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, 72 out of 143 municipalities are participating in GAP. More information about this successful project can be found at their website (www.bihgap.ba). 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). Sida also supports the introduction of a new case management system at all courts and prosecutor's offices in BiH. Furthermore, Sida is consdering 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. Currently there is only one active project providing refinance to Bosnian microcredit organizations, which is managed by KfW Entwicklungsbank (www.kfw-entwicklungsbank.de)
Sida is working 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. The project targets three sectors (wood, food and metal/plastic manufacturing). The project also has a municipal grant component for improving the business environment and a separate business training component. More details on www.credo.ba
Sida and USAID, in cooperation, are financing two newly started programs which will support economic growth during the coming 4-5 years. FIRMA (Fostering Interventions for Rapids Market Advancement; www.firmaproject.ba) is focused on three branches of industry with a good potential for small and medium-sized enterprises (tourism, wood, light manufacturing/metal). These three sectors, combined, comprise approximately one-fourth of BiH GDP and over one-third of its exports. FARMA (Fostering Agricultural Markets Activity; www.bosniafarma.ba) will improve the conditions for agriculture and food industry. Both FIRMA and FARMA will provide grants and technical assistance to qualifying projects originated by implementing partners throughout BiH. Both projects are expected to launch grant funds early 2010.
One of the projects of the World Bank (www.worldbank.org) aims at supporting the transition to a modern Bosnian agriculture which can meet the demands of the European Union. Sida has decided to partner with the WB by contributing with a complementary grant component. Sida has also supported the State Veterinary Office, which successfully has worked to solve the problems of brucellosis, an animal decease which threatened the sheep industry in the whole country.
Projects regarding land administration (www.zkk.ba) has been supported for several years in order to improve the land registry system and secure property rights which also will have positive effects on the financial market.
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 foundation (www.iktk.se), the Civil Rights Defenders (former Swedish Helsinki Committee; www.civilrightsdefenders.org), 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.
(Updated 1 November 2009)