The Award ceremony for best practices, which participated in the first edition of the Best Practice in Bulgarian Local Self-Governments 2016/2017 Programme in Bulgaria, was held on May 23rd, 2017, 11:00 h, at "Serdika" Hall of the Sofia Hotel Balkan (5, St. Nedelya Sq.), Sofia.
In each category, 4 practices were nominated, two of them were awarded first and second place. The authors of the best six practices in the three categories will visit the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg thanks to the organization and funding of the Council of Europe.
The mayors of the nominated municipalities were congratulated and the awards were presented by Mrs Jutta Gützkow, Head of Good Governance Division, Centre of Expertise on Local Government Reform, Council of Europe, Mrs. Rositsa Dimitrova, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Mrs. Martina Todorova, Head of Strategies and Plans for Regional Development and Territorial Coordination, Directorate General "Strategic Planning of Regional Development and Administrative-Territorial Structure", Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, Mrs. Ginka Chavdarova, Executive Director of National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr. Lachezar Rosenov, Chairman of the Board of FLGR, the host of the ceremony was Mr. Vassil Pancharov, co-founder and first long-term executive director of National Association of Secretaries of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria since its establishment.
In the first edition of the Best Practices Programme in Bulgaria, three thematic areas were selected:
I. Municipal support for civic initiatives
II. New management technologies and solutions
III. Social innovation and partnerships
29 practices from 19 municipalities and one district participated the contest, two of the practices competed in two categories.
The criteria for practices evaluation were:
1. Relevance and Impact
2. Openness and transparency
3. Innovation
4. Sustainability
The nominated practices in Thematic area 1 „Municipal support for civic initiatives“ were:
- "Small Projects for a More Cozy Environment", Practice of Municipality of Byala Slatina;
- "Let's together fulfil the dreams of the children", Practice of Dobrich Municipality;
- Who is opposite me in the net", Practice of District of Slatina Аdministration, Sofia Municipality;
- "With Tundzha in the heart - municipal support for civic initiatives", Practice of Tundzha Municipality.
Second place went to "Let's together fulfil the dreams of the children", Practice of Dobrich Municipality.
With First place was awarded "With Tundzha in the heart - municipal support for civic initiatives", Practice of Tundzha Municipality.
The nominated practices in Thematic area 2 „New management technologies and solutions“ were:
- Electronic archive "Old Family Registers", Practice of Varna Municipality.
- GIS App for the National Program for Energy Efficiency of Multifamily Residential Buildings, Practice of Gabrovo Municipality.
- Assisting municipal schools to implement new educational technologies and digitization of the learning process, Practice of Plovdiv Municipality.
- Complex administrative service delivery, use of Regix-registers for inter-administrative data exchange and VPN connectivity with mayoralties, Practice of Troyan Municipality.
With Second place was awarded "Assisting municipal schools to implement new educational technologies and digitization of the learning process", Practice of Plovdiv Municipality.
First place won "Complex administrative service delivery, use of Regix-registers for inter-administrative data exchange and VPN connectivity with mayoralties", Practice of Troyan Municipality.
The nominated practices in Thematic area 3 „Social innovation and partnerships“ were:
- With care for the elderly, Practice of Veliko Tarnovo Municipality;
- Take me to a village, Practice of Gabrovo municipality;
- National campaign "Grain of Life" in support of couples with reproductive problems, Practice of Dobrich municipality;
- Crisis centre at the Ovcha Mogila mayoralty, Practice of the Svishtov Municipality.
With Second place was awarded "Crisis centre at the Ovcha Mogila mayoralty", Practice of the Svishtov Municipality.
The First place went to "With care for the elderly", Practice of Veliko Tarnovo Municipality.
Deputy Minister Mrs Rositsa Dimitrova, who awarded the prize winners in the category "Social Innovations and Partnerships", said: "As a representative of the executive power I reach out to all municipalities to continue the dialogue and good partnership. Local governments have accumulated a lot of expertise and high capacity that can be used to address the challenges of caring about vulnerable groups."
The practices that participated the competition are published in a brochure and will be distributed among all Bulgarian municipalities. They will also become part of the on-line "Innovative Practices" data base on the FLGR website.
The authors of the winning practices in each category will visit Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France, on a trip organised and financed by the Council of Europe.
We thank everyone who participated! Congratulations to the nominees and the winners and we wish them in the future interesting and fruitful innovation practices in the interests of local communities!
The Programme has been developed by the Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise on Local Government Reform and is implemented in Bulgaria by Foundation for Local Government Reform with the support of the Ministry of Regional Delopment and Public Works and the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria. The Programme has been implemented successfully in a number of European countries: Armenia, Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Switzerland.
In Bulgaria the Programme was implemented by the Foundation for Local Government Reform in the period October 2016 – May 2017 and aimed at identifying, achieving public recognition and dissemination of best practices among municipalities in Bulgaria. The Programme was focused on new practices that had been implemented over the past 18 months and on sustainable practices that had been applied for a longer period of time but had undergone a qualitative upgrade over the past 18 months. All Bulgarian municipalities were invited to participate in the Best Practice Competition 2016/2017. Each municipality could take part in the competition with one practice in each thematic area.
This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Council of Europe.
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