Projects

Activities:

• Development of the national methodology for action and strategic planning at the local level in the area of youth policy in partnership with the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the German Agency for International Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GIZ GmbH).
• Delivery of the manual intended for all participants in the process of design, implementation and revision of the local action plan for youths.
• Provision of assistance to the GIZ SoSYP programme to create documents and materials for presentation and promotion of the programme activities.
• Organization of workshops with an objective to build up capacities of local coordinators for youths and representatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sport aiming at successful application of the national methodology intended for the youth policy planning process at the local level.
• Local youth action plan coordination in 60 cities and municipalities on the territory of the entire Serbia, provision of technical assistance in view of mentoring and training approach in all steps of the process accomplishment.
• Establishment of standards of work for youth offices and competencies of local coordinators for youths – development of a concept with an aim to build up capacities of the youth structure at the local level, testing of standards, creation, accomplishment and evaluation of trainings for the application of standards of work of youth offices, delivery of the Manual on the standards of the work of youth offices and competencies of local coordinators with accompanying application guidelines.
• Revision of local action plans for youths – creation of the methodology for the application of the revision process, individual assistance to local self-government units through an immediate mentoring and training work, testing of the revision concept by means of a transparent public discussion with local coordinators attending it, delivery of the Manual intended for the local youth action plan revision process.
• Establishment of the National Association of Local Youth Offices – making of organizational structure of the Association based upon the observed needs of local coordinators of which the result was a list of recommendations in this field; provision of assistance to local youth offices to recognize significance of democratic and participative establishment and performance of the Association as an umbrella organization where shall be present interests of the champions and creators of the local youth policy, with respect for human rights; provision of assistance to mentoring and training work; technical and expert assistance to organize a founding conference of the Association of youth offices held in December 2012.

• The objective of the project is to develop instruments that would measure in what manner certain policies have influence onto the status of the youth in a country, first of all in the field of recognizing and granting their rights as well as the level of social inclusion of the youth in the community. Project activities included development and testing of the evaluation instruments for identification of effects that certain youth policies have; employment of instruments with an aim to collect information and create profiles of each country respectively wherein the project has been implemented with an objective to assess impact and effects that an existing policy have onto the status of young people; collection of information that may serve as a basis for creating future donor projects in this area and promotion of building up capacities of young researchers included in this programme.

• Designing local action plans (LAP) for youths in four multiethnic local self-government units in the south of Serbia – Presevo, Bujanovac, Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad: this process involved provision of assistance to the mentioned municipalities for establishment of working groups for the delivery of the LAP, technical support to collect data and identify the needs of local communities in the field of youth policy, mentoring and training of which the result was designing of local action plans for youths in each of the four municipalities.
• Monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of local action plans for youths in six local self-government units in the district of Raska/Sandzak – Novi Pazar, Tutin, Nova Varos, Priboj, Prijepolje and Sijenica: during the visit paid to local self-government units the achieved results were identified and the analysis of the condition and the report, including recommendations for improvement of the quality of strategic documents were carried out and the youth service was established as well.

• Delivery of the Albanian National Minority Council: creation of the strategic planning methodology for national councils of the national minorities in Serbia; designing of the manual for the application of the said methodology; implementation of the methodology by virtue of developing the Strategy plan of the Albanian National Council; coordination of public discussion with an objective to adopt this document.
• Support to establishment of the Bosnian National Council in Novi Pazar by means of organizing cycles of working meetings with representatives of local institutions, meetings with representatives of local media and creation of recommendations for the OSCE office in relation to upcoming steps for provision of assistance to launch the Bosnian National Council.

• The objective of the project was to prepare local managing structures in order that the future legislative regulation that refers to planning and evaluation of the municipal property be applied in an adequate manner. To that end an overview of current circumstances was delivered in pilot cities/municipalities – Novi Beograd, Sremski Karlovci, Majdanpek, Kragujevac and Sremska Mitrovica; performance management plan methodology was delivered in relation to municipal property; an individual performance management plan was made for each of five pilot local self-government units; by means of field visits paid by national and international experts in this area the support was provided for to the performance management plan.

• Activities within the programme included participation in preparing organizational models for human resources management at the local level and designing recommendations for the implementation of proper legislative regulation; visits were organized to six pilot cities and municipalities (Kursumlija, Novi Pazar, Veliko Gradiste, Zemun, Uzice and Sombor) upon which recommendations were formulated in order that manuals on human resources management be delivered; participation in the process of delivery of human resources management and in the process of preparing a closing conference wherein the activities of the Programme were presented.

