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Author: WeBalkans

Balkathon 3.0 winners announced

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in News.

The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) presented the winners of the Balkathon 3.0 third Western Balkans online competition for the best digital solutions. The winners include participants from all six Western Balkan economies. This year the competition received around 60 applications, with teams coming from all over the Western Balkans. The 12 finalist teams, seven of them led by girls, were made up of 37 members, of whom 18 were girls.

 

At the award ceremony organised in Prishtina, Johannes Stenbaek-Madsen, European Union Head of Cooperation in Kosovo, said “Balkathon is one of the many things the EU supports with this beautiful vision that all of the Western Balkans will be members in the European Union one day”.

 

In the past two years, close to 250 applicants have been a part of Balkathon’s magic, and have competed, pushed boundaries and thought laterally. Nine products by previous Balkathon winner have already been developed and marketed – and the number will soon grow to 15.

New EU4AGRI-Recovery public call opens

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in News.

As part of the EU4AGRI-Recovery project, funded by the European Union, a public call has been announced for grants to support the improvement of industrial resource efficiency and circular value chains in the agri-food sector.

 

With this public call, the European Union will support the agri-food businesses wishing to direct their operations to resource-efficient and cleaner production through green, digital and circular business models with a view to achieving sustainable agriculture, controlled use of natural resources and introduction of good practices. Craftspeople, private entrepreneurs, cooperatives and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises dealing with farm product processing or primary agricultural production, which were registered at least one year prior to the date of this public call, may apply.

 

The total available funds for this call amount to BAM 2.8 million, and the grant per application will range between BAM 20,000 and 80,000. Applicants are required to co-finance 15% of the total value of eligible project costs.

 

“The European Union’s Support to Recovery and Resilience of Agriculture and Rural Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, EU4AGRI-Recovery, is an initiative over two and a half years aimed at supporting Bosnia and Herzegovina in mitigating the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agri-food businesses and rural tourism operators, and ensuring the continuity of their operations.

EU launches campaign to encourage higher voter turnout in the upcoming BiH elections

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in News.

The European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina launched a campaign entitled “Everything starts with a choice” aiming to encourage and motivate the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to exercise their democratic rights by voting in the upcoming elections in October.

 

The campaign opened with street actions under the slogan “Choosing is Easy” at the BBI Centre in Sarajevo,  Petar Kočić Park in Banja Luka and at the Mepas Mall in Mostar. Passers-by in all three cities were invited to enter a prize draw by stepping into a voting booth and making a simple choice, for example between fashion items, travel destinations in BiH or up-and-coming musicians. By emphasising how easy it is to vote for a simple prize, the action aimed to underline the value of voting for something much more valuable – a stake in the country’s future.

 

The campaign will also feature testimonials on the importance of going out to vote. These will come from prominent BiH citizens such as basketball star Jusuf Nurkić, and will run alongside other actions designed to raise public engagement and awareness about the value of exercising one’s democratic rights.

 

The campaign will run until the elections which are due in October.

Bosnia and Herzegovina joins EU Civil Protection Mechanism

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in News.

On 6 September Bosnia and Herzegovina became a full member of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism –the European solidarity framework that helps countries when they are overwhelmed by a disaster. The Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, came to Sarajevo to sign the membership agreement on behalf of the European Union.

 

Bosnia and Herzegovina was already benefiting from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism as a receiving country, but now by being a full member they will also be able to actively dispatch assistance via the Mechanism wherever it is needed. 

 

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism aims to strengthen cooperation between the 27 EU countries and seven participating States (Iceland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Turkey, and now Bosnia and Herzegovina) on civil protection to improve prevention, preparedness, and response to disasters. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s membership of the Mechanism will enhance Europe’s regional emergency preparedness and rescue capacity.

Solar power brightens the future for a Bosnian company

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in Stories.

A large solar power plants to supply a company’s own needs has been installed with EU support by a food company from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Madi, based in Tešanj, is one of the few companies authorised to export fresh chicken meat to the European Union. The company was founded in 1989 and in 2000 they launched their first chicken meat processing facility. By 2015 they had introduced the largest and most modern poultry slaughterhouse in the region with a capacity of 6,000 broilers per hour and 24 million birds per year. Today they are recognised as the market leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on Madi, despite it being one of the most successful companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The company suffered supply problems and had to review their spending and save where possible. To combat the problem the management decided to form a task force to optimise expenditure.

“We were always aware that electricity was one of our biggest costs. One of the first things we analysed was how to reduce energy costs. After detailed research we came to the conclusion that installing a solar power plant would be one of the best solutions.”

Mirel Dedukić was assigned as the head of this task force. He explains that one of the main items of expenditure that they noticed was electricity. “We were always aware that electricity was one of our biggest costs. One of the first things we analysed was how to reduce energy costs.”

