Excerpt: In Kotor, Montenegro, the project “Local voices online” explores how digital tools can help bring citizens whose voices are rarely heard into public dialogue, and why their participation matters for the entire community.
Over the years of working with communities, I often wondered whose voices were missing when we talked about community development in Montenegro. At public meetings, the same people were usually heard. In public debates, the same voices kept repeating. But I knew there were others who were going unnoticed.
In one of the smaller settlements along the Bay of Kotor, an older woman has opinions about health services, road safety, and public transport. She has never attended a public consultation. Not because she does not care about what happens in her community, but because no one has ever asked her what she thinks.
She is not alone. In our community, there are people with disabilities who face barriers every day. They have opportunities to point them out, but their suggestions are implemented slowly or receive no response at all. There are women whose views rarely travel beyond family circles. There are citizens who are not part of the political, institutional, or other formal structures through which voices are most commonly heard.
What connects them is not a lack of opinions. Many of them have clear experiences, needs, and suggestions. What they most often lack is a chance for someone to ask them.
Someone has to ask first
Our organization, European Democratic Initiatives (EDI), learned this from experience. In 2024, we conducted a survey on the needs of older persons in the municipality of Kotor. The survey analysis report revealed what we had suspected but could not confirm: many older citizens are not sufficiently informed about the rights and services available to them, they feel deep isolation, and their voices, experiences, and perspectives remain an invaluable resource that the community does not use.
“They only remember me when it is time to vote,” said one of the women who participated in the survey.
This is not a problem limited to older persons. We are also conducting research with persons with disabilities, and the findings confirm the same pattern: People have something to say, but nobody systematically hears them. Sometimes they are asked, but nothing happens afterward. The response disappears into silence, and trust is lost little by little.
This experience gave rise to the project “Local voices online,” which we are implementing in Kotor as part of the Digital Spark program. The project does not start with technology. It starts with people. Its fundamental question is not how to use digital tools, but how to create a space where those who usually remain outside public conversation can be heard.
The project combines research, dialogue, and digital participation. Through surveys and conversations with older persons and persons with disabilities, we seek to better understand the challenges they face and the issues that matter most to them. Based on the experiences, needs, and perspectives that citizens share with us, we encourage and support them in using simple and accessible digital tools to make their voices heard and participate more actively in issues of public interest that affect their communities and everyday lives.
For some citizens, the first step is not technology. It is the confidence that their voice matters. It is having access to information, understanding how they can participate, and feeling that someone is genuinely interested in listening. Only then can digital tools become meaningful instruments for participation.
More than technology
Digital tools do not give people a voice. They already have one. Their value lies in helping that voice be heard, connected with other voices, and become part of a wider conversation about the community.
For many citizens, digital tools represent a new opportunity to become visible, share their experiences, and join conversations about issues that matter to their community. They do not replace face-to-face dialogue, but they can open additional possibilities for participation.
Yet digital participation does not begin with technology. It begins with trust.
People need to believe that someone genuinely wants to listen to them. They need to believe that their opinion will not end up merely as a data point in a report, but as part of a conversation that can help the community better understand its needs.
When people are given the opportunity and support to use digital tools, they do not simply become technology users. They become more active participants in the conversations that shape the life of their community.
What a community gains when it listens
Including people whose voices are rarely heard is not only important for them. It is important for the community as well.
When older persons, persons with disabilities, women, young people, and citizens who are not part of formal decision-making structures join the public dialogue, the community gains a fuller picture of itself. It better understands the everyday barriers people face. It recognizes needs that previously remained invisible.
Digital tools can accelerate this process. A simple online survey can gather opinions from hundreds of citizens that no public meeting could bring together. A digital platform can connect people from remote settlements with those who make decisions. A message sent from a phone can carry the same weight as a speech at a public forum.
Voices that are rarely heard do not represent only individual experiences. They help the community see itself more clearly. And digital tools can help those voices reach where they are needed most.
A question that belongs to everyone
Although this story takes place in Kotor, the question it asks is not limited to one town or one country. Through the Digital Spark program, organizations and communities from numerous countries are exploring how digital tools can support civic participation and dialogue between citizens and decision-makers.
The contexts differ, but the challenge is often similar: how to include people whose voices are rarely heard, even though the decisions being made directly affect them.
We have only just begun to listen
What we already see clearly is that meaningful civic participation begins with listening. Digital tools can play a significant role in this: they make participation accessible to everyone, regardless of age, physical ability, place of residence, or level of digital experience. Equally important is timely information, because people cannot participate in conversations about their community if they do not know those conversations are taking place or what rights and services are available to them. For people who have, until now, been invisible in public space, the opportunity to share their opinions through a simple online survey or digital platform can be the first step toward becoming visible.
In Kotor, as in many other communities around the world, there are people whose voices are rarely heard. If digital tools can help those voices become part of conversations about issues that matter to the community, their value goes beyond technology itself.
Ljiljana Jovović is Project Coordinator at NGO European Democratic Initiatives (EDI), based in Kotor, Montenegro. She can be reached at nvoedi@gmail.com.
