successfully create positive changes in their communities,
• Application of acquired skills through preparation and implementation of advocacy campaigns and good governance mechanisms tailored to fit community needs,
• Linking active citizens and communities through formed Training Resource Group and Monitoring and Evaluation Group, as well as through organised exchange visits among communities.

The project will provide a series of training sessions and workshops for activists and government officials, followed by the implementation of 8 public advocacy campaigns and 4 mechanisms for improvement of citizen-government cooperation.

The project is funded by the European Union.

Through the project „Building Just Structures in Bosnia-Herzegovina“ BOSPO and CRS jointly work on building skills, experience and structures needed for more effective implementation of social changes in 8 communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Tuzla, Bugojno, Gradacac, Srebrenica, Banja Luka, Mostar, Travnik and Kladanj).

Main objective of the project is to build skills and will for addressing of priorities in communities on local, national and state levels through mobilization of communities and participatory budgeting. The project offers a possibility for citizens and government officials to jointly address community issues and work together to resolve them. The project also builds capacities of citizens to enable them to take part in creation of municipal budgets. As the part of the project, two campaigns on state level will be implemented.

The project is funded by the Development Cooperation Ireland.

BOSPO promotes and works on protection of Roma rights in order to improve their living, social, education and health standards through initiation and support to existing advocacy efforts. Through the project „Empowering Roma groups to Increase Participation and Promote Inclusion of Roma Citizens“, implemented in the area of Tuzla Canton, BOSPO orients its activities toward:

• Improving participation and inclusion of Roma groups in civil society through enhancing capacities or Roma activists to advocate on issues for community interests,
• Raising awareness and organising public advocacy campaigns on issues of concern for Roma population and building greater awareness of Roma population rights,
• Insuring better inclusion of Roma citizens and changing prevailing view of Roma among non-Roma citizens and communities.

The project is funded by the European Union.