One of the main goals of the Ozone Project is enhancing communication between local governments and citizens, which is why we regularly hold workshops for local government officials on this topic. We talked with communications expert Alena Kulenović-Delić about why this topic is so important, what this communication is like at this moment, how can it be improved and examples of good practice.
IREI: What is your general assessment of communication between local governments and citizens?
AKD: Communication is a broad term and it is difficult to give a general assessment as it implies the organization of the workspace, e.g. service counters that are or are not “citizen friendly” (to invent a new term), direct communication between municipal employees and citizens during the delivery of different services, where the experience and familiarity with the responsibilities of municipal services and bodies is essential for successful and meaningful communication, to visual and content promotion of projects, work and activities of local governments in the media or on social networks.
There are significant differences in the level of performance between different local governments but what stands out as a shared common trait is poorly developed internal communication and frequent lack of awareness of the responsibilities of different departments within the same municipality or city administration, which is also highly reflected in communication with citizens.
Because of this, citizens spend more time in municipalities trying to exercise their rights or to get adequate service and information, because even municipal workers need a certain amount of time to get to it, or they sometimes provide incorrect information. Written documents (newsletters, notices, forms, website posts) often use extremely bureaucratic language making communication slower instead of easier and faster. Many municipalities are still not proactive in relation to the media in a sense that they do not promote topics of importance to the local population (new services, public calls, projects) but mainly use media space to promote the work of the mayor’s office. According to analyses of citizens’ satisfaction with services, the service provided by counter staff in smaller communities is usually positively rated (professional, courteous behaviour), while the number of cases resolved or the speed of service provision do not support this assessment. Then again, larger municipalities having a very large daily influx of citizens and really do work in extremely dynamic conditions, so they face great challenges of how to maintain professional communication with citizens who are often nervous and prone to verbal and even physical conflicts. It is notable that services have not yet been digitalized, communication on social networks has not fully taken off, but it is definitely one of the priorities of most municipalities. Yet, even those that use social networks avoid communication with citizens on the social networks and simply provide information to them.
IREI: Can you identify one or more municipalities that communicate well and tell us what is it that other municipalities should take from them as an example of good practice?
AKD: In the current analysis of communication of six local self-government units (Cities of Bihać and Gradiška, Municipalities of Modriča, Ilidža, Centar Sarajevo and Novo Sarajevo) an example of good practice I would single out is the excellent organization of service counters in the City of Gradiška, where citizens quickly get their turn, have an opportunity to sit down with the staff and talk about the service/information they came for.
The Municipality of Centar Sarajevo does good work creating news for citizens which they publish on their website, they share information on social networks and are the only ones active on Twitter. The City of Bihać is exceptionally good at running a Viber community for the citizens of Bihać, so I would highlight these practices as good examples that others could follow. Regular responses of the Mayor of Novo Sarajevo to citizens’ questions at the www.javnarasprava.ba platform and similar activities of other mayors who are at the disposal of their citizens, to either meet face-to-face or to respond to inquiries via online channels, are certainly good practices.
IREI: What is it that citizens most often ask for and which information is the most difficult to obtain?
AKD: Municipal Services for general administration and social welfare are most frequently contacted by citizens for services and requests related to urban planning, extracts from the registers, notarising documents, property and legal affairs and cadastre.
The position of associate for information affairs is extremely important in direct communication with citizens even though it is sometimes held by the municipality receptionist. This is the first contact person who needs to know enough about the workings of all departments to initially direct citizens to the right department and provide correct information. It is hard to say which information takes the longest to obtain, because it all depends on the complexity of the case, but also on how expeditious a given municipal department is. In practice, citizens who are often not familiar with the responsibilities of certain departments believe that they do not receive adequate service or cannot exercise their rights (e.g. they ask for a birth certificate to be issued to them because they have lived in Bihać for more than 30 years, but were born in a different municipality in the RS). Therefore, insufficient knowledge of the work and responsibilities of administrative bodies sometimes represent a hindrance in communication with citizens and the provision of services, i.e. the lack of information on the side of citizens becomes the basis for reputation. In all the analysed settings, it is noticeable that more and more citizens call for the right of access to freedom of information and they generally receive the requested information/materials on time.
IREI: What positive examples of global practice would you recommend for implementation in local communities in Bosnia?
AKD: I believe that digitalization is a prerequisite for faster and better services in the future, while simpler (less bureaucratic), more transparent and more direct communication with citizens is also the basis for more successful work of local governments. I cannot give a specific example, but it is important to be well aware of the local setting and one’s target groups and to create services and communication methods in accordance with the needs of the community. Some practices from big cities abroad cannot literally be copied but rather need to be adapted to the local needs.
IREI: What is lacking the most in BiH when it comes to communication between local communities and citizens? Is it communication tools, education of officials, lack of transparency…
AKD: I must point out that most officials are highly dedicated and, in many situations, highly committed while working in multiple positions. In most cases, poor communication with citizens is a result of the division of work and of inadequate job classification where one person does several jobs so that maximum commitment is not possible. In some situations, it is the poor training of officials who lack specialized knowledge in the field of communications, while in most others it is the “fear” of direct public communication with citizens. Why?!
