Three areas will be prioritized:
1) Democracy, human rights and gender equality, with a focus on the justice sector and local administration.
2) Market development, with a focus on economic growth through increased competitiveness and conditions for growth for small and medium sized enterprises.
3) Sustainable infrastructure, with a focus on an improved municipal environmental infrastructure for water supply, sewage treatment and waste management.
Sweden’s reform cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) will amount to SEK 170 million per year during the strategy period 2011-2014. This makes Sweden one of the largest donors in the country. Sweden will continue to cooperate with the EU commission in order to increase aid efficiency and facilitate EU integration. Whenever possible, BiH’s own system will be used for planning, implementation and follow-up of the activities. Sweden’s cooperation with other bilateral donors as well as with international and regional development banks is still of importance.
Democracy, human rights and gender equality
The goal for the cooperation within this sector is to develop a public administration on state- and local level with an improved ability to meet both the demands for EU integration and human rights as well as the rise of a more pluralistic society with strong democratic actors.
The Swedish aid proceeds from relevant and current Bosnian development strategies within the sector, above all the strategy for administration reform (Public Administration Reform Strategy; PAR) and the strategy for justice sector reform (Justice Sector Reform Strategy; JSRS).
Together with other donors, Sweden provides support to a fund that is organized by the Bosnian institution responsible for implementing the administration reform (www.parco.gov.ba/eng). Within the judicial system support is given to the central institutions with a focus on improved efficiency and legal security. Among other things, Sweden gives significant support to the State Court (www.sudbih.gov.ba) and the State attorney office, which are responsible for cases dealing with organized crime and war crimes. Aid is also given to the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP; www.ic-mp.org) that deals with the identification of human remains from Srebrenica and other war crimes.
Another large project is GAP (Governance Accountability Programme; www.bihgap.ba) that is financed by Sweden, the Netherlands and the U.S. This program aims at promoting competence and capacity building within municipalities so that they can better serve their citizens as well as improved administration, budgeting and financial management. GAP will also work for increased transparency and improved possibilities for citizens to participate in the democratic process. 72 of the country’s 143 municipalities are currently involved in the GAP project.
A viable civil society is a central element in a democratic culture that protects human rights. The Swedish support to civil society has been channelled via Swedish organizations, such as Kvinna till kvinna (www.itktk.se) and Civil Rights Defenders (former Swedish Helsinki Committee; www.civilrightsdefenders.org). One ambition is to increase diversification and to strengthen local ownership. Within the sectors of the strategy, support shall be given to enhance the capacity of the civil society to act as opinion builders and inspectors of public activities, to participate in and affect the implementation of reform work within prioritized areas as well as to strengthen the influence and rights of vulnerable groups of society.
Through dialogue and follow-up, Sweden will ensure that gender equality pervades projects and programs that are financed by SIDA. Sweden also cooperates directly with the Bosnian authorities on gender equality (www.figap.ba), resulting in strengthened capacity to implement the national policy on gender equality.
Market development
The goal for the cooperation within this sector is to create a competitive commercial climate with a focus on small and medium sized enterprises.
Sweden mainly works to improve the growth conditions for small and medium sized business, in collaboration with the EU commission and other aid donors. FIRMA (www.firmaproject.ba) and FARMA (www.bosniafarma.ba) are two big projects that are co-financed with USAID with the objective to improve the conditions for enterprises within five different industries (agriculture, food production, forestry, metal/plastic and tourism). SIDA and USAID have also established a system of credit guarantees to increase the capacity of Bosnian banks to give loans for investments to small and medium sized industries.
Sweden also cooperates to a large extent with local development organizations in parts of the country where there is a high level of unemployment. These activities aim to influence structural factors that are important for the business climate and for access to European markers, employment and economic participation of women. Projects under development aim to improve the business climate and reduce bureaucratic obstacles for business development and increased employment.
Sustainable infrastructure and a better environment
The goal for the cooperation within sustainable infrastructure is to improve water supply, sewage treatment and waste management in BiH.
The support aims at improving the environment infrastructure within the municipalities with a focus on management of waste, water and sewage. It comprises both capacity building and investment at municipal level. In order to reach success in this sector it is important to cooperate with the international development banks, such as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). There is also a possibility to support strategic planning of environmental issues on different levels of the Bosnian administration.
The work with improving solid waste management was initiated at the beginning of 2010 (www.bih-waste.se). The contributions regarding water and sewage will be gradually developed during the strategy period.
(Updated: January 11, 2011)