The Pilot Project:

Formulation of the “City of Nis Development Strategy”

The City of Nis is engaged in the process of formulating its Development Strategy, applying the participatory approach to the integrated strategic planning of Nis territory.
The planning process is seen as the main tool for defining the vision of development, shared by authorities, local stakeholders and the citizens of Nis. The identification of strategies, objectives, actions and projects will be a joint effort, requiring a long lasting commitment of all relevant actors signing a ‘programmatic promise’, a ‘pact’ among those who have responsibilities and tasks to undertake, allowing them to be part of a common endeavor for development. The process is based on sharing a unique identity of the territory playing a catalyst role in mobilizing both public and private actors, resources and the community. Partnership as a new model of governance is strongly linked with the assumption of leadership on the side of local policy makers and governments and with the ability to manage conflicts, considering all interests, including non organized and weak ones, in view to establish public and private agreements aimed at economic development and at the enhancing of social conditions.
The general objective of the Development Strategy is to define and carry out an innovative process of governance for the economic and social development of Nis local system, by defining a common vision of the identity of the area among the relevant stakeholders. From this point of view, the Strategic Development Planning process will represent the main programming tool and becomes a pilot exercise to define innovative strategies for development, develop medium and long term coherent urban policies, provide local government with methodologies for strategic planning and management of local resources, contributing to the identification of feasible and sustainable projects.

The Process:

The Architecture of the formulation process of the “City of Nis Development Strategy”

In October 2006, the Nis City Assembly has adopted a Decision for Preparation of the City of Nis Development Strategy. In the Decision, main goals, the methodological approach and the institutional framework of the implementation process are defined:
Art. 3. “The goal of the Strategy preparation is to define the vision of the sustainable development of the City, determination of the potential advantages and development directions of the City of Nis, maintenance of the stable economic growth and employment, provision of the social progress and poverty decrease, innovations promotion, efficient environment protection and improvement of the universal quality of the citizens’ live.”
Art. 5. “Through the Strategy preparation processes the integral participative approach to the local development planning, inter-sectors cooperation and information exchange, integration and coordination of the public, private and civic sector in decision making process and the partnership between institutions will be promoted.”
The City of Nis has established the Development Council (or SAVET) as the main management body. It is headed by the President of the City Assembly and it is formed by 19 members of the Assembly, including representatives of all political parties, of Nis 5 Municipalities and of local NGOs.
An extended Working Group (or Radna Grupa) has been appointed, counting 21 members coming from the Mayor’s cabinet, the city administration and public companies (economy and sustainable development, social welfare, sport, education and culture, urban planning, infrastructures), chamber of commerce, finance and bank sector, NGOs, media, and national services. Both the Working Group and the Council will contribute throughout the entire process of the strategy formulation.
Following the criteria set by the Council and after an open competition, 8 local Consultants were appointed: sociologists, economists, planners and environmentalist, coming from the University of Nis and from the Nis Planning Institute. They now form the multidisciplinary technical Working Team (or Radni Tim).
A wider group of 60 important Stakeholders, including representatives from public companies, SMEs, banks, trade unions, professional associations, minority associations, NGOs, cultural and sport clubs, community groups, individuals, actors, academicians and religious leaders, has been identified and called upon to share the general and specific objectives of the project and jointly explore and define the endogenous resources, potentialities and opportunities of Nis.
Wider consultations during the process include Citizens of Nis, Students association and Children having their say (see following Newsletter under preparation).
UN-HABITAT the United Nations Human Settlements Program, actually implementing the Settlement and Integration of Refugees Programme in Serbia SIRP, financed by the Government of Italy, is providing the technical support to the City of Nis during the strategy formulation process and is supporting the strengthening of local capacities of city and public institutions, professionals, consultants and local stakeholders involved.
For the Technical Assistance, UN-HABITAT has contracted ERVET, a specialized Development Agency of the Region Emilia Romagna in Italy, who is sharing and transferring their valuable experiences to Nis and its partners.

The architecture:

The methodology and the steps of the process

The process of formulation of the City of Nis Development Strategy has officially started in January 2007 and will last for a period of six months. The process is based on “integration and participation” .The methodology applied has a didactic approach: each step contains a module on “how to do it” and subsequently the groups “do it” during the established workshops. Steps of the process are as follows:
Step 1. Preparation and presentation of the work plan with definition of the steps that will allow the City of Nis to formulate its Development Strategy.
Step 2. Reading and understanding the territory of Nis and its external context, assessing the actual conditions highlighting its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats and aiming at identifying comparative advantages of Nis local system, main thematic areas and main stakeholders relevant to the process.
Ongoing Step 3. Definition of Nis desired future in a participatory manner, conceived in close coherence with a long-term vision of the options available to Nis territory and adjusting single sectors development strategies to make them coherent and mutually reinforcing.
Step 4. Formulation of the draft Development Strategy and identification of priority projects, including possible sources of financing; discussion, revision and integration of the draft in agreement with the stakeholders.
Step 5. Approval of the final version of the Development Strategy Document by the Council and the Nis Assembly. Presentation of the Development Strategy in a Final Conference.

Some Datelines:
March 2007 - Preparation of the Context Analysis including different development areas: social development, economy, finances, information technologies, territory, environment and governance.
April / May 2007 - Analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats SWOT of the City and identification of needs.
May 2007 - First Newsletter
May / June 2007 – Visioning exercise, defining the shared desired future of the City of Nis
June 2007 – formulation of the City of Nis Development Strategy, definition of objectives and actions, identification of priority projects
July 2007 – finalization and adoption of the City of Nis Development Strategy

Newsletter of Nis Development Strategy available to download! [870KB]

Second issue of the Nis Development Strategy Newsletter, July 2007 [991KB]

See NEWS and EVENTS on the City of Nis Development Strategy:

OUR NIS- A DAY FOR GLANCING INTO THE CITY’S FUTURE, Nis 30 May 2007, a special day with a series of open events in the City Centre dedicated to the citizens and children of Nis

A DECISIVE STEP TOWARDS THE NIS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY, Nis 5-6-7 June 2007, Three days workshop for the formulation of the City’s Integrates Vision and the Development Strategy Framework

PUBLIC PRESENTATION of the DRAFT DOCUMENT OF THE CITY OF NIS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY, 19 July 2007