In the past year, Cojocna commune in Cluj County has developed a smart administration within a project launched by the Civitas Foundation for Civil Society. The project called Partnership for the development of Smart Governance in Cojocna commune has been implemented in a period of 14 months during which the commune authorities learned about the concept of ”Smart Village” and sought innovative solutions to improve the lives of the commune’s residents.

In 2022, in Romania, 147 communes were identified as having one or more Smart Village projects in progress, marking a 300% increase compared to 2021 when only 59 communes were identified as implementing such projects (According to ”The Smart Village Radiography in Romania”, a study conducted by Vegacomp Consulting). Romania has 2,685 communes where approximately 44% of the country’s population lives. These communes encompass 13,285 villages, averaging around five villages per commune.

„Rural areas are often underserved, and the commune of Cojocna is not anexception. The first smart initiative we developed together aims to provide an intelligent solution to a problem regarding the basic needs of the commune’s residents – limited access to healthcare services. The project aims to provide telemedicine services for families in the commune, allowing them quick access to medical consultations and prescriptions. Residents have also launched a crowdfunding campaign on Creștem Idei (a crowdfunding platform) to finance their pilot project. You can see and support their online campaign on www.crestemidei.org. It is a necessary initiative, and we are happy that our project has created the context for it to emerge,” says Andreea Suciu, Project Manager.

In addition to telemedicine services, within the project conducted by the Civitas Foundation in partnership with the Cojocna City Hall, local authorities will develop a digital platform that will enable online payments and include online registry services, making procedures simpler and faster for the commune’s residents.

As part of the Partnership for the development of Smart Governance in Cojocna commune project, over 40 representatives of Cojocna commune participated in training on Smart concepts, were part of study visits to Ciugud, a popular Smart Village in Romania, and attended community facilitator courses. After a series of public consultations, the commune selected and will implement the two mentioned smart initiatives.

***The project (SMIS Code: 151364/SIPOCA Code: 913) is co-financed by the European Social Fund through the Operational Program ”Administrative Capacity” 2014-2020, with a total value of 416,186.58 lei, of which 346,683.43 lei represents the EU contribution. It was implemented between July 27, 2022, and September 26, 2023.

The project aims to promote smart development at the community level in Cojocna by establishing a Local Development Fund, developing a mechanism for the involvement of non-governmental organizations and citizens in the community and decision-making processes (active citizenship), and identifying smart initiatives for the development of smart administration in the Cojocna commune.