A team of talented young developers has claimed top honours at the national competition ‘Internet Solution for Greater Trust’, organised by the Reform of Local Finance Project (RELOF3) supported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, Switzerland
The winning team, MINDevelopment, consists of Luka Glišić, Miloš Mitrović, and Ilija Dončić, students from Zrenjanin and Niš, who impressed the committee with their tailored digital solution designed to enhance transparency and trust in local institutions.
The AltF4 team from Belgrade (Lazar Gazdić, Nikola Leković, and Marko Tintor) took second place, while the TMSD team from Novi Sad, comprising Milica Radojević, Tijana Lazić, Stefan Nikolovski, and Dragan Vučićević, secured third. The competition drew participants between the ages of 18 and 25, primarily students and recent graduates from technical faculties.
Over a two-month period, seven finalist teams, consisting of around 30 young people, developed minimum viable products (MVPs) for a new content management system (CMS) aimed at serving indirect budget users, such as kindergartens, libraries, cultural centres, and local tourism offices. The initiative is part of RELOF3’s broader goal to strengthen managerial accountability, performance management and transparency across local government institutions.
“Young people’s strong engagement in this competition, along with the quality of the digital solutions they developed, clearly shows they possess both the motivation and the capability to contribute meaningfully to improving the work of local institutions,” said Ana Jolović, Team Leader of the RELOF3 Project. “Their efforts are helping to advance transparency and accountability among indirect budget users, while also strengthening communication between public institutions and the citizens they serve.”
The CMS platform designs developed during the competition will undergo further joint development and testing, with mentoring provided to the winning teams. The final version is scheduled for launch by the end of 2025, offering a free, functional, and user-friendly website solution for local institutions currently lacking adequate digital presence.
RELOF3’s findings underscore the need for such a solution: In ten municipalities involved in the project, there are 88 indirect budget institutions – some employing more than 350 staff and jointly managing around 8 billion dinars annually, or roughly 20% of local public spending. Yet none of these institutions currently meets the standards of full transparency.
For participants, the competition was more than just a technical challenge.
“Unlike hackathons that last a day or two, this required sustained work, learning, and teamwork over several weeks,” said Ilija Dončić of the winning MINDevelopment team.
“The training sessions on public accountability and transparency really helped us understand how our solutions could be practically applied,” added Miloš Mitrović and Luka Glišić.
Fellow competitors from the AltF4 and TMSD teams echoed their sentiments, emphasising the opportunity to apply academic knowledge to practical problems in the service of a real social goal. For Lazar Gazdić, Marko Tintor from the AltF4 team, and Dragan Vučićević from TMSD, this was an excellent chance to apply the knowledge and skills gained at university in practice, within a team environment, and to contribute to addressing a specific social challenge, such as enhancing the transparency of local institutions.
According to Stevan Nikolovski from TMSD and other members of the top-ranked teams, the award they received recognises their effort, motivates further progress, and marks one of the first – but significant – step in their future careers.
As RELOF3 moves forward with implementing the final CMS solution, the competition has clearly achieved its mission—empowering a new generation of tech-savvy changemakers to make a tangible impact on governance and public service delivery in Serbia.
