The initial meeting was held in the Small City Hall in Nova Gradiska, and attended by  organizers Natasa Kovacevic and Marina Baric-Gacic, representatives of the Information Legal Centre (ILC) from Slavonski Brod and the project team of IPA 2011 "Civil Society for Accountable Governance", and members of the recently established local expert team: Mihaela Deraj, representative of the City of Nova Gradiska; Ivana Mikanovic, representative of the Centre for Social Welfare; Brigita Dobrikovic, representative of the Association for the Prevention of Socially  Pathological Behaviour of Youth "Prevention"; Momir Divjak and Simonida Tarbuk, representatives of the Citizens' Initiative "NG-rebels" and Milorad Jovanovic, a representative of the Association of the Blind Nova Gradiska.

Establishment of the local expert platform is one of the key activities carried out by the Centre for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights - Osijek, in partnership with Information Legal Centre (ILC) from Slavonski Brod, the Serbian Democratic Forum (SDF), Dutch partners PAX and The Hague Academy for Local Government within the two years project "Civil Society for Accountable Governance," funded by the European Union under the IPA 2011 " „Strengthening Support to Civil Society Organizations for Increasing Transparency and Good Governance Public Administration in Croatia“.

After introduction of the members of the local expert group and their previous work related to the target groups, the project coordinator briefly presented the project, its activities, objectives and expected results. Also, she presented the purpose and activities of the local expert group and announced the upcoming motivational meetings with the local expert group in which participants expressed their willingness to participate.

Project Coordinator for Brod-Posavina County reminded the platform members of the training “Monitoring of the Policies Related to Good Governance and Anti-discrimination” which was held in Zagreb in the end of May 2015. She particularly emphasized the acquired new knowledge on good governance and anti-discrimination and methods of conducting research which resulted in creation of the monitoring forms related to the four target groups (youth, women, national minorities and persons with disabilities).

During the analysis of suggested monitoring forms, members of the local expert group discussed the problems faced by the target groups at the local level, particularly members of the Roma minority who do not have an elected representative in the City of Nova Gradiska and people with disabilities who have highlighted experienced discrimination cases. Based on the all presented information it was concluded that the monitoring forms’ indicators will be adjusted to the needs of the target groups at the local level. The research will be carried out by the survey  with detailed questions created  for the specific  target groups Members of the local expert team believe that the establishment of inter-sectoral cooperation and joint work on the development of the  local action plan will contribute to the solution of problems target groups are facing on a daily basis.