• The objective of the project activity was to contribute to efficacy of the application of the means provided by the Fund of Persons With Disabilities, within the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. This was achieved by providing for assistance to the team of the Ministry to evaluate the projects having been financed from the Ministry’s budget and having been implemented by the organizations for persons with disabilities. The process of monitoring and evaluation was created in compliance with best practices and standards in this field and adjusted with the team of the Ministry – the methodology and work plan were designed, field visits were conducted and the data analysis and evaluation report for each project respectively were carried out. In addition, the final report was delivered with recommendations for improvement of the situation in this area.

• The activities included the delivery of the methodology for monitoring and evaluation, field visits and the delivery of reports with recommendations for social welfare services supported within the programme “Provision of improved services at the local level” and in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.

• The three-year programme was evaluated through which the following activities were implemented: technical support was provided for to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, local self-government units and other relevant partners in developing and providing social welfare services in the process of implementing national social welfare development strategy; financial resources were ensured through grants with an objective to assist to local self-governments in taking up a role of planners and purchasers of social welfare services provision at the level of the community and which were allocated by the Strategy and to provide for support to development of priority social welfare service at the level of local community; the Project included the following fields: social policy planning at the local level, development of the standard of services, contribution to fiscal decentralization, development/improvement of inspection and expert supervisions, system of licensing and accreditation.

• The project ensured assistance to mayors / presidents of the municipalities and local administration in developing partnerships with different institutions and organizations, inclusive of civil sector as well, at the local, regional, national and international level; during the planning process assistance was ensured for the participants through the direct mentoring work in order to better understand planning processes and know how to identify priority categories such as unemployed youths as well as active labour market measures that may be financed through the Youth Employment Fund; support was provided for to the implementation of social policy reforms at the local level in compliance with the guidelines as set out in the National Social Welfare Development Strategy and other relevant documents; mechanisms for delivery, monitoring and evaluation of the project proposals were elaborated of which the objective was to launch social welfare services at the local and regional level.

• Within the programme a package of trainings was designed, accomplished and evaluated which included six workshops on the topic of building up capacities of unemployed internally displaced persons, refugees and members of other vulnerable categories of population in Kosovo and Metohija in order to increase their employability; a network was created for connecting civil sector, the National Employment Agency, employers and citizens; technical support and mentoring assistance were provided for the development of primary entrepreneurial ideas and business plans.

• By means of the project local employment councils, employers’ associations, organizations of persons with disabilities and media were networked; a cycle of round tables was arranged with an aim to promote rights to employment of minority groups with a focal point put to the persons with disabilities; a media campaign was conceived and implemented with an objective of enhancing awareness of public on the significance of minority groups’ rights to work, with a focus on persons with disabilities.

• Project activities included delivery of the strategic social welfare plans for municipalities of the Banat county, arrangement of multi-sectoral bodies and work groups addressing social policy, mentoring assistance for designing project recommendations for use of resources ensured by grants, training and mentoring work with multi-sectoral groups for social welfare with an objective to monitor accomplishment of approved projects and delivery of local communication strategies wherewith the achieved results and activities in this field would be promoted.

• Project activities implemented in six local self-government units in Serbia; support was provided in the field of strategic and action planning, collection and process of data, media and communication literacy, through mentoring and training work.

• By intensive mentoring and training work, local self-government units were ensured to pass entire process of strategic and action planning with an aim of recognizing missing social welfare services, formulating them and planning of local budget resources for their accomplishment. Decentralization and plurality of service providers, through recognition of non-governmental organizations, i.e. civil sector as a very important one for services provision, were accepted as some of crucial principles in this process. Cities and municipalities were provided for with support to launch working groups and multi-sectoral municipal teams whilst legislative procedures were being developed and resulted in adoption of strategic documents by the assemblies of municipalities. Empowerment of local self-government units to plan resources and ensure sustainability of services even after completion of financing from donors’ resources is one of the key achievements of this activity. Some of local self-government units which took part in this process are: Indija, Cukarica, Surcin, Stara Pazova, Jagodina, Paracin, Rekovac, Svialjnac, Cuprija, Vrsac, Bela Crkva, Plandiste and Alibunar.

By virtue of the project the following activities were conducted:

• Cooperation between local institutions and organizations has been established
• The municipal coordination board for social policy has been established
• Local strategic plans for social policy have been delivered
• Mentoring assistance has been provided for creation of the project proposals
• Local communication strategies have been developed
• Municipal multi-sectoral groups for social welfare have been trained for the process of monitoring and evaluation of the approved projects
• A set of trainings has been created with an objective of enhancing capacities of municipal multi-sectoral groups with the topics as follows: Team Building, Social Welfare Services, Action and Strategic Planning, Project Cycle Management, Counselling and Lobbying, Establishment and Networking in a Local Community, etc.