Partnership. Cooperation. Dialogue. How to improve existing mechanisms for involving civil society organizations in decision-making processes? How to actively involve citizens in the challenges that concern them? What are the challenges? What is our practice and what view of dialogue and partnership do representatives of public authorities, the academic community, civil society organizations, and citizens have? To provide answers to key questions related to socially current topics in Serbia, as well as ways in which citizens can be involved in decision-making processes, the Belgrade Open School organized on November 3rd  the conference "Dialogue of Changes - About opportunities and obstacles cooperation between CSOs and public authorities". The conference gathered over 120 participants, representatives of the European Union Delegation in Serbia, the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the University of Belgrade and Nis, activists, experts, citizens, and the media. Participants had the opportunity to exchange experiences and opinions on the topic of good governance, promotion, and protection of human rights and dialogue in the field of environmental protection. Encouraging the participants to cooperate, the Belgrade Open School provided a forum with this event that emphasizes the importance of dialogue between the public and civil sectors to reform and improve various areas of general social importance. 

"Sustainable cooperation between public authorities and civil society organizations has proven in practice to be a powerful mechanism for pooling limited resources and initiating reforms, which are important for Serbia to progress on the road to European integration. We expect that the newly elected Government will be strongly committed to the strategic direction of membership in the European Union. For this to happen, political commitment to deepening reforms and eliminating shortcomings is necessary, especially in key areas such as justice, the fight against corruption and organized crime, media freedom, and freedom of assembly," said Nicola Bertolini, Head of the Delegation's Cooperation Department of the European Union in Serbia. 

The Minister for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, Tomislav Zigmanov, emphasized the importance of cooperation and dialogue between all actors in society, especially in the decision-making process, as the foundation of successful reforms and improvement of various aspects of our lives. The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue will continue to support civil society organizations, state institutions, and local self-governments to establish a sustainable dialogue in the new mandate of the Government. "In the background of all processes of drafting and implementing public policies, there is dialogue, as the basis and precondition of quality solutions. That is why we will continue to encourage the state's dialogue with civil society organizations on important social issues and jointly create different models of cooperation," the minister said.

 "With the publication of the Report on Serbia's progress in the process of European integration, there was a need to start a discussion on improving the environment for the cooperation of public authorities at all levels of governance and civil society. "The successful cooperation of different sectors makes the success of the reforms more certain, and in the long term creates a sense of joint ownership of the achieved results, builds mutual trust, and further strengthens the determination among the involved actors to continue the European path", said Vladimir M. Pavlovic, advisor for public policies in Belgrade Open School. 

The conference was held within the project "Dialogue of changes - support for reforms through the cooperation of civil society organizations and public authorities". The project is supported by the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia and will be implemented in the period from 2021 to 2023 in partnership with the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, the Republic Secretariat for Public Policies, the Center for EU Public Policies of the University of Belgrade, Olof Palme Center as well as with the Office for NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia.