Kate Coyer on Bosnian Public Television

The clip starts at 9:30'' and is available here: http://www.bhrt.ba/bht1-emisije/bih-danas/bih-danas-153/.

Kate Coyer, CMDS Director of the Civil Society and Technology Project was interviewed for BHTV, Bosnia and Herzegovina's public broadcaster following her talk on public pressure for open government initiatives "The Pressure from «bellow»: Two-way communication with citizens", as part of the Capacity Building of Government Institutions Workshop in Sarajevo.

In her talk, Kate argues that citizens need to have more than their voices heard on public matters, but require real mechanisms through which to have real impact. Making the case that when governments fail to meaningfully engage with the public on matters of policy and governance, citizens find their own ways to engage, she presented case studies of grassroots initiatives that cleverly use technology to create platforms for transparency and policy engagement.

The workshop was held for policy makers, civil servants and civil society from across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also featured talks from Thorvaldur Gylfason, former member of the Constitutional Council and adjunct professor of economics , Iceland; Measured Meisalu, Communication Adviser for the Parliament of Estonia; and Wolf Vujnovi, Secretary General of Association of SEEC, Montenegro.