EU PROGRES

The European Partnership with Municipalities Programme – PROGRES and Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID), financially supported by the European Union and the Swiss Government, will conduct a survey on citizen satisfaction with the work of local governments in 25 municipalities in South and South-west Serbia.

The survey will demonstrate how citizens perceive their respective municipalities in comparison with the wider area and the country as a whole, how they assess their standard of living and quality of services provided by municipalities, how much they trust local institutions, and what are the areas in which the local government should invest funds from the munucipal budget.

Speaking of the survey’s importance, Greame Tyndall, PROGRES manager, said: “Citizens will tell us which areas they see as priorities for future development. PROGRES has a clear vision of these priorities, but the opinion of the public will help us completely define the Programme, that is, spend the EU and Swiss Government funds rationally and in line with citizens’ needs.”   

The findings of this and the survey to be conducted in three years will be publicly available and serve as a basis for the evaluation of how successful PROGRES activities have been in improving the work of local governments. Municipalities will see from the survey results in which areas the citizens expect improvements.

The survey will include a total of 7,500 subjects, between 250 and 400 subjects in each of the 25 municipalities, which constitutes a representative sample for the population of municipalities covered. The survey results will be presented to the municipalities and the public in mid-January next year.

Conducting surveys is one o the PROGRES activities aimed at supporting municipalities in their efforts to improve compliance with the principles of good governance in their work. In addition to compliance with good governance principles, PROGRES will assist municipalities in improving infrastructure, quality of services provided to citizens and businesses, and promoting their development prospects.