He knew that Madi’s highest electricity need was during the summer where solar panels would be at maximum production capacity. “After detailed research we came to the conclusion that installing a solar power plant would be one of the best solutions”, he explains. The company then embarked on an investment that is unique in BiH.

While Madi was working on their own feasibility study for investing in the solar panel power plant, the EU-funded EU4AGRI programme launched a call for proposals. The call included meat industry companies. “We had our project almost ready and it was easy for us to apply to the call,” says Mirel.

With co-financing from EU4AGRI, Madi installed a solar power plant with a capacity of 1,000 kW. The power plant was installed in three production halls taking up 5500 m2. Total annual production capacity is 1,147 MWh, which covers 15% of the company’s electricity consumption. In addition, in 2021 they installed another solar power plant with a capacity of 1,000 kW, so now over 30% of their electricity comes from renewable sources.

“We are very proud that we have contributed to the preservation of the environment with this project. On top of that, we have reduced our costs and reached self-sustainability in the supply of electricity.”

About the project

The EU4AGRI project is a four-year initiative (2020-2024) aimed at modernising the agri-food sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina, creating new jobs, as well as retaining existing ones, and supporting recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. The total value of the project is €20.25 million, mainly funded by the European Union, but jointly implemented and co-financed by the Czech Development Agency and the United Nations Development Programme in BiH.

The EU4AGRI project has so far supported BiH farmers and enterprises with 45 investments worth nearly €5.5 million, of which over €3.2 million was financed by the European Union.

According to Mirel, the energy produced by their solar power plant represents a reduction of slightly more than 1,800,000 kg of CO2 pollution, the equivalent of saving 600,000 litres of diesel or 800 tons of coal. “We are very proud that we have contributed to the preservation of the environment with this project. On top of that, we have reduced our costs and reached self-sustainability in the supply of electricity,”says Mirel.

The plan for the future is for Madi to remain the largest company in the meat industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina, through a continuous investment in human resources and modern technology. In addition, they have a launched a new company “Mipower d.o.o.”, which will focus full-time on the production and trade of electrical energy. They plan to install at least another 10MW of solar panels.

Creating the next generation of volunteers

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in Stories.

An EU-funded project in Kosovo is supporting the uptake of volunteerism in schools.

Rina Recica is 14 years old and one of the brightest students in her year group at school. Apart from her studies, she is also very much concerned with social issues and problems such as environmental protection and human rights. Over the past years, her and her friends have contributed regularly through volunteer activities in her school. “We organised a school yard cleaning initiative regularly and produced posters against bullying. But I somehow always had the feeling that we were not doing enough and that we could do more,” Rina explains.

This changed when a non-governmental organisation called TOKA approached the school offered to organise Service-Learning Clubs (volunteering clubs) with the help of two of their teachers. “This helped a lot,” says Rina, “as now we have more regular and well-coordinated activities and we also got to know other people at school who were doing volunteer activities whom we didn’t know before”.

“The reason for initiating this programme was fairly simple. We aimed to make young people more active in matters concerning the community and to contribute to their informal education at the same time.”

The service-learning programme started in Kosovo five years ago and in the last three years has been implemented with the support of the European Union. In a nutshell, the programme is about helping young people get more involved in volunteerism while also acquiring new knowledge, values, and skills; such as critical thinking, communication, problem solving, social skills, decision-making, leadership, and enhanced self-efficacy and awareness for active citizenship.

Hatixhe Zeka, who is the manager of the programme, explains that many countries have volunteerism included in their formal education system through service-learning programmes. However, Kosovo is among those that do not have volunteerism as part of their formal education. “The reason for initiating this programme was fairly simple. We aimed to make young people more active in matters concerning the community and to contribute to their informal education at the same time,” says Hatixhe.

In the beginning, the programme started with a call for participation open to all school teachers across Kosovo,followed by six days of training for the selected candidates on how to coordinate and initiate volunteer activities in school. Afterwards, the trained teachers returned to their schools and started organising volunteer clubs with their students. The activities continued with weekly meetings where teachers and students started talking about concrete volunteerism actions. In these meetings, the teachers trialled used certain training techniques so the club members are better prepared for volunteering activities.

The first module was about reflection on participants’ own skills and capacities,  the second introduced the cycle of preparation for volunteer action, including analysis of the needs of the community and on how to develop problem-tackling  ideas, and the  third   reflected on the successes and gaps of the project. The volunteer clubs in each of the selected schools met up regularly over several months, and in addition to teaching new skills, each of the clubs also implemented at least one volunteer project by the end of the programme. Each project was also financially supported via  a symbolic  contribution where it was necessary.

