In order to encourage participation and cooperation between non-majority communities and elected representatives at the local level, KDI has organized a roundtable on “Participation of non-majority communities in the decision-making process”. Participants in this meeting from the local authorities were the Deputy Mayors of Dragash, the Chairperson of the Municipal Assembly, the directors of the municipal directorates and members of the Municipal Assembly.

Within this roundtable, members of non-majority communities have directly faced the elected representatives at the municipal level, where they have discussed the problems they face in the everyday life and addressed their issues and concerns to decision-makers.

Decision-makers have expressed their commitment to reflecting on the requests and concerns of non-majority communities in the Municipality of Dragash and priority will be given to these concerns in policy planning at the local level. At the same time, the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) has been recommended to engage in the process of Local Councils’ elections in order to represent the base of localities by these mechanisms.

The issues of non-coordination and interaction between the Bosniak and Gorani communities remain among the challenges of increasing cooperation between non-majority communities and local institutions.