Final Conference in Belgrade - A Resounding Success

A SUCCESS STORY!

The Euclid Network team responsible for the project and this final event spent one week (16th-21st of May) in Belgrade. The final conference was followed by a networking reception hosted by the British Ambassador in Serbia. All the participants recognised the value of the event and representatives of the EU Delegation, British Embassy and Intesa - the largest bank in the country – attended, who even committed to back one of the proposals development by one of the projects pair of exchangees.

Our most successful output from the project is related the exchanges between 20 civil society leaders in Serbia matched with their peers in the EU countries. Indeed, some exchangees already committed to develop a long-term partnership, and, in the short-run, to exploit the opportunity of a “third leg” of exchanges before the end of the project (end of June). 

Among the most brilliant proposals was announced at the conference by Enis Ujkanovic of Sandzak Committee on the Protection of Human Rights (left) and Roy O'Shaughnessy of Careers Development Group which sees the launch of a joint UK – Serbian social business in Sandzak, the poorest region in Serbia. The enterprise will produce organic meat and vegetables, employing 50 families – 3 people per household. The project will not rely on public funding to, and plans to be profitable within 4 years. 

Furthermore, at least 15 pairs from the exchanges are planning a follow up.... so watch this space!

Roy O'Shaughnessy of the Careers Development Group exemplified the value of such exchanges at the end of his speech during the conference: ‘There are more opportunities for a charity in Serbia than the UK but you must make the investment now when there are the right conditions to run a multimillion social business in 10 years, and we can do it better than any other commercial business’.

RESOURCES FROM THE PROJECT AND CONFERENCE

The Agenda from the conference is available here. 

Briefings for Civil Society Organisations in Serbia:

The project also provided briefings on three crucial issues for financial independence of Civil Society Organisations in Serbia. The briefings include an outline of the relevant legal frame, the key concepts involved and case studies from both Serbian and EU civil society.

These briefings are now online and can be downloaded on this page by clicking on the links below. 

1. Sound Financial Management
2. An Introduction to Social Enterprise
3. Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Philanthropy

Presentations from the Conference:

Euclid Network's Luisa De Amicis presentation based on the project briefings (in English) available here.

TACSO's Sergej Vujacic presentation on Co-operation Between Serbian and European Networks (in Serbian) available here.

GOPA's Mihaela Jansa presentation on Co-operation Between Serbian and European Networks (in Serbian) available here.

Syllabus of the masterclasses (in Serbian) are available below:

Master radionice o društveno odgovornom poslovanju

Master radionice o socijalnom preduzetništvu

View all our Serbia photos on our Facebook page here