“It was really inspiring to see the effort and the passion that teachers and students alike gave to their volunteer projects – and there is even greater interest for the new clubs that we will start to initiate soon.”

About the project

TOKA has been implementing the Service-Learning programme since 2017. In this programme, TOKA has included 2,500 young people aged 12-17 from more than 80 schools in 20 municipalities of Kosovo. These young people are part of the service-learning volunteers’ clubs which are supported by TOKA. The clubs are led by teachers or civil society members over the age of 18, who were trained in the experiential learning methodology which integrates learning through experience. This programme also exposes youth to concrete experiences by implementing service-learning projects, making catalogues of the needs of their community, solving or reducing the problems of their community, setting goals and objectives, managing project activities, raising funds, drafting budgets, and monitoring and evaluating projects. Since 2019, the project has been supported by the European Union Office in Kosovo, through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights EIDHR.

In five years, the project managed to initiate 29 service-learning clubs in 15 municipalities across Kosovo, engaging 60 service-learning club leaders with more than 500 volunteer members joining the clubs. During the school year 60 service-learning projects were implemented in different communities all over Kosovo.  As a result, over 50,000 vulnerable people have been supported in direct or indirect ways through projects implemented as part of volunteer clubs. “It was really inspiring to see the effort and the passion that teachers and students alike gave to their volunteer projects, and there even greater interest for the new clubs that we will start to initiate soon,” says Hatixhe.

The programme also involved students from the Faculty of Education and Department of Psychology from the University of Prishtina who are to become future teachers and psychologists. They also benefited from the informal teaching techniques provided as part of the clubs. According to Hatixhe, the overall impact of the project was three-fold: teachers learned new teaching methodologies that have  proven  both efficient and practical, and they  also these benefits to their regular classes;  club members gained higher self-confidence in coordination, analytical and soft skills; and  students in the Faculty of Education and Department of Psychology  gained  valuable experience in facilitating experiential learning activities, such as managing youth, club and project implementation in theircommunities.

Hatixhe further explains that the EU support for this programme was crucial, and not only from the financial viewpoint. “The EU support increased the credibility and importance of the programme among stakeholders at the municipal andcentral levels, and it gave another important push for the last three years,” she says.

Taking parenting to the next level

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in Stories.

EU and Unicef join forces in supporting Montenegro develop an effective early childhood development programme improving the wellbeing of children and supporting caregivers.

Mišo Obradović is a father of two, and a well-known actor in Montenegro. He likes spending his free time with his four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son. However, despite his ambition to be a perfect parent, he had communication issues with his daughter. “My daughter stayed at the table for a long time during lunch, which is a problem many parents face, but I didn’t know the best way to solve it,” says Mišo

 

He admits that he tried to resolve this challenge on his own in various ways – from bribing his daughter with sweets to threatening her with punishment. However, he realised that this approach was not yielding the intended results. “Sometimes, I would lose patience. Other times, I would have too much patience, and in those cases the meals would last forever,” he says.

 

“I decided to apply for the Caring Families programme not only because of this particular problem but also because of the general desire to be a better parent to my children,” he explains. Using principles from the programme, together with expert advice and conversations with other fathers who participated in the programme, Mišo learned how to motivate his daughter to finish her meal using positive incentives. “She accepted this new situation calmly and I decided to keep my composure, so we are no longer frustrated with lingering around at the table for an hour and a half after lunchtime.”

“Parenting programmes not only help with reducing harsh discipline, but also provide support to children on how to be non-violent as well. Parents are a model for children’s behaviour, so raising children in non-violent families may contribute to non-violent communities.”

Caring Families is a parenting programme that supports parents to establish and sustain nurturing relationships with their children. The programme is financed directly by the EU in Montenegro as part of the Early Childhood Development project implemented by Unicef. Ida Ferdinandi is Unicef’s Early Childhood Development officer in Montenegro and she explains that parenting programmes have been recognised globally as one of the key strategies to prevent violence against children. “In fact, Parenting programmes not only help with reducing harsh discipline, but also provide support to children on how to be non-violent as well. Parents are a model for children’s behaviour, so raising children in non-violent families may contribute to non-violent communities.”

Ida explains that there are several evidence-based programmes such as this one around the world, but that these programmes are generally hard to access because of a license fee that is very expensive. The World Health Organisation, as well as experts from various universities and Unicef, therefore developed this particular programme (Parenting for Lifelong Health, called Caring Families in Montenegro) as a licensed, evidence-based but open source programme for low- and middle-income countries such as Montenegro.

In Montenegro, the programme has been implemented for over five years. With two cycles per year, the programme has reached more than 800 parents in seven municipalities.  700 of the parents have successfully completed the programme. A study that measured the impact of the programme among the participants shows that there was a more than 70% reduction in violent parenting, a 30% reduction in child behaviour problems and 45% reduction in parental depression. “The impact of the project is fantastic,” says Ida.

