MNE – 167
TITLE – Strengthening Civil Society to Support Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in Montenegro
DONOR – European Union, Ministry of Public Administration
IMPLEMENTATION – January 2023 – June 2025
BUDGET– 608,503.60 Euro
The project description:
The project focuses on strengthening civil society’s roles in supporting the social & economic development of Montenegro by supporting local interventions that address a range of issues from youth employment & digital skills & informal education & vocational training of youth to local youth participation & dialogue as well as supporting small business development & cultural & tourism initiatives. Its specific priority will be to support local CSOs to contribute to local development by building their organisational & project development capacities through training programmes, individualised mentoring support & tailored technical assistance & by increasing civil society’s ability to be key players in local development through subgrants for local socio-economic initiatives & programmes. The Action will build the effectiveness of civil society’s programmes through networking & engagement with relevant stakeholders.
This Action will focus on the northern region of Montenegro. For decades the Montenegrin economy has been marked by large regional disparities that have negatively affected the socio-economic development of the north of the country. Regional disparities have a deep impact on the socio-economic conditions of the local population as reflected in a range of indicators such as low growth rates & high rates of unemployment. An unbalanced economy leads to the population in northern region having lower standards of living, there are fewer employment opportunities especially for women & youth. This support to civil society will contribute the local development of the northern region building a stronger more inclusive economy which has more skilled employment for vulnerable groups & supports the growth of small rural businesses.
The Action will be in alignment & have synergy with the national strategies for sustainable development & tourism development which foresee a key role for civil society as well as strategies which focus on employment & skills & youth. The Action will be an exemplar of civil society in action advancing the socio-economic inclusion of vulnerable groups living in remote rural areas, particularly youth & women. It will also have synergy with other national & regional initiatives to improve socio-economic conditions in rural communities in Montenegro & Western Balkans which are being implemented by national & international NGOs with EU, UN, foreign government & other donor support.
The goal is to empower and support:
Civil society organizations, NGOs focused on local communities, vulnerable categories of citizens (young people and women), small associations of farmers and agricultural producers, local municipalities with a focus on the north, institutions for adult education, youth services, regional development agencies.
Grant schemes will be implemented in two cycles: Category 1: min 5000 max 10,000
Category 2: min 20,000 max 25,000
The following activities will be supported: promotion of female entrepreneurship, organization of events and promotion of eco and mountain tourism, business advice for the development of agriculture -tourism, training for women and young entrepreneurs, strengthening of the capacity of small farms through training on modern methods in agriculture and market placement, organizational training for market opening for traditional craft products (Made in Montenegro), support for village initiatives for recycling and organic compost schemes, mobile and internet career counseling services, career counseling in schools, career training in digital fields – freelance work, advisory service for professional training, services for psychological support for starting work, support for the development of creative skills, training and basic activities for women and young people, a program of on-the-job training.
The project is being implemented by Help in cooperation with Juventas, in the time frame from January 2023 to June 2025, i.e. 30 months.
It is financed by the EU within the European Aid – Support to Civil Society Organizations project and the European Instrument for Human Rights and Democracy (EIDHR) in the amount of 608,503.60 Euro
