For more than two decades, NDI teams have supported partners in government, civil society and political parties on a range of environmental governance initiatives on conservation, disaster response, waste management, air pollution and lead poisoning. NDI’s programs demonstrate that such democratic practices as participatory and inclusive policy consultations, citizen-responsive policy and strong regulatory and oversight mechanisms are key to equitable, appropriate and sustained environmental governance outcomes. Certain that democracy is essential to environmental resilience, the Institute recognizes that the environment offers citizens, communities and civil society a strategic path to advancing and innovating democracy. 

NDI’s work with local women-led environmental movements in support of the European Union’s Green Agenda for the Western Balkans demonstrates all the ways that environmental activism vitalizes democracy.

Each of the countries of the Western Balkans has signed EU country commitments to the Green Agenda, which the EU sees as a mechanism for drawing the Balkans closer to it. However, while governments are committed, there is no clear strategy or way ahead. There is an immediate opportunity to energize citizens and civil society in partnership with political representatives to leverage Green Agenda commitments and incentives to strengthen environmental governance in many ways – building a body of open and transparent regulations, clearly delineating governance authorities, educating the general public to be informed advocates, etc.  Local environmental movements, often led by women, are a natural starting point.  NDI will focus its work on raising their awareness of the Green Agenda and how their local activism supports it.

The Environment and Women’s Leadership in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the strength and effectiveness of women’s leadership, and countries led by women had more proactive and coordinated pandemic response policies. Similarly, as the impacts of environmental degradation and change are felt locally and globally, the effectiveness of women leaders is again in evidence. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, a women-led movement in the village of Kruscica won a landmark legal decision to stop the construction of two hydro dams in a nearby river. The decision came after 16 months of continuous local demonstrations blocking the construction of the small hydro plants (which did not meet EU-based environmental standards) and retaliatory attacks by local police. Their case is a victory for the environment, the rule of law, and democracy. The women of Kruscica ran for and were elected to their local council (purportedly the first time women had won Bosniak local council seats) and the town’s citizens organized and formed a non-governmental organization (NGO).  

In the city of Mostar, citizens have been fighting to close the city’s Uborak landfill, which has been operating for years without environmental and water permits, contaminating the nearby river and soil. This has had severe consequences for human health, such as fetal malformations in pregnant women, cancer, liver and brain damage, etc. As in Kruscica, environmental activism has resulted in dividends for democracy. Locals involved in the Uborak case have also formed an association, and the most prominent female activist among them has organized a movement-based local political party Hoćemo! (We Want!).  

As these two cases demonstrate, women are powerful organizers for several reasons. They are often quick to adopt innovative approaches, motivated by community and family well-being, and reach out to and include a diversity of stakeholders that others may not. As women-led environmental movements increase, the democracy gains are evident in the increase in women’s political leadership and civil society organizations.

Leveraging Regional and International Environmental Commitments for Governance Accountability

Democratic norms and processes are embedded in multilateral environmental responses from international treaties like the Paris Agreement to regional commitments like the Escazu Agreement in Latin America and Aarhus Convention in Europe. The European Union’s Green Agenda for the Western Balkans recognizes the powerful interplay between necessary environmental green transitions and democratic progression. Strengthening environmental governance – including environmental policy and reforms, regulatory and legal frameworks – can provide a powerful avenue for civic activism, legislative strengthening and local government capacity building. 

Building Civil Society and Government Trust

The Western Balkans have not been immune to the shrinking of civil society space occurring locally and globally in the form of government harassment and intimidation of media and NGOs, barriers to accessing information needed for civil society to hold governments accountable, and implementation of policies to curtail civil society activism. Implementation of the Green Agenda is an opportunity to cultivate civil society and government collaboration, as civil society holds the bulk of the expertise to craft effective environmental policy and programs. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, powerful constituencies for protecting the coal industry exist. Civil society and citizens for environmental policy change are a critical alternative source of political power and legitimacy for politicians as they grapple with the hard decisions the Green Agenda requires them to make.

NDI’s Governance, Gender and Green Agenda programming in Bosnia and Herzegovina is building on all of the opportunities that local environmental movements and regional environmental policy commitments offer by bridging groups to achieve greater systemic change. The program is sponsoring participatory research to analyze and identify gender-specific aspects of the green transition process. With analysis in hand, the program will raise public awareness through inclusive local dialogues for designing and implementing gender sensitive environmental policies. The overarching goal is to create a support network of educated stakeholders from civil society, women’s movements and local and national government to engage in policy development around the Green Agenda and, in the process, elevate women’s political leadership on the environment and strengthen civil society and government cooperation and partnerships.

With growing concern regarding the global threats to democracy, the democracy community must show how it can deliver more effectively than authoritarian regimes. Tackling the environmental impacts that communities feel in their everyday life, as NDI with its partners has done for the past two decades, shows that democracy can deliver in tangible, innovative and participatory ways.

Author: Lauren Van Metre, Director, Peace, Climate and Democratic Resilience

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NDI is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization that works in partnership around the world to strengthen and safeguard democratic institutions, processes, norms, and values to secure a better quality of life for all. NDI envisions a world where democracy and freedom prevail, with dignity for all.