USAID Serbia and Montenegro
Preparedness Planning (Serbia): USAID works with all levels of government to improve disaster risk reduction, trained 675 responders from 50 Municipalities on disaster management. | Civil Society Grants (Serbia): USAID assisted 160 Civil Society organizations with $5.2 million in 2.5yrs to better represent the needs of ordinary people & become more influential partners with businesses and government in the democratic process. | Media (Serbia): USAID media assistance has contributed to more independent, professional and financially viable media outlets and media associations. The regulatory environment now better supports the development of e-media; 2,000+ media professionals trained. | Court Reform (Serbia): U.S. assistance helped increase independence and the professional skills of judges, magistrates and prosecutors; provided legal assistance to victims of war crimes and human rights abuses. | Local governments (Serbia): Through work with a wide geographic spread of municipalities, local governments are now more responsive: 30+ Citizen Assistance Centers, E-government in 80+ Municipalities. | Youth (Serbia): Junior Achievement in 90 schools in 2009. USAID supports efforts of the Ministry of Youth/Sports to better prepare youth for post-graduation work opportunities. | Agribusiness (Serbia): Serbian companies assisted made $16.7m in registered sales in 2008. Recent trade shows expected to bring over $17m in contracts. | Local Economic growth (Serbia): Municipalities in USAID’s Municipal Economic Growth Activity attracted over 800m Euro in investments and created over 11,000 jobs in two years by becoming more business friendly; 270 new businesses opened; 26 Local Economic Development offices set up to actively attract investments. | Commercial Courts (Serbia) have become more efficient and transparent with Case Management Systems in all 16 courts and the High Commercial Court. Case backlogs cut drastically. | Compete Project (Serbia): Helping to bring Serbian companies back into world market – leading directly to $20.5m in 2008 exports. Helping to introduce International Industry standards that allow companies to compete in the global marketplace. Attracted major film productions and millions in investments. | Support to companies (Serbia) in vulnerable areas increased their competitiveness. 2008 sales at trade/shows fairs for assisted companies up 42%. | Economic systems (Serbia): Helped introduce: VAT; private pensions; investment funds; sound insurance industry, bankruptcy and enforcement and modern payment systems. | Opportunity Bank (Serbia) loans created 5,000+ new jobs and ensured 40,000+ existing jobs were kept. Only lender for vulnerable people who have little access to credit. | Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (Serbia): Civil Society activities have brought together 14 major companies and an array of NGOs to establish culture of CSR. |
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    Political Processes

    Political party programs help democratic parties build their capacity to reach out and represent voters’ interests and define unique, policy-based identities; promote more effective governance through work with elected officials; and encourage more inclusive political processes for women, youth and ethnic minorities

    Project components include:

    • Assisting democratic political parties to develop and communicate clear, coherent policy platforms that incorporate citizens’ concerns and promote effective governance
    • Fostering greater inclusion of women, youth, and ethnic minorities in the democratic political process
    • Enhancing the technical and political ability of parliamentarians to effectively and responsibly represent their constituents
    • Supporting the capacity of democratic parties to conduct successful election campaigns and strengthen the capacity of domestic election monitors

      Key results to date:

      • All major democratic political parties in Serbia have the capacity to design and implement effective election campaigns through polling, voter identification, analysis of voting patterns and door-to-door, and media campaigns.
      • All democratic parties have a cadre of local trainers and have developed training programs.
      • Assistance provided to the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID), which started as an organization to fight election fraud, resulted in CeSID’s becoming one of the world’s top domestic election monitoring organizations. It is now asked for assistance by NGOs in other countries to help them monitor their own elections.
      • Important election and party reform legislation has been drafted and public debates have been organized to raise public awareness of the need to increase the level of transparency and accountability in the political system.

      On-going assistance will support progress made so far in the following areas:

      • Democratic political parties become more responsive to constituents, improve direct communication, and increase the degree of internal party democracy
      • Small, regional, and ethnic minority parties improve their organizational capacities, mobilize their democratic electorate, and enhance their coalition-building capacities
      • Women and youth strengthen their ability to influence public policy through greater political participation and increased representation at all levels of government
      • Parliament improves its legislative and oversight capacities through more transparency, more effective staff, more cohesive party caucuses, and more interaction with constituents

      To achieve its objectives, the project works with democratic political parties, national ministries, municipal governments and local NGOs.

      The project is implemented through the National Democratic Institute (NDI) (www.ndi.org) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) (www.iri.org).