Good Governance and Democracy
Swedish support to good governance aims mainly at strengthening the government institutions on central and local levels. Sweden has joined other countries in supporting the BiH governments´ strategy for Public Administration Reform (PAR), which is designed to increase efficiency, transparency and democracy (www.parco.ba).
The Governance Accountability Programme (GAP), which is financed by Sweden, the Netherlands and USA, aims at building the capacity of BiH local municipalities to better provide their citizens with a service, policy and fiscal framework of good governance. At present, 56 out of 143 municipalities are participating in GAP; another 15 will be added in the autumn of 2008. More information about this successful project can be found at their website (www.bihgap.ba). From 2008 Sida supports a UNDP-project which aims at establishing a Municipal Training System (www.undp.ba). Another Sida-supported project is designed to help set up local environmental action plans - LEAPs (www.rec.org.ba).
Swedish support to the Justice sector has grown substantially over the last two years. This includes support to the State Court of BiH (www.sudbih.gov.ba) and to the introduction of a new case management system at all courts and prosecutor’s offices in BiH . Sida is also considering a contribution to the building of a much needed high security State Prison for persons convicted for war crimes and organised crime. Support is also planned for the International Commission of Missing Persons (ICMP; www.ic-mp.org), which handles the identification of human remains after Srebrenica and other war time atrocities.
Economic Development and Employment Creation
Sida has made substantial contributions to the strengthening of the microcredit organisations of BiH. Sida has also worked with the Regional Development Agencies of BiH; the one in northeast Bosnia (Tuzla) is called NERDA (www.nerda.ba) and covers 34 municipalities from both entities. Sida´s cooperation with NERDA is planned to continue until 2010 and aims at improving conditions for employment growth at SMEs in the northeast.
Together with Great Britain and the Netherlands, Sweden contributes to the funding of the Enterprise Sector Recovery Fund (ESRF), which will work with relevant state and entity ministries addressing a number of structural economic problems.
The support to rural employment has been channelled through five NGOs, which have worked with advisory services to farmers. This support will be phased out during 2008. The World Bank (www.worldbank.org) has recently initiated a 3-year development project in the agricultural sector. Sida has decided to partner with the WB by contributing with a complementary grant component.
Projects regarding land administration (www.zkk.ba) has been supported for six years in order to improve the land registry system and secure property rights which also will have positive effects on the financial market.
SIDA and USAID have, in cooperation, started preparations for two projects aimed at fostering economic growth; SME support activity (SSA) and Fostering Agricultural Markets Activity (FARMA). Documents with information in English and local languages are available under related files.
Civil Society
A robust civil society is a key component of a democratic culture. Strong popular movements and NGOs can demand insight into public administration, take part in different levels of the decision-making process, and call politicians and civil servants to account. It gives vulnerable and discriminated groups a chance to organise themselves and demand their rights. Sida supports the Kvinna till Kvinna (www.iktk.se) foundation, the Swedish Helsinki Committee (www.shc.se), the Olof Palme International Centre (www.palmecenter.se) and Forum Syd (www.forumsyd.org) in their efforts to support, strengthen and collaborate with local organisations and NGOs. Support is also provided to the Centre for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (www.cin.ba).
Reconstruction and refugee resettlement
Since 1995, Sweden has helped returning refugees to build 16,400 houses, for 71,000 people, under the so called Integrated Areas Programme. To help make living conditions tolerable, support has also been given to a certain amount of infrastructure rebuilding. This programme was finalised at the beginning of 2008.
Social sector
Masters studies in management and supervision in social work commenced towards the end of 2006 at universities in Sarajevo and Banja Luka, in cooperation with the Gothenburg University. In 2008, BiH will have about 60 masters of social work, which should enable BiH to implement a national social sector reform in compliance with the European standards.
(Updated 15 October 2008)