Nansen Dialogue Centre Serbia has been working on the Sandžak project for four years now. During the first two years, the group with which we worked included only local politicians and representatives of municipalities, whereas during the other two years we expanded the group with journalists and editors of important local media in Sandžak. During the past four years, our associates in the field have also been representatives of all major non-governmental organisations in this region, as well as other people who can influence the communities and who are willing to help the realization of this project.

The project in Sandžak is implemented in cooperation with Nansen Dialogue Centre Montenegro in which way all major municipalities in this region are included.

Hereinafter, the observations regarding Sandžak mainly refer to the part which geographically belongs to Serbia. Additional information which refers to the Montenegrin part can be found on NDC Montenegro's website.

Sandžak is a multiethnic, multireligious and multinational region, with much potential, but with many problems as well. The problems which we can encounter here range from economic problems to political, religious, infrastructural problems and problems of organisation of local communities as well as gender equality. This society is very traditional and lives under the feeling of being neglected to a certain extent both by Podgorica and Belgrade, as well as Europe.

Differences in municipalities in Sandžak vary from one municipality to the next, depending on their ethnic structure, which is mixed in some municipalities, or either dominantly Bosniak or dominantly Serbian in others.

In this sense, the approach which we use in our work must be very flexible and diverse, depending on who we address and the situation in which Sandzak is at a particular moment. Since this project began, there have been several election campaigns, several referendums, smaller or bigger changes in local authorities, and most importantly, during this period the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro took place. All these events have also affected our programmes, therefore we had to adjust our activities to the specific situation, at all times bearing in mind that our task is to support peaceful resolution of all conflicts in the region with our activities as much as possible. We can say that our overarching goal has been and remains to emphasise to the influential people in Sandžak the importance of peaceful, non-violent and democratic approach to all existing and future events and differences in Sandžak.

In addition to this most important goal, we would like to mention the following very important goals:
- to educate important local structures, people who are decision-makeres for the local community, people working in media and generally people with influence towards interethnic dialogue, respecting human rights, fighting against corruption and obeying laws and regulations;
- to motivate journalists to fight democratically for a free journalism;
- to motivate politicians to inter-municipal cooperation and exchange of experiences in the region;
- to raise general level of knowledge of what political culture and political dialogue are and what it means to be a responsible politician in a democratic society.

During our work so far, three different groups from Sandžak have had an opportunity to visit Norway and get closer to the meaning of the whole Nansen project and in more detail and in person learn about how the Norwegian society functions. They have also had an dopprotunity to visit important political, social and cultural institutions in Norway, establish contacts with people of similar professions and interests and in that way see what elements from the Norwegian model could be applied in their region.

Methods of our work are various. Besides visits to Norway, we have regular seminars with our groups where we empower them with theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of conflict theory and conflict analysis, mediation, negotiation, human rights...

We are in constant touch with our participants, we visit the region frequently and have regular meetings with our associates between our main activities and seminars.

Some of the important activities we organise are round tables, public debates and other similar activities to open topics which are important for this region.
With the help of our participants from media primarily, we try to be present in the local media as well and in this way introduce a wider public in Sandžak to the goals and methods of our work.

NDC Serbia and NDC Montenegro will continue the project in Sandžak in a similar way in 2007, but with some new elements included. Our programme must be in line with the new political situation which requires respect of both political units, but also emphasising the importance of further cooperation and connections between all Sandžak municipalities. One of the directions our project will develop in will be to give our participants a higher level of education in mediation, a relatively new and unfamiliar and not recognised tool for conflict resolution. Our main target group will still be representatives of municipalities, local politicians and people from media, but we will expand our work and include other citizens who could, by nature of their profession, find themselves in our programmes.

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