IREI: How do you rate the language used by the officials in local communities when they want to inform citizens? Is the language used in these texts and statements sufficiently understandable?
AKD: The language is often very formal with too many technical terms and too long phrases – all this makes the information they want to convey to citizens less clear. This very approach is the first obstacle which appears in different forms. In analysing public calls addressed to citizens and the forms that have to be filled out prior to media appearances of municipal leaders, we notice that they could and should be more understandable.
IREI: What is the degree of importance of that which is communicated as compared to that which is not communicated? A concrete example: we often see that a mayor has met with someone and the information states only that the meeting took place but not what was agreed; or, that not a single web presentation of any municipality contains a map of locations where citizens can plant a tree, along with information on the type of the tree to use, or, some important service information- who do you contact to arrange for large waste disposal, etc.
AKD: Municipalities often do not communicate complete information nor talk about what is important for citizens, and so from the multitude of web or Facebook posts we get the impression of great dynamism and large municipal projects, but when we read them, we notice that the essence is missing. The dominant news is: they met, they talked, but not what is the conclusion, what is the benefit of a given decision/project/meeting for the citizens, what is the next step.
IREI: How do you rate the readability of local government pages and documents? For example, to what extent are citizens able to understand the budget, the urban plans and so on, how to simplify them?
AKD: Municipalities’ official web presences vary in the design quality and visual consistency, in readability of site content and its loading speed. Every better solution for each of these items also means better communication with citizens. Citizens may not understand professional documents, such as budgets and urban plans, but it is clear that those “must” be presented transparently on a municipality’s website. Nevertheless, to process the document for the general public the same way many municipalities have done with e.g. a ‘Budget for Citizens’, a document with interesting and easy-to-understand infographics and content that brings the idea of the budget closer to citizens, is definitely a recommendation on how to adapt such expert documents for citizens. But the question remains whether all municipalities have the resources and staff to do it on a regular basis.
IREI: Which social networks do local governments most often use for communication, and which they do not use at all but they should?
AKD: Communication on social networks is still in its infancy, and the recommendation is to develop it. Since accordin g to the TGI research (Market and Media Research Institute), 89.3% of the population used the Internet in 2021, we can say that social networks are an integral part of most people’s lives. Which networks to be on depends on the characteristics of the local environment (number of inhabitants, profile and age, etc.), but one of the basic recommendations is to create a Facebook page, because it is the most visited social network in BiH (72.3% of the population). It is preferable for urban social environments to have Twitter accounts, while projects intended for young people, for the promotion of tourism and some cultural events can most successfully be communicated on Instagram.
IREI: What about their focus on younger people and what should they do to improve communication with young people?
AKD: If they intensify and adapt their communication on social networks, they have already taken one step. One of the ways is creating space to examine the opinion of young people, to enable them to nominate topics and issues that interest them and to get them directly involved in projects.
IREI: How often is gender-sensitive language used?
AKD: Not often enough.
IREI: Are you familiar with the example of the Sarajevo Centar Municipality that introduced live streaming of Municipal Council sessions on YouTube and hired sign language interpreters to interpret those sessions?
AKD: Yes, I am familiar with it. It is an example of a good practice, because municipal council sessions should be publicly broadcast to improve transparency, while the engagement of sign language interpreters further promotes this transparency and the publicity of their work.
IREI: Local governments definitely do not factor in foreigners. They only provide an occasional tourist brochure in a foreign language, usually in English. Should we communicate with them more or is there really no need?
AKD: Foreigners coming as tourists to our country will be interested in the tourist brochures, but local governments should place even greater emphasis on potential cooperation with foreign investors, project partners, and therefore offer certain materials, descriptions or even entire web content in English language.
IREI: In the trainings and workshops you lead, what do you focus on the most?
AKD: We have covered various topics so far, from news writing and the rules of public speaking to communication strategies. The goal is to help them offer clearer information to citizens, to improve both direct and indirect communication, to have them keep in mind that the citizen comes first and that overall communication should be shaped accordingly.
IREI: What is it that local government officials who deal with communications most often cite as problems in their work?
AKD: The most often cited are the lack of experience and training in certain areas, the lack of knowledge of communication tools and channels, being overloaded with other jobs, or having an insufficient number of people in the communications team or in some key positions. They also often mention poor or slow exchange of information between services.
IREI: What did you, as a citizen, personally perceive as shortcomings in communication with the local government, and what positively surprised you?
AKD: Local government bodies are very complex, there are many departments with different responsibilities. To begin with, we need to work on understanding the responsibilities of those departments better, and that first but at times huge obstacle will be overcome. What positively surprises me is the enthusiastic approach of certain municipal workers to improving their knowledge and practices regarding communication, and as a citizen I was positively surprised by some of the more modern services that municipalities have started implementing, such as the e-baby system (information system for electronic registration of new-borns) and the general introduction of e-forms to the extent possible.