CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Challenge
Passiveness among citizens and civil society, due to decades of bad transition of the Jiu Valley, which led to massive depopulation and loss of the sense of belonging and of local pride. Poor collaboration and lack of trust and confidence among citizens. Poor civil society, lack of organisational capacity building and of local resources for civil society and citizens’ involvement.
Solution
Valea Jiului Implicată (www.valeajiuluiimplicata.org) is a coalition of 21 NGOs, active in the Jiu Valley, aiming at having a significant contribution to the economic, social, and cultural development of the functional area.
The strategic objectives of Valea Jiului Implicată are:
- Strengthening the civil society in the Jiu Valley, by encouraging civic engagement, best practices exchanges, and better collaboration among its members.
- Promoting the principle of good practice in the sustainable development of the Jiu Valley, strengthening the crucial role of the civil society in the process of developing the strategic documents for the region.
- Promoting the collaboration between the Jiu Valley civil society and the public authorities at local, county, regional, national, European, and international level, as well as the private and academic environment.
Among the actions developed by Valea Jiului Implicată there are: (1) the involvement of the civic society and citizens in the development of the Jiu Valley Development Strategy and the Hunedoara County Just Transition Plan, as well as other specific strategic documents; (2) the development of the first mural picture realised in a collaborative manner by the civil society and the citizens in the city center of Petroșani (the largest town in the Jiu Valley); (3) the signing of the Protocol of Collaboration for the Jiu Valley among all the local actors involved in the development of Jiu Valley (public authorities, the University, research institutes, private sector, syndicates and civil society); (4) representation of the Jiu Valley to different events at regional, national, and European level; (5) various civil society activities and different projects in collaboration.
Other best practices
About this resource
In 2021, the European Commission launched a pilot project to improve functional area approaches in the EU and has partnered with the World Bank to implement this initiative. As part of the project, the project team collaborated with 12 functional areas from seven EU countries, providing them with tailored technical support and assistance: Zagreb Urban Agglomeration (Croatia), Brno Metropolitan Area (Czech Republic), West Athens (Greece), Lake Balaton Area (Hungary), Kalisz-Ostrów Agglomeration, Kraków Metropolitan Area (Poland), Jiu Valley and Jiu Conurbation Functional Area, Caraș-Timiș Functional Area, Cluj Metropolitan Area, Oradea Metropolitan Area, West Ialomița Functional Area (Romania), and Trenčín Functional Area (Slovakia).
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