The Balkan peninsular has been in the heart of clash of interests of various countries of West and East. The whole history of the Balkans is the conflict of national, ethnic and religious factors.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is located in the central part of the Balkan peninsular. On the North, West and Southern West it borders on Croatia while on the East and South – on Serbia and Montenegro. Bosnia and Herzegovina has one small access to the sea.
Complicated political situation in the country, certain ethnical and religious clashes are hindrances for economic development of the country and for improving the quality of life.
This explains presence of numerous think tanks in the Balkans that are recognized both in the country and abroad and help form national and international policy of the country.
With the aim to effectively develop analytical direction of its work, EPL visited several think tanks in Bosnia and Herzegovina that have sustainable development on their agendas.
Directorof GEA thinktank1GEA Marko Martic stated: “Thecenterfocusesonissuesofeconomicdevelopmentthankstomoreeffectiveuseofresources (sustainabledevelopment), jobs creation and employment, professional training and strengthening human resources, poverty elimination and human rights protection, in particular via environmental protection.
The goal of another think tank Analitika2is to promote sustainable development of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As stated by the director of the think tank Edin Hodzic, “The center works only on those issues where they can guarantee maximum quality of an analytical document.” Thanks to quite numerous staff of the center, it works in 13 directions including human rights, judicial reform and sustainable development.
SEEChangeNet3focuses on effective governance, increased quality of life and more effective use of resources of South-East Europe. Director of See Change Net Garret Tankosic explained: “SEE stands for social, economic and environmental development that are three pillars of sustainable development and should be in harmony. To create this harmony is our task.”
All think tanks are absolutely independent, apolitical. They do not criticize but speak with decisions instead. These are the experts addressed by the state when it looks for a good decision in some complicated situation.
EPL was learning the experience, in particular methodology of research, writing various types of analytical documents, advocacy principles. For example, at Analitika think tank EPL representatives in detail learnt about a full cycle of policy analysis, at GEA we focused on institutional development of the organization, methodology of primary and secondary research. At the meeting inSEEChangeNetspecial attention was paid to the methodology of advocacy of analytical documents, methods of cooperation with the government and partners of the coalition that includes 70 members.
We are really grateful to colleagues from Bosnia and Herzegovina that spared their time and shared their experience, knowledge and skills. We are sure that the cooperation started between EPL and GEA, SEEChangeNet and Analitikawill continue because the environment has no borders and we will have many common issues to analyze.
The study visit to think tanks in the Balkans was possible thanks to financial support of TTF4
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ThinkTankFoundworks to ensure decision makers and relevant stakeholders in the countries of operation use high quality, evidence-informed research to develop and implement policies that lead to and sustain more open and prosperous societies.
International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law”5is a human rights organization that since 1994 has been enforcing environmental rights, working to protect the environment, maintain, restore and improve its state, providing legal assistance for protection of other rights adjacent to environmental rights.
1 http://pasos.org/8092/gea-center-for-research-and-studies-banja-luka-bosnia-and-herzegovina/
2 http://www.analitika.ba/en
3 http://seechangenetwork.org/
4 https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/programs/think-tank-fund
5 http://epl.org.ua/about
