Support to local sustainable development in Serbia through business incubation – continuation of the program

In cooperation with HELP

Region: Southern Serbia

Budget: 210,000.00 EUR

Donor: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the municipality of Pirot, Gadzin Han, Vranje

Duration: March 2007 – December 2007

The continuation of the program which started in 2005 is focused on supporting local development in Serbia. Activities, in the period from March to the end of December 2007., provided support to clients in Pirot, Gadžin Han and Vranje. The aim of the intervention was to facilitate business incubation through the allocation of non-financial resources in the form of equipment and materials, with the mandatory organization of business and professional training.

HELP supported the implementation of existing local sustainable development strategies and sought to facilitate the sustainable development process as a whole.

Donations in the form of equipment / materials for doing business, whose average value was up to 1200 euros (in dinars), supported a total of 125 clients in the target municipalities, of which 45 in Vranje, 39 in Gadžin Han and 41 in Pirot, while percentage of women’s participation 39.2%.

Among the supported activities in all three municipalities, agricultural activities predominate with 61.60%, followed by crafts with 22.40% and services with 16%. Obligations that HELP’s clients had in the process of project implementation, such as registration of activities, were realized by 93.6%. 134 business and 119 professional trainings were organized and held for supported clients. Subsequent activities relate to the monitoring of individual activities and advisory work with clients in order to perform a final assessment of the progress of supported business activities within the project.