An online version of the Caring Families Programme called ParentChat was piloted during COVID-19 in an effort to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on children and families in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

“We are trying to build a human resource capacity for the programme to develop sustainably, and we are also working with the Ministry of Health on a national early childhood development strategy so the programme is integrated into government policy and action as regular service provision.”

About the project

The early childhood development initiative in Montenegro is a three-year programme that will last until July 2023. It is funded by the European Union with €1 million and  implemented by Unicef, in cooperation with the Ministries of Health, Education, and Labour and Social Welfare. Thanks to the initiative, the EU and Unicef will help the Montenegrin authorities to develop and implement a national strategy on early childhood development, thereby also raising the overall awareness of the importance of early child development. The capacities of health, protection and education services to deliver appropriate services to families and young children, including children with disabilities, will be increased. Parents and caregivers will also have the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills via the programme, making it easier for them to provide their children with positive, responsive and nurturing care.

The Caring Families programme in Montenegro is being delivered by primary health care centres who have counselling units, as well as by kindergartens and several civil society organisations and primary schools. Unicef is also working on scaling up the programme to ensure its sustainability. The programme is providing training for new local facilitators with the aim of building a pool of national trainers, so that it doesn’t have to rely solely on international experts to deliver the programme. “We are trying to build a human resource capacity for the programme to develop sustainably, and we are also working with the Ministry of Health on a national early childhood development strategy so the programme is integrated into government policy and action as regular service provision,” says Ida.

Mišo says that the model of parenting has changed from when he was a child, and that fathers want to be more involved in raising their children. “I want to be a father who is close to his children during the critical periods of their lives; to be a support to them, and provide guidance for the decisions that await them in life,” he says.

Andjela Radulovic

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in YEA of the month.

YEA of the Month July 2022

Anđela comes from Montenegro and studies law. During YEA events she has attended so far, we could already see a future fierce protector of human rights and a gatekeeper of the rule of law. In her own words: “As a student of law, I truly believe in the importance of the rule of law and EU values”.

Gaining her international experience Andjela has also spent some time in the USA, at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire on a Global UGRAD scholarship. This exchange helped her determine some important personal and professional goals and was also an important step in stepping out of her comfort zone. She had a chance to learn from very successful professors in the fields of Politics, International Law, Criminal Justice, etc. Last summer, she has also participated in International Summer School at The University of A Coruña, as one of ten scholarship receivers from the whole world, where she attended the International Courts and Tribunal’s course. We are proud to have Andjela as a member of our network and we stand in great support of her professional development and activist path.

EU support for the 16th Guitar Art Summer Fest in Montenegro

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One of the best acoustic guitarists in the world, Tommy Emmanuel, together with the best guitarist in the Balkans, Vlatko Stefanovski, opened the 16th Guitar Art Summer Fest this month at Kanli Kula in Herceg Novi. Tommy Emmanuel did not hide his delight at performing on the beautiful Kanli Kula stage, emphasising how happy he was to be performing outdoors again after a long break due to the coronavirus pandemic. Stefanovski, who was performing at the festival for the second time, said that he adored Herceg Novi.

 

As part of the festival, seven free concerts were organised at the Music Square in the Old Town of Herceg Novi, as well as an exhibition on Guitar Visual Art in the Sue Ryder gallery on Belavista. The European Union in Montenegro supported the five-day guitar spectacle with other sponsors, such as the Ministry of Culture and Media, the Municipality of Herceg Novi, and the School for Basic Music Education.

Klara Šovagović and Josip Lukić win Heart of Sarajevo award for best student film

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Young Croatian directors Klara Šovagović and Josip Lukić have won the Heart of Sarajevo award for Best Student Film at the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival with their movie It’s Not Cold for Mosquitoes. The award, whose patron is the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), was presented at the festival’s closing ceremony.

 

The Heart of Sarajevo for the Best Student Film, championed by the RCC, aims to promote films made by students from regional film schools, faculties and art academies. With this section of the competition programme, the Sarajevo Film Festival provides a new platform for the training of talented film professionals at the very beginning of their careers. The focus is on feature films, documentaries and animated films up to 60 minutes that were created within the teaching process of regional film schools.

   

The RCC has sponsored the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Heart of Sarajevo award for the Best Student Film since its introduction in 2017. Previous laureates of the award are: Alexandru Mironescu (Romania) for Summer Planning in 2021; Zeynep Dilan Süren (Turkey) for The Great Istanbul Depression in 2020; Nikola Stojanović, (Serbia) for Sherbet in 2019; Hajni Kis (Hungary) for Last call in 2018l; and Neven Samardžić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) for Clean in 2017.