The development programme European PROGRES has published a public Call for Proposals within its activities aimed at supporting gender equality and the economic empowerment of women through the creation of new jobs. The European Union and the Government of Switzerland have allocated a total of 400,000 Euro, which will be granted to 40 projects for the start-up of businesses owned and run by women. The Call will be open until 24 July 2015.
Unemployed women, registered with the National Employment Service for at least three months in a row, who are permanent residents of and plan to start a business in one of the 34 local self-governments in South East and South West Serbia participating in the implementation of the European PROGRES Programme, are eligible to apply.
“We expect of the women, whose project proposals are approved by the commission, to launch and manage their own businesses, which will hopefully continue to operate successfully after the project implementation period as well,” said Dragan Mladenović, the Manager of the Good Governance and Social Inclusion Sector of the European PROGRES.
The Programme will provide support to businesses involved in production and service provision and the successful projects will be selected in a transparent and competitive process. The selection of the projects will be based on their relevance, expected outcomes and sustainability of the proposed interventions after the end of the project implementation period. Maximum amount that may be granted per project is 10,000 Euros and the minimum amount is 1,500 Euros. The project activities may last up to 12 months from the day the grant agreement is signed and all the activities must be implemented by 1 October 2016 at the latest.
Rather than transferring the funds to the grantees, European PROGRES will purchase and deliver machinery, equipment and/or durable goods to the grantees, in the value of the allocated grants. Once the project proposals are approved and before the purchase and delivery of the requested equipment, machinery and/or durable goods, the future women entrepreneurs will initiate the process of registering their businesses with the Business Registers Agency. They will cover the costs of registering their companies and the contributions.
“Projects supporting women’s entrepreneurship aim at providing unemployed women with an opportunity to change their lives and the lives of their families for the better, and to set a positive example to other women in their communities,” said Programme Associate for Good Governance and Gender Equality within European PROGRES Ms. Ana Nedeljković.
European PROGRES held seven info sessions about the Call for Proposals requirements in South East and South West Serbia in the 26 March-8 April 2015 period. The Programme also held nine training sessions on the drafting of business plans for all interested candidates in May, to facilitate their preparation of their project proposals.
More information about the Call for Proposals and all the application documents are available on the European PROGRES website: http://www.europeanprogres.org/konkursi/en/.
