Project Description

Promotion of local development in Eastern Serbia, strengthening municipal capacities to boost local economy and deepening accountability relationship among the local authorities, private and civil sector are the areas to which the Project has committed. The intervention will address major shortcomings and challenges related to improving the regulatory framework/governance mechanisms for local economic development in the region of Eastern Serbia, realized in an integrated approach.

The Project is the major donor activity realized in the region, targeting ca.300.000 citizens and private sector representatives which will directly benefit from the project activities. The Project cooperates with nine partner municipalities in the Eastern Serbia region, the Regional Development Agency for Eastern Serbia as well as the line ministries: Ministry of Finance and Economy and Ministry of Regional Development and Local Self-Government. The Project is financed by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) as well as the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), having the German International Cooperation (GIZ) as implementing agency.

Activities

The Project is structured around a three-level intervention methodology:

• Developing capacities at local level to improve service provision toward citizens and private sector (municipal level)
• Improving inter-municipal cooperation to foster the development of Eastern Serbia as a "Region" (horizontal dimension)
• Improvement of national framework conditions for economic development by strengthening multi-level governance coordination

Expected results

• The quality of effective and accountable service delivery for the private sector and citizens in nine municipalities in Eastern Serbia is improved.
• The nine partner municipalities in Eastern Serbia make use of their own local resources to stimulate local economic development.
• Partner municipalities contribute to shaping and implementation of (central government) policies, making use of economy-of-scale opportunities and peer-learning in inter-municipal cooperation to improve service delivery to their citizens and private sector
• Functional and coherent framework conditions for local economic development are fostered