Municipal Cooperation

Municipal Cooperation, Support and Learning component is designed to assist and support economic development of districts in Serbia that were not served by Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) at the time of the initiation of RSEDP 2. Component 3 targeted seven such districts located in northern, western and central Serbia which encompass 46 municipalities with a total population of 2.1 million people.

Our focus is on developing practical partnerships of municipalities who wish to pool their limited human and financial resources to more effectively tackle common economic challenges at the regional and local level. Our goal as a team is to support and motivate them to connect and work together in partnerships and our efforts are hence directed into transferring knowledge, skills and EU practice to enable these partnerships to create and sustain job opportunities.

It has been developed through two project phases. The first phase lasted between June and December 2010. It was open to all municipalities to ensure that they have the opportunity to participate in an immediate funding opportunity in the form of Second Call of the RSEDP 2 Grant Scheme. Participation in phase one enabled municipal partnerships to receive constructive feedback on their project idea, access best practice and receive tailored support specific to their needs as they approach the task of developing their application for submission for the RSEDP 2 Second Call.

The second phase was competitive: six municipal partnerships were selected for intensive support over a period of fourteen months (from January 2011 until May 2012). Access to a comprehensive package of technical assistance is provided for six selected municipal partnerships and includes the delivery of mentoring, coaching and sectoral expertise by RSEDP2 experts. The purpose of the package is to support the design and development of employment creation projects for future submission to domestic and international donors in four following priority sectors: Agro-Food Processing, Tourism, SME & ICT.

This programme involves 31 municipalities in 6 selected municipal partnerships:

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