Public Call for Participation of Local Self-Government Units in BIH

The program aims to support marginalized women in developing businesses and contributing to the competitiveness of local economies. The program is open to all local self-government units in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which meet specific criteria. The program's framework involves the development of a common concept for providing support to marginalized women, which will be used as a model for local self-government units to implement. USAID/PPMG will hold workshops on writing business plans, filling out applications, and instructions for the target group. The program also includes the establishment of an Entrepreneurial Fund for Women, which will be supported by both USAID/PPMG and local self-government units. Local self-government units are required to provide funds for the Entrepreneurial Fund for Women in the amount equal to funds requested from USAID/PPMG, with a minimum of 20,000 BAM and a maximum of 100,000 BAM. The units must also be prepared to apply the model for providing support, issue a public call for the target groups, and provide budget funds for the Entrepreneurial Fund for Women by the end of 2019. The application process involves filling out and sending an application to the call, which is available for download at the PPMG website. Local self-government units will ensure that eminent representatives of the local business sector are included in the process of selecting businesses, and will provide advisory support to women during the process of supporting businesses. A representative of USAID/PPMG will be included in the committee for selecting businesses to be supported in the program. The program's modality of managing funds, monitoring the implementation of business plans, and reporting will be defined in cooperation between the selected local self-government units and USAID/PPMG. USAID/PPMG will conduct a financial review and audit of the funded businesses. The agreements between USAID/PPMG and the selected units of local self-government will be signed in December 2018, and the local self-government units are required to issue public calls for applications between March 1 and April 1, 2019. The deadline for submitting applications is November 15, 2018, and applications must be submitted in the specified manner to be considered. Applications submitted after the deadline or with inadequate forms will not be taken into consideration. After the evaluation, USAID/PPMG will inform all applicants about the outcome of the public call in writing.